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Execution of projects is not always done according to the original plan, and in many cases, projects are accompanied by delays, which will lead to financial and time losses for companies and organizations. This research is introduced an innovative heuristic algorithm for more accurate scheduling of projects and minimizing delays in them by managing project buffers and determining their size. Providing a heuristic algorithm to determine the size of project buffer, feeding buffers, and resource buffers simultaneously is the innovation of this research. The proposed heuristic algorithm is coded and run in MATLAB software to analyze the data and also evaluate its performance and the results are compared with similar previous algorithms. The results are showed that using this algorithm will have better results than similar algorithms and will increase project productivity and projects can be completed in a shorter time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growing number of development projects, proper project planning and management are crucial. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a heuristic algorithm for scheduling a power plant project construction and project resource management to determine the size of project buffers and feeding buffers. This algorithm consists of three steps: 1. estimating the duration of project activities; 2. determining the size of the project buffer and feeding buffers; and 3. simulating the mentioned algorithm, which will be explained below. Innovations of this research are as follows: estimating the exact duration of project activities by using a heuristic algorithm, in addition to determining the buffer size; calculating both project buffer and feeding buffers; and applying the algorithm to implement an ACC used in combined cycle power plant projects as a numerical example. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithm, inputs from this project were run through several algorithms recently presented. The results showed that a suitable amount of buffers can be allocated for projects using this algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The swiftly growing wind farm projects together with the increasing uncertainty of these types of construction projects makes it more probable that projects will face delay. This research aims to introduce a heuristic algorithm to determine the sizes of project buffer and feeding buffers as well as dynamically control buffer consumption, named as Fuzzy Overlapping Buffer Management Algorithm (FOBMA). In this paper, the pentagonal fuzzy numbers were used to determine the appropriate amount of project activity resources. Also, an overlapping method was applied to obtain more realist activity durations. The FOBMA algorithm was compared to other algorithms using the data of 15 real-world wind farm projects as well as 15 randomly generated numerical examples. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis was conducted to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The findings demonstrate that the proposed FOBMA algorithm outperforms the other algorithms and yielded more realistic and shorter project duration. • A heuristic Fuzzy Overlapping Buffer Management Algorithm (FOBMA) is proposed. • The algorithm simultaneously calculates the sizes of project buffer and feeding buffers, and controls buffer consumption dynamically. • Pentagonal fuzzy numbers were used to determine the amount of project activity resources. • An overlapping method was applied to obtain more realist activity durations. • The performance of this algorithm was compared to the other algorithms using a range of actual projects and randomly generated numerical examples. • The findings demonstrate that the algorithm outperforms the other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]