Differential buffer monitoring for critical chain projects based on comprehensive activity reliability
针对经典缓冲监控忽视活动可靠性差异的问题，提出一种考虑工期、成本和质量综合可靠性的动态缓冲监控方法，通过蒙特卡洛仿真验证其能优化项目整体绩效。
One critique of classic buffer monitoring methods is that activity reliability is not considered. However, the complexity of the external environment and the particularity of each activity in the actual project lead to a difference in activity reliability, which increases the difficulty of buffer management of the whole project. To improve the efficiency of buffer monitoring, we propose a new dynamic buffer monitoring method that considers the differences in the comprehensive activity reliability in terms of duration, cost, and quality. First, the buffer is allocated and decentralized according to the comprehensive activity reliability regarding duration, cost, and quality. Second, we take into account the priorities of activity duration, cost, and quality based on the allocated buffer and set the floating buffer appropriately. Moreover, the locations of the buffer monitoring trigger points and dynamic monitoring strategy are determined. Finally, the buffer monitoring model is simulated and validated with the research target of comprehensive optimization of the overall project performance. The Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that, as opposed to the classic buffer monitoring methods, the proposed buffer monitoring method can achieve the overall optimization and profoundly improve the comprehensive performance of buffer monitoring.