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

Mario Vanhoucke (1)

1 Dept of Mgmt Info, Ops Mgmt and Tech Policy

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 optimization procedure to maximize 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.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Mario Vanhoucke. A scatter search heuristic for maximizing the net present value of a resource-constrained project with fixed activity cash flows. International Journal of Production Research, 2010, 48 (07), pp.1983-2001. ⟨10.1080/00207540802010781⟩. ⟨hal-00565116⟩