Allocating resources to projects: Multiple choices

Allocating resources...

...to project activities can be done in various ways. Think of an activity that can be done by a team of 6 people (long duration, low cost) or by a team of 3 persons and an expensive machine (short duration, high renting cost of the machine).

In the academic literature, this challenging problem is called the multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problem, as follows:

  • Multi-mode: different combinations of resources lead to different activity durations and resource use and hence a different cost.
  • Resource constrained: Resources are scarce and hence their requirements often exceed their availability.
  • Project scheduling: The ultimate goal is to construct a baseline schedule with the minimal duration.

At the Operations Research and Scheduling group, a lot of research has been done to optimize this scheduling process using Operations Research techniques. Click on the picture below to find the most recent results. Be careful: only for academics, or for project managers with an interest in what happens behind the ProTrack screens.