Abstract
A scheduling problem with subcontracted resources is widely spread and is associated with the distribution of limited renewable and non-renewable resources, both own and subcontracted ones based on the work’s due dates and the earliest start time. Scheduling’s goal is to reduce the cost of the subcontracted resources. In the paper, application of a few scheduling methods based on scheduling theory and the optimization algorithm is considered; limitations of these methods’ application are highlighted. It is shown that the use of simulation modeling with heuristic rules for allocation of the renewable resources makes it possible to overcome the identified limitations. A new imitation and heuristic method for solving the assigned scheduling problem is proposed. The comparison of the new method with existing ones in terms of the quality of the found solution and performance of the methods is carried out. A case study is presented that allowed a four-fold reduction of the overall subcontracted resources cost in a real project portfolio.
Highlights
Mathematics 2021, 9, 2098. https://The problem of business processes and project works scheduling is one of the key problems of organizational system control
The goal of the present paper is to develop and assess an imitation and heuristic (IH) method for the scheduling problem with subcontracted resources
The modified IH scheduling method was implemented in the BPsim software package including the BPsim simulation system and BPsim decision support system [24] with a common database
Summary
The problem of business processes and project works scheduling is one of the key problems of organizational system control. Some methods to solve the scheduling problem with resource constraints have been developed depending on the problem statement, restrictions, and objective function. These are scheduling theory and network methods [1–5], simulation and multi-agent modelling methods [6,7], heuristic methods [8,9], and methods based on the application of commercially available solvers [10–14]. According to the processing restrictions, there are several main constraints specified: release dates (r j ), where work j cannot start its processing before its release date [3–5]; precedence constraints (prec), where one or more works have to be completed before execution of a certain consequent work is allowed [1–9,12–14]; batch processing (batch(b)), where a machine may be able to process a number of b works simultaneously [11,12]; and breakdowns (brkdwn), where a machine may not be permanently available [3,5]
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