Robust project scheduling policies for naval refit operations at Thales Group

In large-scale construction projects such as naval refits or aircraft overhauls, project execution is subject to considerable uncertainty and a baseline schedule quickly becomes unachievable. For naval environments, high variability in work scope and duration occur at every stage. Furthermore, tools and equipment can fail or not be on-site when needed. Human resources are drawn from a pool of workers coming from a mix of fixed-capacity-unionized workers and contractors. To limit the effect of unexpected but inevitable schedule disruptions, resource (equipment and workers) buffers are used to absorb the changes and protect schedule quality. This project will explore the recent developments in critical chain project management (CCPM) and propose mathematical models to evaluate the effectiveness of time and resource buffers in improving schedule stability, and ways these buffers can be implemented in navy refit optimization to provide the best overall schedule adherence. The models will incorporate time-quality, capacity-cost, cost-risk trade-offs.

Faculty Supervisor:

Claver Diallo

Student:

Sanjay Prabhu Prabhu

Partner:

Thales solutions numériques Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - other

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Dalhousie University