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New representation to reduce the search space for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2008

Khaled Moumene  and
Jacques A. Ferland
Khaled Moumene
Affiliation:
Dept. Informatique et Recherche Opérationnelle, Université de Montréal, C. P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3J7, Canada; khaled_moumene_75@yahoo.com; ferland@iro.umontreal.ca
Jacques A. Ferland
Affiliation:
Dept. Informatique et Recherche Opérationnelle, Université de Montréal, C. P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3J7, Canada; khaled_moumene_75@yahoo.com; ferland@iro.umontreal.ca
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Abstract

This paper describes a new representation for the solutions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) denoted Activity Set List. The most efficient heuristics for the problem use the activity list representation and the serial SGS method to construct the corresponding solution (schedule). The activity list may induce a search space of representations much larger then the space of schedules because the same schedule can correspond to many different activity list representations. We indicate how the activity set list representation can significantly reduce the search space, and how to move more efficiently through it. Furthermore, this new representation never excludes the optimal solution and it has many interesting properties. An evaluation of the search space reduction induced by this representation is made for the most used library of instances in the literature. The activity set list representation may be used to construct a new category of more efficient solution procedures for the problem.

Keywords

Project schedulingResource-constrained project schedulingActivity list representationActivity set list representationHeuristics and metaheuristics.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
RAIRO - Operations Research , Volume 42 , Issue 2: CIRO 05 , April 2008 , pp. 215 - 228
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, ROADEF, SMAI, 2008

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