IBM ILOG Scheduler User's Manual > Advanced Concepts > Using Scheduler with Solver > Describing the Problem

This example is organized around the problem of building a house--its foundation, masonry, roofing, painting, and so forth--with the obvious goal of scheduling the tasks to finish the entire house as quickly as possible. Some activities must necessarily take place before others, and that fact is expressed through precedence constraints. All activities require one worker, a unary resource, and that fact is expressed through resource constraints.

The house construction activities and their preceding activities are shown in Table 12.1

Table 12.1 House Construction Activities 
Activity  
Duration  
Preceding Activities 
masonry 

 
carpentry 
masonry 
plumbing 
masonry 
ceiling 
masonry 
roofing 
carpentry 
painting 
ceiling 
windows 
roofing 
facade 
roofing, plumbing 
garden 
roofing, plumbing 
moving 
windows, facade, garden, painting 
.

This is the same example presented in Adding Resources and Resource Constraints Chapter 3. The problem is fully described and modeled there, so let's discuss the different solution technique used here.