Reducing the feasible region to a scheduling problem

A special class of scheduling problems is considered. We consider cycle-free sets of fronts correspond to the orderings of a network. If the project is recourse-constrained, the same cycle-free set of fronts can correspond to different orderings. Some cycle-free sets of fronts can be subsets of others. The goal of the paper is to characterize maximal cycle-free sets of fronts because only those are essential for obtaining an optimal schedule.     

An efficient optimal solution procedure for the preemptive resource-constrained project scheduling problem

In this paper a branch-and-bound procedure is described for scheduling project activities subject to precedence and resource constraints, where activities can be preempted at any discrete time instant and where the objective is to minimize the project duration. The procedure is based on a depth-first solution strategy in which nodes in the solution tree represent resource and precedence feasible partial schedules. Branches emanating from a parent node correspond to exhaustive and minimal combinations of activities, the delay of which resolves resource conflicts at each parent node. A precedence based lower bound and several dominance rules are introduced in order to restrict the growth of the solutions tree. The solution procedure has been programmed in the C language and extensive computational experience is reported.     

A simulated annealing algorithm for resource constrained project scheduling problems

This paper presents a simulated annealing algorithm for resource constrained project scheduling problems with the objective of minimising makespan. In the search algorithm, a solution is represented with a priority list, a vector of numbers each of which denotes the priority of each activity. In the algorithm, a priority scheduling method is used for making a complete schedule from a given priority list (and hence a project schedule is defined by a priority list). The search algorithm is applied to find a priority list which corresponds to a good project schedule. Unlike most of priority scheduling methods, in the suggested algorithm some activities are delayed on purpose so as to extend search space. Solutions can be further improved by delaying certain activities, since non-delay schedules are not dominant in the problem (the set of non-delay schedules does not always include an optimal solution). The suggested algorithm is flexible in that it can be easily applied to problems with an objective function of a general form and/or complex constraints. The performance of the simulated annealing algorithm is compared with existing heuristics on problems prepared by Patterson and randomly generated test problems. Computational results showed that the suggested algorithm outperformed existing ones.     

Tropical optimization problems in time-constrained project scheduling

We consider a project that consists of activities to be performed in parallel under various temporal constraints, which include start-start, start-finish and finish-start precedence relationships, release times, deadlines and due dates. Scheduling problems are formulated to find optimal schedules for the project with respect to different objective functions to be minimized, such as the project makespan, the maximum deviation from the due dates, the maximum flow-time and the maximum deviation of finish times. We represent these problems as optimization problems in terms of tropical mathematics, and then solve them by applying direct solution methods of tropical optimization. As a result, new direct solutions of the scheduling problems are obtained in a compact vector form, which is ready for further analysis and practical implementation. The solutions are illustrated by simple numerical examples.     

Feasible insertions in job shop scheduling,short cycles and stable sets

Insertion problems arise in scheduling when additional activities have to be inserted into a given schedule. This paper investigates insertion problems in a general disjunctive scheduling framework capturing a variety of job shop scheduling problems and insertion types. First, a class of scheduling problems is introduced, characterized by disjunctive graphs with the so-called short cycle property, and it is shown that in such problems, the feasible selections correspond to the stable sets of maximum cardinality in an associated conflict graph. Two types of insertion problems are then identified where the underlying disjunctive graph is through- or bi-connected. For these cases, it is shown that the short cycle property holds and the conflict graph is bipartite, allowing to derive a polyhedral characterization of all feasible insertions. An efficient method for deciding whether there exists a feasible insertion, and a lower and upper bound procedure for the minimum makespan insertion problem are developed. For bi-connected graphs, this procedure solves the insertion problem to optimality. The obtained results are applied to three extensions of the classical Job Shop, the Multi-Processor Task, Blocking and No-Wait Job Shop, and two types of insertions, job and block insertion.     

Discrete-continuous project scheduling with discounted cash inflows and various payment models—a review of recent results

In this work discrete-continuous project scheduling problems with discounted cash flows are considered. These problems are characterized by the fact that activities of a project simultaneously require discrete and continuous resources for their execution. A class of these problems is considered, where the number of discrete resources is arbitrary, and there is one continuous, renewable resource, whose total amount available at a time is limited. Activities are non-preemptable, and the processing rate of an activity is a continuous, increasing function of the amount of the continuous resource allotted to the activity at a time. A positive cash flow (cash inflow) is associated with each activity, and the objective is to maximize the net present value (NPV). The discrete-continuous resource-constrained project scheduling problem with discounted cash flows (DCRCPSPDCF) is defined. Four payment models are considered: lump-sum payment at the completion of the project, payments at activity completion times, payments at equal time intervals, and progress payments. Some properties of optimal schedules are proved for two important classes of processing rate functions: all functions not greater than a linear function (including linear and convex functions), and concave processing rate functions.     

