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Price of anarchy and price of stability in multi-agent project scheduling

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Agnetis

    (Università degli Studi di Siena)

  • Cyril Briand

    (LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS)

  • Sandra Ulrich Ngueveu

    (LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INP)

  • Přemysl Šůcha

    (Czech Technical University in Prague)

Abstract

We consider a project scheduling environment in which the activities are partitioned among a set of agents. The owner of each activity can decide its length, which is linearly related to its cost within a minimum (crash) and a maximum (normal) length. For each day the project makespan is reduced with respect to its normal value, a reward is offered to the agents, and each agent receives a given ratio of the reward. As in classical game theory, we assume that the agents’ parameters are common knowledge. We study the Nash equilibria of the corresponding non-cooperative game as a desired state where no agent is motivated to change his/her decision. Regarding project makespan as an overall measure of efficiency, here we consider the worst and the best Nash equilibria (i.e., for which makespan is maximum and, respectively, minimum among Nash equilibria). We show that the problem of finding the worst Nash equilibrium is NP-hard (finding the best Nash equilibrium is already known to be strongly NP-hard), and propose an ILP formulation for its computation. We then investigate the values of the price of anarchy and the price of stability in a large sample of realistic size problems and get useful insights for the project owner.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Agnetis & Cyril Briand & Sandra Ulrich Ngueveu & Přemysl Šůcha, 2020. "Price of anarchy and price of stability in multi-agent project scheduling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 285(1), pages 97-119, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:285:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-019-03235-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-019-03235-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kolisch, Rainer & Sprecher, Arno & Drexl, Andreas, 1992. "Characterization and generation of a general class of resource-constrained project scheduling problems: Easy and hard instances," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 301, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    2. Cyril Briand & Sandra Ulrich Ngueveu & Přemysl Šůcha, 2017. "Finding an optimal Nash equilibrium to the multi-agent project scheduling problem," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 475-491, October.
    3. Averbakh, Igor, 2010. "Nash equilibria in competitive project scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(3), pages 552-556, September.
    4. De Reyck, Bert & Herroelen, Willy, 1999. "The multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem with generalized precedence relations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 538-556, December.
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    6. Steve Phillips, Jr. & Mohamed I. Dessouky, 1977. "Solving the Project Time/Cost Tradeoff Problem Using the Minimal Cut Concept," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 393-400, December.
    7. W Herroelen & B De Reyck, 1999. "Phase transitions in project scheduling," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(2), pages 148-156, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kameda, Hisao, 2021. "Magnitude of inefficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 1133-1145.
    2. Šůcha, Přemysl & Agnetis, Alessandro & Šidlovský, Marko & Briand, Cyril, 2021. "Nash equilibrium solutions in multi-agent project scheduling with milestones," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(1), pages 29-41.
    3. Wuliang Peng & Jiali lin & Jingwen Zhang & Liangwei Chen, 2022. "A bi-objective hierarchical program scheduling problem and its solution based on NSGA-III," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 308(1), pages 389-414, January.

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