Integrated Production Scheduler for Construction Look-Ahead Planning

Enhancing the reliability of planning is the key to achieving stable construction flow and, subsequently, high productivity and improved product quality. Traditional look-ahead scheduling tools are not suitable for producing robust work schedules. Being aware of the inherent problems in traditional scheduling methods, we propose an improved scheduling tool, the Integrated Production Scheduler system, to help produce quality-assured look-ahead schedules by incorporating integrated information on the availability of resources and information into activities. This tool is developed specially for implementing Lean Construction philosophy in construction process design. Its principles for achieving a quality, timely and transparent schedule are described in this paper. It is based on a distributed scheduling model with the utilization of Internet technologies, such as JavaBeans and XML.