Keywords: multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling, heuristic and metaheuristic techniques, harmony search optimization, hybrid methods, resource leveling, strip packing.

This paper presents a hybrid algorithm for the multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) with strip packing like resource constraints. In the proposed primary-secondary criteria approach, a resource-constrained project is characterized by its "best" schedule, where best means a makespan minimal resource-constrained schedule for which the resource profiles approach the ideal rectangular shape as much as possible. In the proposed model the activities are assigned to the same resource units over their processing times. In the traditional resource-constrained project scheduling the activities are not necessarily assigned to the same resource units over their processing times, so an "optimal" solution may be far from the reality. The algorithm is an improved version of the "sounds of Silence" harmony search metaheuristic developed by Csébfalvi et al. [1,2] and Szendroi [3]. In the presented improved algorithm the harmony search is combined with a resource leveling-assigning procedure based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation [4]. To generate the improvements a state-of-the-art callable MILP solver (CPLEX) was used. In order to illustrate the essence and viability of the proposed approach, we present the detailed computational results for project instance J30MM-10-1 from the popular PSPLIB [5] benchmark set.

1

G. Csébfalvi, A. Csébfalvi, E. Szendroi, "A harmony search metaheuristic for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem and its multi-mode version", in F.S. Serifoglu, Ü. Bilge, (Editors), "Project Management and Scheduling 2008", Istanbul, Turkey, 56-59, 2008.

2

G. Csébfalvi, O. Eliezer, B. Láng, R. Levi, "A conflict repairing harmony search metaheuristic and its application for bi-objective resource-constrained project scheduling problems", in F.S. Serifoglu, Ü. Bilge, (Editors), "Project Management and Scheduling 2008", Istanbul, Turkey, 60-63, 2008.

3

E. Szendroi, "A Hybrid Method for the Multi-Mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem", in B.H.V. Topping, Y. Tsompanakis, (Editors), "Proceedings of the First International Conference on Soft Computing Technology in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, United Kingdom, paper 3, 2009. doi:10.4203/ccp.92.3

4

G. Csébfalvi and P. Konstantinidis, "A new exact resource balancing procedure for the multiple resource-constrained project scheduling problem", in "Proceedings of APMOD '98", Limasol, Cyprus, 11-13 March, 1998.

5

R. Kolisch, A. Sprecher, "PSPLIB - a project scheduling library", European Journal of Operational Research, 96, 205-216, 1996. doi:10.1016/S0377-2217(96)00170-1

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