The Utilisation of Advanced Planning Scheduling (APS) at UK & Worldwide in the Construction Industry

This on-going MSc work intends to review thecurrent practices of Planning & Scheduling within supplychain elements and in various industries with phasison construction industry. Construction projects aredeadline driven projects which requires efficient planningand scheduling in order to make reliable decisions and deliver the project on-time and on budget. Such tool or technology that can tackle this is Advanced Planning &Scheduling (APS) and assist in bridging the gapidentified from past planning experience. APS may provide a number of approaches to several planning and scheduling problems (resources planning, planning and scheduling decision making) that can lead to improve the performance of managing anyconstruction project. This improvement can be achieved by conducting an AS-IS and Should-Be analysis in order to identify any inefficiencies that may occur in supplychain activities. A literature review has been conducted to identify thework that has been done in these areas, in terms of utilising APS to enhance or improve the current practicesin construction. Also the review looks at the integrationof APS at a higher level in terms of its elements.This review allowed the researcher to look at other technology drawbacks, in terms of planning and technology, in those industry areas, such as reactivityand simulating Should-Be modelling, based on everydaybusiness constraints, like breakdown of machinery and delayed raw materials.Gaps and potential solutions proposed by APS areaddressed by using a number of case studies, analysesand literature available in the field and are presented inthis paper. It has been noted that the APS system is an innovationthat is progressing and becoming another viable solutionthat addresses planning and scheduling needs in manyareas, however, there is a gap where the system is not fully utilised or implemented in the construction and manufacturing services industries.