Resource allocation and scheduling in project networks under risk

Abstract

The effects of scheduling heuristics and resource availability (single resource type) on project completion time when the activity durations are known with certainty and also when they are assumed to follow a known probability distribution are studied. Also methodologies for resources planning under the above assumptions have been developed. Monte-Carlo simulation is used to investigate the above aspects. Analysis of various tests is carried out on the data generated by simulating a hypothetical test problem with ten activities to study the interaction effect between the scheduling heuristics and different resource availability constraints. Duncan’s multiple range tests is used to identify the best resources planning procedure. Scheduling heuristics based on slack concept, criticality index and line balancing heuristics are used to receive conflicts among the activities competing for the same kind of resource. The early start schedule, leveled resource schedule and fixed resources schedule are the three types of resource constraints used to specify the resource availability. One of the important conclusions of this study is that the project completion time and expected extra resource demanded are minimized when the leveled resource availability schedule is used. It is also concluded that the resource availability is much more important for project completion time than any other factor.