The multimode resource constrained multiproject scheduling problem: Alternative formulations

Tactical management of development pipelines is concerned with the allocation of resources and scheduling oftasks. Though these decisions have to be made in the presence Qfuncertainty, to Make the problem solvable it is customarY to tise deterministic MILP ftw-nudations ( /' the multi-mode RCMPSP that are reevaluated aftcr important uncertainties are realized. In spite of'the maJor simph fications attained by down- pla' ing the stochastic nature of the problem, the curse of dimensionalitY limits the exact sohaion (#' the J rnndations to ver.v small systems. The curse is mainly caused bY 3 factors: the indexing of'the task execitti. on modes the indexing of time periods, and the discrete character ofthe resources. Three models that attempt to overcome these limitations are proposed and compared. Results show that despite the theoretical advanta ges of'the strate lies used, the alternative ft)rinulations are limited to problems in the same range qfapplicabilitY oj'the conventional multi-mode formulation. (c) 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.