Three-dimensional gantt chart based resource-constrained multiple projects scheduling and critical chain identification

Abstract

Aiming at resources-constrained multiple projects scheduling problem (RCMPSP), a three-dimensional representation is presented through extending the two-dimensional representation of resources-constrained scheduling problem by adding resource dimension to the two-dimensional Gantt chart. It can clearly display the resources consumption of every activity and provide valuable reference for concerning bottleneck resources and solving the resources conflict. In addition, a hybrid algorithm which combined the merits of bidirectional scheduling and parallel schedule generation scheme (PSGS) is proposed to optimize the RCMPSP. Furthermore how to use the presented three-dimensional Gantt chart to represent the schedule and identify critical chain is also described in details. The results of single project with single resource scheduling, single project with multiple resources scheduling, multiple projects with single resource scheduling and multiple projects with multiple resources scheduling show that the proposed approach is effective and explicit for resource constrained project scheduling and critical chain identification.