A scatter search heuristic for maximising the net present value of a resource-constrained project with fixed activity cash flows

In this paper, we present a meta-heuristic algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with discounted cash flows. We assume fixed payments associated with the execution of project activities and develop a heuristic optimisation procedure to maximise the net present value of a project subject to the precedence and renewable resource constraints. We investigate the use of a bi-directional generation scheme and a recursive forward/backward improvement method from literature and embed them in a meta-heuristic scatter search framework. We generate a large dataset of project instances under a controlled design and report detailed computational results. The solutions and project instances can be downloaded from a website in order to facilitate comparison with future research attempts.

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