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.