Resource dedication problem in a multi-project environment

Abstract

Resource dedication problem (RDP) in a multi-project environment is defined as the optimal dedication of resource capacities to dierent projects within the overall limits of the resources with the objective of minimizing the sum of the weighted tardinesses of all projects. The projects involved are in general multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling problems (MRCPSP) with nish to start zero time lag and nonpreemtive activities. In general, approaches to multi-project scheduling consider the resources as a pool shared by all projects. When projects are distributed geographically or sharing resources between projects is too costly, then the resource sharing policy may not be appropriate and hence the resources are dedicated to individual projects throughout project durations. To the best of our knowledge, this point of view for resources is not considered in multi-project literature. In the following, we propose a solution methodology for RDP with a new local improvement heuristic by determining the resource dedications to individual projects and solving scheduling problems with the given resource limits.