Employing the Concepts of Critical Chain Lean Construction and Earned Value to Develop the Planning and Control Framework for the Linear Schedule of the Construction Project

Abstract

Different methodologies have emerged for effectively planning and controlling a project The Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) focuses on eliminating the floats from activities and reallocating them into strategic positions on the critical chain These time positions are known as “buffers” and serve as a control mechanism of the project On the other hand the Linear Schedule Method (LSM) is developed to prevent delays or bottlenecks for construction projects on which similar construction activities are executed Besides the scheduling approaches some management strategies have been developed to control a construction project The Earned Value Management (EVM) is a methodology used to measure the real progress of a project and to integrate the scope time and cost management Moreover the Lean Construction is a methodology designed to produce predictable work flow and rapid learning in scheduling design construction and commissioning of projects The reviewed literature shows that some studies have addressed the integration of criticality concepts of CCPM on LSM to define a final linear schedule in the planning phase However there is a further need to develop a cost-time management system framework that can control a linear project is within budget and on schedule A framework for developing a planning and executing control mechanism for linear construction projects from the point of view of a general contractor is presented Initially CCPM and LSM are integrated in order to create a project buffer able to control the development of the project in terms of time The project buffer is obtained through the reduction of the duration of some activities belonging to the critical chain Furthermore a bonus-penalty system and a cost buffer are included within the framework to encourage subcontractors to reduce their activity durations and to ensure continuity of the work respectively In addition this paper incorporates concepts from Lean Construction and EVM for the purposes of (1) managing construction projects with a higher planning reliability and (2) monitoring and controlling the consumption of project buffer and cost buffer according to established consumption criteria A case study seeks to validate this framework based on demonstrating the way a general contractor can ensure a project is developed under budget and on schedule in all the stages by controlling and monitoring that subcontractors work as expected

Date of Award	2017 Jul 26
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chung-Wei Feng (Supervisor)