Repetitive Scheduling Method: Requirements, Modeling, and Implementation

Abstract

Projects with repeating activities, such as multistory buildings and highways, present unique scheduling challenges. This paper presents the necessary requirements that scheduling systems should address to meet the needs and complexities of repetitive projects in practice. The repetitive scheduling method (RSM) provides a unified scheduling framework that applies to all types of repetitive projects. In RSM, projects are classified as discrete (vertical) or continuous (horizontal or linear) and then as uniform and nonuniform, depending on whether progress is measured using a counting scale or a dominant-attribute scale. RSM modeling elements include three types of activities (line, block, and bar) and 10 types of relationships (links) between activities. RP2, a computer program developed by the authors to validate the proposed scheduling approach, is used to develop the production diagrams and tabular reports of the target schedule for a complex of four-story apartment buildings for a low-income housing project. Sufficient detail is provided so that the project and its target schedule can be used to validate future research and to verify other systems.