Resource levelling

Abstract

For projects where highly skilled workers are needed whose training could take a long time, gradualness in the resource profile could provide the necessary training period. This thesis presents an heuristic procedure for optimal resource levelling achieving a gradual (parabolic) resource distribution. It aims at minimizing the fluctuation of day-to-day resource change using the variance of resource change as the primary index. Mathematically based, this heuristic gives a measure whereby an optimal schedule can be recognized. -- Using the computation procedure for this heuristic a computer programme called BACS (Build-up Activity Chain Scheduler) has been developed which yields an optimal schedule for large projects from data obtained from CPM analysis. This programme is both easy to use and has a short computational time.