Meta-heuristic Solution with Considering Setup Time for Multi-Skilled Project Scheduling Problem

The authors consider the Multi-Skilled Project Scheduling Problem (MSPSP) as a version of the Multi-mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MRCPSP), which extends the well-known NP-hard Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). In the MSPSP, it is made up of activities, which require specific skills to be done. Moreover, resources are staff members who master fixed skill(s). Thus, each resource requirement of an activity corresponds to the number of persons doing the corresponding skill that must be assigned to the activity during its whole processing time. The authors focus on taking into account the setup times when performing work, depending on the appointment of a worker with the individual skill. The authors propose an integer linear programming model for solving the problem, in which minimization of the project makespan according to the setup time is considered. Genetic(GA) and Simulated Annealing(SA) metaheuristic algorithms were developed for solving that problem. For verification of the model, CPLEX software was used. The calculation results showed that with regard to the selected parameters for each algorithm, both of the proposed algorithms had relatively similar performance.