Kaynak dengeleme için en iyi proje süresi

Resource leveling is important in project management as resource uctuations are costly and undesired. Typically, schedules with better resource profiles are obtained using the schedule found by Critical Path Method and then shifting the activities within their oat times. However, if the project duration can be extended, it is plausible to find a schedule with enhanced resource leveling since a longer duration allows for more oat time for all activities. In this thesis, we investigate what the duration for the best leveled schedule should be. We provide mixed-integer linear models for several objectives including the Release and Rehire metric. We show that not all metrics used for leveling under fixed durations may be appropriate when the project duration becomes a decision variable. Optimal solutions from smaller problems are used to find the magnitude of the extension needed and benefits obtained thereby. Since the problem is a NP-hard problem for which exact solutions cannot be obtained for big networks, we modify Burgess-Killebrew heuristic to solve larger problems. Computational experiments with benchmark problems from the literature indicate that the more the number of resource types is increased, the less leveling benefits are gained from extending the project. The optimal project durations can also be significantly different for different metrics.