A Production Rate-Conserved Approach to Leveling Resources in Linear Schedules

Abstract: Few attempts have targeted leveling resources in linearschedules by mainly changing production rates. However, thisled, in some instances, to a decrease in productivity. Therefore,the paper presents a two-phase model that: (1) generates thelinear schedule and calculates start and end dates and availablefree float days for each activity, and (2) performs resourceleveling according to a newly-designed parameter called“average deviation of data points from their mean”. The outputis a leveled production rate-conserved linear schedule, whichclearly highlights the study’s contribution in providing aresource leveling tool for linear schedules that preserves theproduction rates.