Disruption management for resource-constrained project scheduling based on differential evolution algorithm

Weiming Chen, Xiaoyang Ni, Hailin Guo

COMPUTER MODELLING & NEW TECHNOLOGIES 2014 18(4) 145-153

Faculty of Engineering, China University Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

In this paper, we study the problem of how to react when an ongoing project is disrupted. The focus is on the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with finish–start precedence constraints and the recovery strategies based on disruption management for the different types of disruptions are proposed. The goal is to get back on track as soon as possible at minimum cost, where cost is now a function of the deviation from the original schedule. The problem is solved with a differential evolution (DE) algorithm that can be solved more perfectly on the objective function. The new model is significantly different from the original one due to the fact that a different set of feasibility conditions and performance requirements must be considered during the recovery process. Project scheduling problem library (PSPLIB) has been taken into account so as to test the effect of novel hybrid method. Simulation results and comparisons determine the effects of different factors related to the recovery process and show that the differential evolution algorithm is competitive and stable in performance.