Generation of robust construction schedules using evolution strategies

In construction management the definition of a robust schedule is often more important than finding a time and cost efficient schedule. In nearly every construction project the planned schedule must be continually adapted due to disruptions. Therefore, it is imperative that a robust schedule should be generated regarding the different project objectives. In the context of planning and scheduling robust means that normal variations have no significant effects on the schedule. One appropriate concept to analyze the robustness is to simulate different disturbance scenarios. In the end, the schedule, that is nearly optimal and highly robust, is selected for execution. In this paper a concept is presented to generate robust construction schedules using evolution strategies. Therefore, it is necessary to define reasonable robustness criteria in order to evaluate different schedules.