APPLICATION OF FUZZY LINEAR PROGRAMMING FOR TIME COST TRADEOFF ANALYSIS

In real world, the project managers handle conflicting goals that govern the use of resources within the stipulated time and budget with required quality and safety. These conflicting goals are required to be optimized simultaneously by the project managers in the framework of fuzzy aspiration levels. The fuzzy linear programming model proposed herein helps project managers to minimize total project costs, completion time, and crashing costs considering indirect costs, contractual penalty costs etc by practically charging them in terms of direct cost of the project. A case study of bituminous pavement under construction is considered to demonstrate the feasibility of applying the proposed model for optimization of project parameters. Consequently, the proposed model yields an efficient compromise solution and the decision maker's overall degree of satisfaction with multiple fuzzy goal values. Additionally, the proposed model provides a systematic decision-making framework, enabling decision maker to interactively modify the fuzzy data and model parameters until a satisfactory solution is obtained. The significant characteristics that differentiate the proposed model with other models include, flexible decision-making process, multiple objective functions, and wide-ranging decision information.