Bi-Objective Reactive Project Scheduling Problem Under Resource Uncertainty and Its Heuristic Solution Based on Priority Rules

Abstract

In the process of project implementation, the deviation usually exists between the actual scheduling process and the predefined schedule. A typical situation is that the project cannot be executed according to the generated schedule due to the uncertainty of resource supply. In this case, it is necessary to adjust the schedule to achieve the lowest possible cost and the shortest possible duration. This paper studies the reactive scheduling problem under the condition of resource uncertainty. Under the constraints of precedence relationship and resources, a novel bi-objective reactive project scheduling problem with the objectives of minimizing project duration and minimizing adjustment cost is proposed. Besides, the regret-based biased random sampling heuristic algorithm (RBRSA), a heuristic algorithm based on multiple priority rules, is presented to solve the presented bi-objective reactive scheduling problem. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the priority rules thus retained are compared. Moreover, we further investigate the combinations of different parameter values of RBRSA and schedule generating schemes (SGS). When the parameter value is set at an appropriate value, the priority rules LST and LFT are the best two in RBRSA if the serial scheduling generation scheme (SSGS) is adopted. When the priority rules of LST or LFT are adopted in RBRSA, the parameter values of RBRSA should be set at other values if the parallel scheduling generation scheme (PSGS) is adopted. Computational experiments show that the presented bi-objective reactive project scheduling method is efficient and practical.

Keywords

• Project scheduling
• reactive scheduling
• heuristic algorithm
• multi-objective optimization