the resource allocation capabilities of commercial construction project management software for ...

127 Pages·2014·2.19 MB·English

THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION CAPABILITIES OF COMMERCIAL
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR THE
RESOURCE LEVELING PROBLEM

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY
EMAD REZVAN KHAH

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING

AUGUST 2014

Approval of the thesis:

THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION CAPABILITIES OF COMMERCIAL
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR THE
RESOURCE LEVELING PROBLEM

submitted by EMAD REZVAN KHAH in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering Department, Middle
East Technical University by,

Prof. Dr. Canan Özgen _______________
Dean, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Cevdet Yalçıner _______________
Head of Department, Civil Engineering

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rıfat Sönmez _______________
Supervisor, Civil Engineering Dept., METU

Asst. Prof. Dr. Tankut Atan _______________
Co-Supervisor, Industrial Engineering Dept., Işık University

Examining Committee Members:
Prof. Dr. M. Talat Birgönül _______________
Civil Engineering Dept., METU

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rıfat Sönmez _______________
Civil Engineering Dept., METU

Asst. Prof. Dr. Tankut Atan _______________
Industrial Engineering Dept., Işık University

Asst. Prof. Dr. Aslı Akçamete _______________
Civil Engineering Dept., METU

Furkan Uysal, M.Sc. _______________
Ministry of Development

Date: 28/08/2014
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare
that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced
all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last name : Emad Rezvan Khah
Signature :

iv
ABSTRACT

THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION CAPABILITIES OF COMMERCIAL
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR THE
RESOURCE LEVELING PROBLEM

Rezvan Khah, Emad
M.S., Department of Civil Engineering
Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rıfat Sönmez
Co-Supervisor : Asst. Prof. Dr. Tankut Atan

August 2014, 106 Pages

Critical path method (CPM) has been commonly used for scheduling of construction
projects. However, CPM only considers the relations between the activities, but does
not optimize the resource allocation. Resource leveling problem (RLP) concentrates
on optimizing resource utilization histograms obtained by Critical Path Method
(CPM) without changing the project duration. Resource leveling is crucial for
effective use of construction resources particularly, manpower and machinery
resources to minimize the project costs. The main objective of this thesis is to
evaluate the resource leveling capabilities of commercial project management
software packages including Microsoft Project Professional 2013, Primavera P6
Professional R.8.3 and ASTA Powerproject V.12.5 which are being commonly used
for scheduling of construction projects. For this purpose an extensive problem set
consisting of 640 instances including up to 500 activities and 15 resources were
v
generated. Three different heuristics with thirteen leveling priorities of project
management software packages were included in the performance evaluation. The
results of the heuristics of software packages were compared with the results of a
shifting leveling heuristic which is commonly cited in the literature. Comparison
revealed the limitations of recent project management software packages for the
RLP. The results also provide guidance on selection of the adequate leveling
heuristic for different type of construction projects.

Keywords: Resource Leveling Problem, Critical Path Method, Project Management
Software, Heuristics

vi
ÖZ

PROJE YÖNETİMİ YAZILIMLARININ KAYNAK DENGELEME
PROBLEMİ İÇİN ETKENLİĞİNİN İNCELENMESİ

Rezvan Khah, Emad
Yüksek Lisans, İnşaat Mühendisliği Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi : Doç. Dr. Rıfat Sönmez
Ortak Tez Yöneticisi : Yard. Doç. Dr. Tankut Atan

Ağustos 2014, 106 Sayfa

İnşaat yapım projelerinin programlamasında kritik yol yöntemi (KYY) yaygın olarak
kullanılmaktadır. KYY sadece faaliyetler arasındaki ilişkiler dikkate alındığından bu
yöntem sonucunda elde edilen çözüm, projede kullanılacak kaynaklar açısından en
optimal çözüm değildir. Kaynak dengeleme problemi (KDP) Kritik Yol Yöntemi
(KYY) ile elde edilen kaynak kullanımı çizelgesini proje süresini değiştirmeden
optimize etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Kaynak dengelenmesi, inşaat yapım projelerinde
kullanılan özelikle işgücü ve makine kaynaklarının verimli bir şekilde kullanılıp,
projelerinin düşük maliyetle tamamlanması açısından çok önemlidir. Bu tezin temel
amacı inşaat projelerinin programlamasında yaygın olarak kullanılan Microsoft
Project Professional 2013, Primavera P6 Professional R.8.3 ve ASTA Powerproject
V.12.5 proje yönetimi paket programlarının KDP'in çözümündeki performansının
belirlenmesidir. Bu doğrultuda 500 faaliyet ve 15 kaynağa kadar problemlerden
oluşan toplam 640 problem içeren bir set oluşturulmuştur. Performans
vii
değerlendirmelerinde paket programlara ait 13 adet sezgisel dahil edilmiştir. Paket
programların sezgisellerin sonuçları literatürde yaygın olarak yer alan bir
sezgiselinin performansı ile kıyaslanmıştır. Kıyaslamalar paket programların kaynak
dengeleme probleminin çözümündeki yetersizliğini ortaya çıkartmıştır. Sonuçlar
aynı zamanda değişik projeler için uygun sezgiselin seçiminde yol gösterici
niteliktedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Kaynak Dengeleme Problemi, Kritik Yol Yöntemi, Proje
Yönetimi Yazılımları, Sezgiseller

viii
To My Family

ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rıfat
Sönmez for his valuable support, encouragement, comments, motivations and
critiques on this study. His sharing knowledge without any hesitation was the
biggest motivation for me to continue and finish my thesis study.
I would like to thank my co-research assistant, PhD candidate Mahdi Abbasi Iranagh
for his patience, comments and advices. He helped me to code the B&K algorithm
on C# programming language. It is a great chance for me to know him. It will not be
possible to finish my thesis without his motivations and continuous help.
I also want to acknowledge thanks to my friends, officemates, PhD candidates
Babak Rahmani Mirshekarlou and Saman Aminbakhsh for their motivations and
advices.
I would like to thank my co-advisor, Asst. Prof. Dr. Tankut Atan for his effort on
this thesis study.
The financial support of TÜBİTAK to the Research and Development Project of
111M140 is gratefully acknowledged.
I would like to thank Mr. Yasin Vural for his support and suppling the ASTA
Powerproject license.
Finally, I would also like to express my profound appreciation to my family for their
continuous support.

x