Structural properties of optimal schedules with preemption

Scheduling problems with preemption are considered, where each operation can be interrupted and resumed later without any penalty. We investigate some basic properties of their optimal solutions. When does an optimal schedule exist (provided that there are feasible schedules)? When does it have a finite/polynomial number of interruptions? Do they occur at integral/rational points only? These theoretical questions are also of practical interest, since structural properties can be used to reduce the search space in a practical scheduling application. In this paper we answer some of these basic questions for a rather general scheduling model (including, as the special cases, the classicalmodels such as parallelmachine scheduling, shop scheduling, and resource constrained project scheduling) and for a large variety of the objective functions including nearly all known. For some two special cases of objective functions (including, however, all classical ones), we prove the existence of an optimal solution with a special “rational structure.” An important consequence of this property is that the decision versions of these optimization scheduling problems belong to class NP.     

可抢占条件下的项目调度研究综述

可抢占条件下的项目调度通过暂时中断某些活动的执行,释放资源给更重要的活动,从而优化项目的工期、成本等绩效指标。可抢占项目调度问题以其重要的理论价值和应用背景,受到了学界和业界的广泛关注。对国内外可抢占项目调度的研究成果进行了系统性总结与梳理,综述了可抢占项目调度问题的数学模型及其求解算法,总结了可抢占项目调度问题的一些扩展问题和应用情况,最后指出了未来进一步的研究方向。     

Scheduling with release dates and preemption to minimize multiple max-form objective functions

In this paper, we study multi-agent scheduling with release dates and preemption on a single machine, where the scheduling objective function of each agent to be minimized is regular and of the maximum form (max-form). The multi-agent aspect has three versions, namely ND-agent (multiple agents with non-disjoint job sets), ID-agent (multiple agents with an identical job set), and CO-agent (multiple competing agents with mutually disjoint job sets). We consider three types of problems: The first type (type-1) is the constrained scheduling problem, in which one objective function is to be minimized, subject to the restriction that the values of the other objective functions are upper bounded. The second type (type-2) is the weighted-sum scheduling problem, in which a positive combination of the objective functions is to be minimized. The third type (type-3) is the Pareto scheduling problem, for which we aim to find all the Pareto-optimal points and their corresponding Pareto-optimal schedules. We show that the type-1 problems are polynomially solvable, and the type-2 and type-3 problems are strongly NP-hard even when all jobs’ release dates are zero and processing times are one. When the number of the scheduling criteria is fixed and they are all lateness-like, such as minimizing C_max, F_max, L_max, T_max, and WC_max, where WC_max is the maximum weighted completion time of the jobs, the type-2 and type-3 problems are polynomially solvable. To address the type-3 problems, we develop a new solution technique that guesses the Pareto-optimal points through some elaborately constructed schedule-configurations.     

Project scheduling with finite or infinite number of activity processing modes – A survey

This paper surveys single-project, single-objective, deterministic project scheduling problems in which activities can be processed using a finite or infinite (and uncountable) number of modes concerning resources of various categories and types. The survey is based on a unified framework of a project scheduling model including resources, activities, objectives, and schedules. Most important models and solution approaches across the class of problems are characterized, and directions for future research are pointed out.     

Project Scheduling with Multiple Modes: A Genetic Algorithm

In this paper we consider the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with multiple execution modes for each activity and makespan minimization as objective. We present a new genetic algorithm approach to solve this problem. The genetic encoding is based on a precedence feasible list of activities and a mode assignment. After defining the related crossover, mutation, and selection operators, we describe a local search extension which is employed to improve the schedules found by the basic genetic algorithm. Finally, we present the results of our thorough computational study. We determine the best among several different variants of our genetic algorithm and compare it to four other heuristics that have recently been proposed in the literature. The results that have been obtained using a standard set of instances show that the new genetic algorithm outperforms the other heuristic procedures with regard to a lower average deviation from the optimal makespan.     

Planar Location Problems with Block Distance and Barriers

This paper considers one facility planar location problems using block distance and assuming barriers to travel. Barriers are defined as generalized convex sets relative to the block distance. The objective function is any convex, nondecreasing function of distance. Such problems have a non-convex feasible region and a non-convex objective function. The problem is solved by modifying the barriers to obtain an equivalent problem and by decomposing the feasible region into a polynomial number of convex subsets on which the objective function is convex. It is shown that solving a planar location problem with block distance and barriers requires at most a polynomial amount of additional time over solving the same problem without barriers.     

