Modern Project Management

Proactive tactical planning approach for large scale engineering and construction projects

Kaouthar Cherkaoui
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering Canada
Pierre Baptiste
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering Canada
Robert Pellerin
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering Canada
Alain Haït
University of Toulouse, Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace – Supaero France
Nathalie Perrier
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering Canada

Abstract

Large-scale engineering and construction projects are subject to a great level of uncertainty which lead planners to use time buffers and add contingencies to the estimated budget. However, the size of the buffers and the contingency amounts are usually arbitrarily established and projects still encounter severe time and cost overruns. In this paper, a robust planning approach for tactical planning of large-scale engineering and construction projects is proposed. The approach relies on a simple resource buffering strategy applied to the aggregate periods. An extensive simulation-based experiment was conducted to test the robustness and performance of the proposed approach. Results show that the proposed buffering strategy can considerably reduce project cost variations and can provide comparable performance results with those obtained using a disaggregated approach, especially on instances characterized by a large number of resource groups.

Keywords: Rough-cut capacity planning, Capacity buffering, Proactive tactical planning, Simulation-based experiment, Large-scale engineering and construction projects.

Information

Keywords

Project managementAgileconstructionSustainabilityproject successProjectProject SuccessDSMinnovationcase studyPMOBIMClusteringsuccessSMEDMMGovernanceLeanuncertaintyprojectcomplexityLeadershipPERTSuccessriskcriteriaschedule