Comparison of resource distribution metrics on multi-resource projects

Özet

Resource leveling is implemented to reduce the fluctuations of the daily resource usage and the peak resource usage throughout the construction period. Measurement of peak resource demand is straightforward, while fluctuations of resource distribution are difficult to evaluate. Therefore, many resource distribution metrics are proposed in order to measure the fluctuations of the resource distribution. In this study, minimum moment, absolute difference, sum of the squares, and minimum deviation resource distribution metrics are compared by implementing resource distribution on four case study problems obtained from the previous studies. The case study problems are optimized by exhaustive enumeration in order to ensure that the global optimum is obtained for each resource distribution metric. Recently the comparison was conducted for small projects. In this study, larger projects are evaluated to examine the effects of the project size and the search domain. Optimized resource distribution metrics are compared in terms of peak resource demand and the overall resource distribution histogram. Similarity to the standard 'S' curve is expected for good fit resource distribution. The metrics are also compared in terms of easiness of implementation and computational demand. Results of the analyses revealed that minimum moment metric provided lower peak resource demand among the other resource distribution metrics. In addition to this, computational demand and easiness of implementation of the minimum moment metric is the most suitable. The results of this research can be beneficial for the project managers through the selection of appropriate resource distribution metric.