Single machine scheduling problems with financial resource constraints: Some complexity results and properties

We consider single machine scheduling problems with a non-renewable resource. These types of problems have not been intensively investigated in the literature so far. For several problems of these types with standard objective functions (namely the minimization of makespan, total tardiness, number of tardy jobs, total completion time and maximum lateness), we present some complexity results. Particular attention is given to the problem of minimizing total tardiness. In addition, for the so-called budget scheduling problem with minimizing the makespan, we present some properties of feasible schedules.     

A generic approach to proving NP-hardness of partition type problems

This note presents a generic approach to proving NP-hardness of unconstrained partition type problems, namely partitioning a given set of entities into several subsets such that a certain objective function of the partition is optimized. The idea is to represent the objective function of the problem as a function of aggregate variables, whose optimum is achieved only at the points where problem Partition (if proving ordinary NP-hardness), or problem 3-Partition or Product Partition (if proving strong NP-hardness) has a solution. The approach is demonstrated on a number of discrete optimization and scheduling problems.     

Tools for resource-constrained project scheduling and control: forward and backward slack analysis

Project managers generally consider slack as a measure of the scheduling flexibility associated with the activities in the project network. Nevertheless, when resource constraints appear, this information must be calculated and analysed carefully. In this context, to handle project feasible schedules is very hard work for project managers. In order to develop useful tools for decision making, the authors extend the concepts of activity slack and define a new activity criticality index based on them that permits us to classify the activities in the resource-constrained project scheduling and control context. Additionally, these new concepts have been integrated into standard project management software as new commands. Hence the capabilities of project management software are improved. Finally, an example that illustrates the use and application of the new activity classification is also included.     

A branch-and-bound algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem

We describe a time-oriented branch-and-bound algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem which explores the set of active schedules by enumerating possible activity start times. The algorithm uses constraint-propagation techniques that exploit the temporal and resource constraints of the problem in order to reduce the search space. Computational experiments with large, systematically generated benchmark test sets, ranging in size from thirty to one hundred and twenty activities per problem instance, show that the algorithm scales well and is competitive with other exact solution approaches. The computational results show that the most difficult problems occur when scarce resource supply and the structure of the resource demand cause a problem to be highly disjunctive.     

Tracking Demands in Optimal Control of Managerial Systems with Continuously-Divisible, Doubly Constrained Resources

The paper addresses problems of allocating continuously divisible resources among multiple production activities. The resources are allowed to be doubly constrained, so that both usage at every point of time and cumulative consumption over a planning horizon are limited as it is often the case in project and production scheduling. The objective is to track changing in time demands for the activities as closely as possible. We propose a general continuous-time model that states the problem in a form of the optimal control problem with non-linear speed-resource usage functions. With the aid of the maximum principle, properties of the solutions are derived to characterize optimal resource usage policies. On the basis of this analytical investigation, numerical scheduling methods are suggested and computationally studied. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Combined Routeing and Scheduling for the Transportation of Containerized Cargo

A tractor-trailer problem, with full load, from the class of combined routeing and scheduling problems is described. Distinctive features of the problem are: movements must be carried out within certain time windows; subsets of movements are linked in the sense that they must be executed in a certain order; and different priorities are attached to different movements. A new bidirectional sequential constructive heuristic is developed for the solution of this problem. The method constructs routes and schedules for the available tractor fleet. The algorithm attempts to minimize the total time for all the movements by minimizing the time taken up by unproductive movements (so-called deadhead) and waiting time between movements. Some practical aspects of the implementation of the approach are discussed.     

An approach to solve the minimum expected makespan flow-shop problem subject to breakdowns

Daily, there are multiple situations where machines or workers must execute certain jobs. During a working day it may be that some workers or machines are not available to perform their activities during some time periods. When scheduling models are used in these situations, workers or machines are simply called “machines”, and the temporal absences of availability are known as “breakdowns”. This paper considers some of these cases studying stochastic scheduling models with several machines to perform activities. Machines are specialized and models are flow-shops where breakdowns are allowed. The paper proposes a general procedure that tries to solve these problems. The proposed approach converts breakdowns scheduling problems into a finite sequence of without-breakdowns problems. Thus, we consider random variables, which measure the length of availability periods and repair times, to study availability intervals of machines. We propose partial feasible schedules in these intervals and combine them to offer a final global solution to optimize the expected makespan. Computational experiences are also reported.     

Project schedule performance under general mode implementation disruptions

This paper presents a simulation study for a resource-constrained project scheduling problem with multiple alternatives. We decide on a set of baseline schedules at the project planning phase, resulting in options to switch between execution modes of activities during project execution. We assess the performance of the set of baseline schedules under general mode implementation disruptions. A simple, yet effective algorithm is presented to construct the set of baseline schedules. Moreover, a general disruption system is proposed to model different disruption types, disruption dependencies and disruption sizes.