Efficient priority rules for the resource‐constrained project scheduling problem

TLDR

Resource‑constrained project scheduling is a core problem for industrial applications, involving finite scheduling systems and business re‑engineering, and commercial systems typically use classical priority rules. The study reviews the RSM priority rule, derives an improved RSM rule, and develops two new slack‑based priority rules extending MSLK. The authors review the RSM rule, derive an improved version, create two new slack‑based rules, and conduct a comprehensive experimental study to evaluate their performance. Analysis shows the RSM rule fails to account for finite resource capacity, leading to poor solutions, while experimental results demonstrate that one of the newly proposed rules outperforms classical rules and should be adopted.

Abstract

Abstract Resource‐constrained project scheduling is a core problem for many industrial applications, e.g. finite scheduling systems and the planning of business re‐engineering processes. In order to solve these problems commercial systems employ classical priority rules. We review one of them, the well‐known RSM priority rule. A detailed analysis of this rule, reveals that it does not reflect the finite capacity of resources properly. Consequently, this leads to poor solutions. Hence, an improved RSM priority rule is derived and two new priority rules are developed which extend the well‐known precedence based Minimum SLacK priority rule (MSLK) to a precedence and resource based slack priority rule, respectively. On the basis of a comprehensive experimental investigation we provide new insight into the performance of classical and new rules. Furthermore, we show that one of the new rules is significantly better than the classical rules and hence should be employed in project scheduling systems.