DIMACS TR: 2002-14
A Bi-objective Model for Maximizing the Quality in Project Scheduling
Authors: Mohamed Haouari, Mohammad A. Al-Fawzan
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP)
is investigated in the operations research literature from the makespan
minimization perspective. However, a recent survey conducted in the United
States revealed the surprizing fact that the majority of project planners
consider maximization of the quality of project schedules as the most
important objective (Icmeli Tukel and Rom, 1998). In this paper, the
integration of quality in project scheduling is investigated. For that
purpose, the problem is modeled as a bi-objective resource-constrained
project scheduling problem. A new objective defined as the schedule
robustness is introduced as a quality measure. The maximization of this
objective is considered along with the makespan minimization. A tabu
search
algorithm is developped in order to generate an approximate set of
efficient
solutions. Several variants of the algorithm are tested and compared on a
large set of benchmark problems. The results are analyzed using
statistical
design of experiments techniques.
Keywords : resource-constrained project scheduling,
multi-objective
combinatorial optimization, tabu search, quality, design of experiments.
Paper Available at:
ftp://dimacs.rutgers.edu/pub/dimacs/TechnicalReports/TechReports/2002/2002-14.ps.gz
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