Time slack-based techniques for robust project scheduling subject to resource uncertainty

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) has been the subject of a great deal of research during the previous decades. This is not surprising given the high practical relevance of this scheduling problem. Nevertheless, extensions are needed to be able to cope with situations arisi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of operations research 2011-06, Vol.186 (1), p.443-464
Main Authors: Lambrechts, Olivier, Demeulemeester, Erik, Herroelen, Willy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breakdown
Business and Management
Combinatorics
Costs
Mathematical analysis
Operations management
Operations research
Operations Research/Decision Theory
Project management
Resource allocation
Schedules
Scheduling
Simulation
Strategy
Studies
Theory of Computation
Uncertainty
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Summary:The resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) has been the subject of a great deal of research during the previous decades. This is not surprising given the high practical relevance of this scheduling problem. Nevertheless, extensions are needed to be able to cope with situations arising in practice such as multiple activity execution modes, activity duration changes and resource breakdowns. In this paper we analytically determine the impact of unexpected resource breakdowns on activity durations. Furthermore, using this information we develop an approach for inserting explicit idle time into the project schedule in order to protect it as well as possible from disruptions caused by resource unavailabilities. This strategy will be compared to a traditional simulation-based procedure and to a heuristic developed for the case of stochastic activity durations.
ISSN:0254-5330
1572-9338
DOI:10.1007/s10479-010-0777-z