NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION FOR PROJECT SCHEDULING AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Loading...
No Access Until
Permanent Link(s)
Other Titles
Authors
Abstract
Project planning and scheduling when there are both resource constraints and
uncertainty in task durations is an important and complex problem. There is a long
history of work on deterministic resource-constrained project scheduling problems,
but efforts directed at stochastic versions of that problem are fewer and more recent.
Incorporating the ability to reallocate resources among tasks to change the
characteristics of their duration probability distributions adds another important
dimension to the problem, and enables integration of project planning and scheduling.
Among the small number of previous works on this subject, there are two very
different perspectives. Golenko-Ginzburg and Gonik (1997, 1998) have created a
simulation-based approach that ?operates? the project through time and attempts to
optimize locally regarding decisions on starting specific tasks at specific times.
Turnquist and Nozick (2004) have formulated a nonlinear optimization model to plan
resource allocations and schedule decisions a priori. This has the advantage of taking
a global perspective on the project in making resource allocation decisions, but it is
not adaptive to the experience with earlier tasks when making later decisions in the
same way that the simulation approach is. Although the solution to their model
produces a ?baseline schedule? (i.e., times when tasks are planned to start), the
formulation puts much greater emphasis on resource allocation decisions.
The paper by Turnquist and Nozick (2004) describes the problem formulation
as a nonlinear optimization. For small problem instances (up to about 30 tasks), good
solutions can be found using standard nonlinear programming packages(e.g., NPSOL).
However, for larger problems, the standard packages often fail to find any solution in
a reasonable amount of computational time. One major contribution of this
dissertation is the development of a solution method that can solve larger problem
instances efficiently and reliably. In this dissertation, we recommend using the
partially augmented Lagrangian (PAL) method to solve the suggested nonlinear
optimization. The test problems considered here include projects with up to 90 tasks,
and solutions to the 90-task problems take about 2 minutes on a desktop PC.
A second contribution of this dissertation is exploration of insights that can be
gained through systematic variation of the basic parameters of the model formulation
on a given problem. These insights have both computational and managerial
implications for practical application of the model.
Journal / Series
Volume & Issue
Description
Sponsorship
Date Issued
2006-08
Publisher
Cornell University
Keywords
Project Planning; Project Scheduling; nonlinear optimization model
Location
Effective Date
Expiration Date
Sector
Employer
Union
Union Local
NAICS
Number of Workers
Committee Chair
Committee Co-Chair
Committee Member
Degree Discipline
Degree Name
Degree Level
Related Version
Related DOI
Related To
Related Part
Based on Related Item
Has Other Format(s)
Part of Related Item
Related To
Related Publication(s)
Link(s) to Related Publication(s)
References
Link(s) to Reference(s)
Previously Published As
Government Document
ISBN
ISMN
ISSN
Other Identifiers
Rights
Rights URI
Types
dissertation or thesis