Linear projects scheduling using spreadsheets features

Linear projects represent a large portion of the construction industry. Highway, pipeline, and tunnels are good examples that exhibit repetitive characteristics where the same unit is repeated several times. Scheduling of linear projects always represent a major challenge to project managers. These projects require schedules that maintain resource continuity for an activity from one unit to the next one and achieve logic constraints at the same time. The line of balance (LOB) method is well suited for scheduling such projects. Spreadsheets are efficient computational tool used in many field with wide range of calculations. The requirements associated; within logical lag between continuous non-typical repeated activities are developed in a spreadsheet algorithm. In this study, the schedule times for each activity sequentially from unit to the next can be tabulated and graphically displayed in LOB plot. Details of the model development and computerized implementation are described. An example application is presented to illustrate the proposed approach. The advantages and future extensions of the proposed approach are then discussed. (C) 2011 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.