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

• Published in: Annals of operations research Vol. 186; no. 1; pp. 443 - 464
• Main Authors: Lambrechts, Olivier, Demeulemeester, Erik, Herroelen, Willy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.06.2011; Springer Science + Business Media; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• 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; Belgium; Proactive; Project scheduling; Robust scheduling; Resource breakdowns; Time buffering
• ISSN: 0254-5330; 1572-9338
• DOI: 10.1007/s10479-010-0777-z

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.