Investigations into line of balance scheduling house building

This report describes the theory of formula-based Line of Balance and the two extreme Line of Balance methods which can be used for scheduling housing projects. Of the two compromise methods which are then introduced, the decision rule method is the most important because it enables the schedule to be chosen on economic grounds. A computer program called DARLOB is fully described, and is used to process data for a housing project. This project is used to illustrate the three most important Line of Balance scheduling methods. The unit house network has a great bearing on the final cost of the housing project, on the scheduling method chosen, and on the final schedule. This report, therefore, shows how the design and construction decisions that determine the network should be made so that a low cost, short duration schedule is obtained. Before scheduling a housing project it is necessary to determine which scheduling method should be used. This report, therefore, relates Line of Balance to house building in Great Britain, and concludes that full Line of Balance scheduling by the methods described in this report is, at present, only economic for large, non-speculative projects consisting of system or industrialized houses.