Schedule Optimization for Cash Flow Management of Owner Portfolios

Abstract

Although new infrastructure has been widespread in many countries, the owners' main obstacle to complete new projects has been the cash flow problems. If cash flow problems are not appropriately addressed, projects will undoubtedly fail. The current study’s goal is to help portfolio owners to avoid cash flow problems and achieve portfolios’ goals. A modified finance-based scheduling method is proposed to optimize project schedules within owners' portfolios using genetic algorithms (GA). Finance-based scheduling helps owners to control portfolios’ cash flow by balancing contractors’ payouts during the fiscal years with the available budget amounts. The random key (RK) representation system of GA is used effectively to implement finance-based scheduling for multiple projects simultaneously.