Minimizing the Cost of Completing a Project Subject to a Bound on the Expected Delay Time,
Abstract
Given a project with well-defined events and activities, suppose the starting times of the activities are subject to random delays. Suppose it is possible to reduce the magnitude of these delays at additional cost. In this paper, we derive an expression for the total expected delay time of the project, and show that it can be expressed as the maximum of a number of linear expressions. To achieve at most a given expected delay time at minimum cost, we are led to examine an optimization problem with an excessively large number of linear constraints. A simple cutting plane algorithm is applied to the problem, yielding a practical method of solution. A non-convex example with five activities is used to illustrate the method. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 14, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA027882
Entities
People
- James E. Falk
Organizations
- George Washington University