Project characteristics based buffer sizing to critical chain scheduling

The robustness of projects, which is strongly influenced by network structures and resource requirements is easy to be overlooked by traditional critical chain scheduling/buffer management approaches. In their approaches, usually task duration is the only factor considered. This paper analyzes the effect of order strength and resource constrainedness to the buffer size, and then proposes an improved buffer sizing strategy. Experimental results show that this strategy can effectively increase the proportion of buffer consumed, decrease the deliver time of project, and assure a satisfying project makespan.