Resource Constrained Project Scheduling with Material Ordering: Two Hybridized Meta-Heuristic Approaches

Resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is mainly investigated with the objective of either minimizing project makespan or maximizing project net present value. However, when material planning plays a key role in a project, the existing models cannot help determining material ordering plans to minimize material costs. In this paper, the RCPSP incorporated with the material ordering problem is first formulated into a NP-hard optimization model. Then, two hybridized meta-heuristic algorithms are proposed to solve the integrated problem. In addition, statistical methods are employed to tune the parameters of both algorithms. Finally, computational results for a set of test problems taken from the project scheduling problem library (PSPLIB) are presented.