Time and Cost Optimization in Construction and Project Management

Abstract

Nowadays, the project time-cost trade-off is very significant in construction management. Since all the activities of a project are related to each other and the completion of each paves the way for starting one or some other activities and the completion of each activity requires spending time and money, project activities should be started and completed according to a schedule. The necessity of this study is because the managers and owners of the projects tend to minimize the time and costs of the project as much as possible. The methods used to reduce the time should also reduce the cost as much as possible because the cost increases with the reduction of time. This study presents an approach that can provide better performance compared to time-cost trade-off methods. Thus, by using this approach, it is possible to start the project before the design phase is completed. Given what was stated, the present study presents a model to reduce direct and indirect costs as much as possible and minimize total project costs. The model was implemented with GAMS software. The results revealed that the implementation of the model reduces the costs and time of the project.