Maximizing Net Present Value for Generalized Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem

Aiming at potential applicability to real project management, we consider in this paper a generalized class of multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problems that maximize the net present value of cash flows under the constraint that the completion time of the project does not exceed a given threshold. The problems we deal with in this paper generalize those studied in the literature so that the time duration of each activity varies depending on not only the mode chosen but the amount of resources used and the way of payment for each resource such as the bill duration and the cash ratio can be treated as a parameter. We propose a multi-pass metaheuristic algorithm for the problems that consists of two-stage tabu search. In order to see the effectiveness of the algorithm, we carry out computational experiments for more than 10,000 problem instances of relatively small size and for a real construction project with 58 activities and 34 resource types.

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