Resource management in construction

Resource planning and management is one of the most important ingredients for competitiveness and profitability in today’s construction industry. In order to control costs, equipment and labor should be utilized in the most efficient way possible. This can be achieved by minimizing the total cost of leased resources under the constraint of maximum and most efficient use of owned equipment and contracted labor force. This paper presents a mixed-integer linear programming model for the management of resources throughout the project life. Based on the Critical Path Method time analysis, the model derives the schedule for equipment rentals and transient resources, as well as the utilization scheme for owned equipment and other available resources. The model can be used as an estimating tool for multi-project resource planning and sharing, and as a means to implement the most efficient utilization of resources throughout the duration of the whole project.