MiDiCON: a model for mitigating delays in construction

Delays are an endemic feature of the construction industry. Typically, when a delay occurs in a project, the project manager often expedites progress through activity crashing with respect to available float and time-cost relationships. An accelerated schedule is thus obtained by either prescribing overtime working hours or procuring additional resources or a combination of both. However, excessively prolonged overtime work can generate quality problems, such as rework, and additional resources. There is therefore a need for a model to assist project managers with understanding the complex nature of attaining a trade-off between overtime working and the procurement of additional resources. In this paper, a system dynamics model for MItigating Days in CONstruction (MiDiCON) due to the effects of prolonged overtime work on project costs and quality is presented To overcome project delays, several options representing various combinations of prescribing overtime work and injecting additional resources are analyzed. Utility theory is then applied to determine the most appropriate solution for mitigating project delays.