الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
In the construction sector, lack of profitability is considered one of reasons for contractor failure, so working to improve contractor profitability for cash availability cases should be considered during the scheduling phase. Contractors usually manage and execute multiple projects simultaneously within their portfolio, so typically, this case includes sharing cash. So, cash management becomes a major challenge. Cash is a resource that is significantly different from other labor, equipment, and material resources. Other resources are consumed in construction operations, while cash is a reversible resource, which means cash is transformed through construction operations into different physical forms of work items which are transformed in turn into cash so generated cash will be used as a resource for the remaining duration of projects. As a result, cash circulates from projects start to finish. Consequently, techniques applied to manage other resources such as resource allocation and levelling completely fail to manage cash. Inefficient cash management will lead the contractor to a situation where who is incapable of financing the project due to insufficient cash liquidity, or where who is engaged in too many loans to finance the project, creating unsettled debts and lowering the profit. Execution of the construction projects portfolio makes attention to finance more significant, due to large budgets and long project durations. So, reliable cash management is a requisite to guarantee that construction projects finish on time, on budget, and generate a satisfying profit. This research aims to help construction project planners create executable scheduling of concurrent multiple projects to maximize the expected profit of the portfolio, considering the budget availability cases of (1) unlimited budget in which a contractor can secure the required budget, the model will find the maximum profit for completion within the contract duration with no need to extend the original duration; and (2) limited budget in which a contractor cannot secure the required budget and is forced to extend the work schedule, the model still finds the maximum profit for completion within extension duration. Moreover, an automated model coded in the Python programming language, which is named Finance-Based Scheduling Optimization for Construction projects Portfolio using Enhanced Genetic Algorithm (FBSOCPEGA) has been developed.