A Heuristic Algorithm for a Robust Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem with Multi-Skilled Resources

This paper studies a resource-constrained project scheduling problem with stochastic activity durations and multi-skilled resource constraints. Robust project scheduling is employed to tackle uncertainty. We name it the robust resource-constrained project scheduling problem with multi-skilled resources (RRCPSP-MR). The objective is to schedule the starting times of activities and allocate multi-skilled resources reasonably in order to maximize the robustness of the project schedule in the presence of activity duration variability. An optimization model is constructed to formulate this problem. Based on the NP-hardness attribute of the problem, a resource allocation heuristic algorithm is developed to obtain satisfactory solutions. In addition, a demonstration case is executed to show the problem clearly and verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. It renders further proof that multi-skilled attributes of resources can improve the robustness of baseline schedules.