Scheduling Repetitive Construction Projects: Structured Literature Review

Construction projects that involve repetitive operations are often referred to as repetitive construction projects. Scheduling them proves a task more demanding than in the case of projects in other industries. Typical objectives of optimization, a characteristic set of constraints, as well as the schedule’s susceptibility to the propagation of disruptions caused by materializing risks, call for specific scheduling methods. The authors review the literature to summarize the existing repetitive scheduling methods and put forward their classification to identify the method’s aspects needing refinement. This is done to point to directions of further research. The authors hope that this study will contribute to better identification of existing problems in planning repetitive construction projects and faster development of decision support systems, eagerly anticipated by the construction practitioners. Though the focus is on applications to construction projects, the repetitive scheduling methods that account for volatile operating conditions may be of interest to researchers who develop planning techniques for other industries.