A HEURISTIC ALGORITHM FOR RESOURCE LEVELING IN MULTI-PROJECT,MULTI-RESOURCE SCHEDULING

The utility of conventional project management techniques, such as PERT and CPM, is hampered by significant and realistic network attributes and managerial considerations. There are many situations which involve more than one project and numerous resources. Of major concern in such situations is the reduction of the maximum quantity of each required resource. The algorithm presented here is capable of scheduling the individual activities in multiple projects with multiple resources and leveling the overall quantity of each resource which is required. The basis of the algorithm is a sequencing procedure for examining various combinations of activity start times. The measure of effectiveness for each combination is the sum of the squares of the required quantity of each resource in each time period.