Critical Chain Design Structure Matrix Method for Construction Project Scheduling under Rework Scenarios

Abstract

Rework risks have been a major challenge in the construction industry that constantly affects project schedules and threatens on-time project completion. Traditional project scheduling methods are not capable of modeling rework relationships between activities and mitigating the impact of resulting uncertainties during the development of project schedules. To address this challenge, a critical chain design structure matrix (CCDSM) method is proposed in this paper. The CCDSM method aims to develop construction project schedules that are adaptive to rework scenarios and robust against rework risks. The CCDSM method models and displays large-scale rework relationships among activities and introduces a new rework buffer to quantitatively represent the impact of rework instances in project schedules. A max-plus algorithm is adopted in CCDSM to transform complex logic relationships into simple matrix operations, reducing computational load of schedule generation. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the implementation of the CCDSM method and assess its effectiveness in addressing rework risks. The results showed that the CCDSM is a promising tool to generate schedules, which could improve on-time project completion rate and reduce impacts of varying rework scenarios on project execution.