Dr. Uma Sankar Basina

Construction Project Management, Optimization Techniques for Scheduling the Construction of Large Residential and other Construction Projects

Simulation tehcniques for multi-criteria Optimization , AHP, Project Management Software tools like Primavera, MS Project

Multi-criteria optimization of Construction Projects, Material Procurement, Logistics Planning etc.

Large housing projects require careful construction planning for their timely completion. Traditional construction project management methods, however, are not entirely adequate for managing such complex projects. Problems encountered in the planning and controlling of construction projects are inherently dynamic but they are treated statically in the networkbased scheduling methods. These methods tend to view the construction projects as deterministic and concentrate on developing plans for higher management levels, but cannot identify the realities of actual site conditions. In such situations, a holistic approach to integrate the objectives of higher management planning with the operational scheduling at the construction-site level is identified as the need of the day. My Doctoral work is an attempt to address this need by proposing a simulation-based optimization method for scheduling the construction of large housing projects. The proposed method can incorporate various dynamic aspected in the realtime construction environment, such as the variations in the productivities of various construction activity teams, material prices in the market, revisions in the hire charges for various construciton equipment, etc., while progressively deriving the optimum construction schedules. The effectiveness of the proposed method was tested on three large residential projects comprising walk-up apartments and high-rise apartment tower blocks. Simulation-based activity models for these three casestudies were developed. By employing the proposed optimization method through these models, optimum construction schedules for an array of construction durations were derived for all the three case-studies. It was observed that, compared to the actual construction, considerable reduction in total construction duration and construction cost could be achieved.

"Combining the dynamic scheduling method developed as part of Doctoral research, and the working experience and domain knowledge gained while working in the building construction industry, I want to apply my project management skills in consultancy projects. The array of my possible contributions to Institute Consultancy Projects can include, starting from Quantity Surveying, Preperation of BoQs and Tender Documents, Project Planning and Scheduling, Materials Procurement and Management, Equipment Scheduling and Optimization, Project Management Information Systems, Qualitative Assesment of ongoing projects, etc. I want to extend my research in the areas of Equipment Management, Logistics Optimization, and other possible evenues related to building industry requiring application of multi-criteria optimization processes."