Applying the COMSOAL computer heuristic to the constrained resource allocation problem

    Authors

    G. W. DePuy;G. E. Whitehouse

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Comput. Ind. Eng.

    Keywords

    COMSOAL; resource allocation; project management; computer heuristic; PROJECT SCHEDULING PROBLEM; MULTIPLE RESOURCE; BRANCH; ALGORITHM; Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications; Engineering, ; Industrial

    Abstract

    Generating a project schedule that meets all activity precedence constraints while minimizing the overall project duration is often difficult. The complex project-scheduling problem is further complicated by the real-world constraint that often a limited number of resources must be allocated to competing activities. This paper investigates the application of the computer method COMSOAL to this resource allocation problem. COMSOAL (Computer Method of Sequencing Operations for Assembly Lines), originally a solution approach for the assembly line balancing problem, is a computer heuristic that can be used to generate a feasible solution to the resource allocation problem at each iteration of the heuristic. A solution methodology of repeatedly running COMSOAL will result in many feasible solutions from which the best is chosen. This solution approach now becomes viable given the increased speed of inexpensive computers. This paper discusses the adaptation of the COMSOAL approach to the resource allocation problem as well as a designed experiment used to investigate the appropriateness of COMSOAL, for a known set of resource allocation test problems. Results from this experiment show COMSOAL is a viable method to solve these resource allocation problems when compared to the results from several well-known resource allocation algorithms and to the optimal solutions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Computers & Industrial Engineering

    Volume

    38

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2000

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    413

    Last Page

    422

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000165802000007

    ISSN

    0360-8352

    Share

    COinS