A perspective on project organization through the prism of queuing theory

Abstract

In the context of the ongoing digitalization of the Russian economy as a whole and the construction industry in particular, solutions aimed at increasing the efficiency of construction organizations that carry out their functions at various stages of the construction project lifecycle remain in demand. Recognizing that the primary task of any organizations or enterprise in the construction industry, including project organizations, is the efficient using of all types of resources, the set objective can be achieved by reducing the organization’s overheads while at the same time increasing the efficiency of decisions aimed at managing core production processes. It is important to view the entire production process as a unified system with the ability to evaluate its performance indicators and forecast changes in these indicators when production process parameters will be changed.One potential modeling approach for the development of design and estimate documentation processes may involve conceiving it as a queuing system. From the authors’ perspective, in terms of queuing theory the activities of a project team under the guidance of the Chief project engineer (CPE) can be represented as a multi-phase open queuing network. The article provides computation formulas for the determining several key performances indicators of queuing system operation, which can be used to evaluate the performances of both individual performers of parts of the design and estimate documentation as well as the entire project team. Furthermore, this approach offers the possibility of calculating the effectiveness of changing these indicators with minimal expenses for the organization.