Modeling Work Space to Schedule Repetitive Floors in Multistory Buildings

Multistory buildings are in a category of projects, termed linear or repetitive projects, that involve considerable repetitive activities performed consecutively by the same crew. Current available network techniques and linear scheduling methods mainly consider technological constraints and resource requirements in the generation of schedules for repetitive work. Such techniques and methods ignore requirements of activities for work space necessary for material storage and movement of manpower and equipment. Ignoring such requirements will increase conflicts among the different trades, decrease productivity, impact safety, and may lengthen project durations. To acknowledge work-space constraints in the scheduling process, one first needs to identify and evaluate the different parameters that characterize work space. Once these parameters are defined, scheduling decisions can be formulated to generate a work sequence based on these parameters. This paper describes a model to define and quantify work-space demand and availability parameters for repetitive floors in multistory buildings. A scheduling procedure to implement these parameters for sequencing repetitive work is discussed. Work continuity issues and variable crew-productivity rates associated with scheduling this type of construction are also considered.