A discrete-event simulation approach with multiple-comparison procedure for stochastic resource-constrained project scheduling

Aiming to minimize the average project duration, a discrete-event simulation (DES) approach with multiple-comparison procedure is presented to solve the stochastic resource-constrained project scheduling problem (SRCPSP). The simulation model of SRCPSP is composed of a resource management model and a project process model, where the resource management model is used to administrate resources of the project, and the project process model based on an extended-directed-graph is proposed to describe the precedence constraints and resource constraints in SRCPSP. A simplified simulation strategy based on activity scanning method is used in the simulation model to generate feasible schedules of the problem. A multiple-comparison procedure based on the common random numbers is adopted to compare the multiple scheduling alternatives obtained from the stochastic simulation model and provide more information to select the optimal scheduling alternative. The cases are given to compare with other methods for the same SRCPSP from literature and show that the simulation tool by utilizing DES with a statistical method improves the efficiency of simulation in stochastic project planning.