RCMPSP

The multi-project scheduling problem

The Resource-Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem (RCMPSP) is an extension of the well known single-project RCPSP. It treats a portfolio of multiple projects that need to be scheduled simultaneously subject to precedence and resource constraints. As most companies have a portfolio of projects, this problem has gained more attention from academics in recent years. Several artificial benchmark datasets for this problem have been proposed. This manuscript proposes additional sets to complement the existing sets and compares them with each other. 

A. Multi-project datasets

New databases for multi-project planning

  • Multi-project database (MPLIB.zip): Download our two libraries (MPLIB1 and MPLIB2) with one click!
  • Transfer times and costs (MPLIB_Transfer.zip): Download our transfer database and link them with the MPLIB database with a second click!

Multi-project Library MPLIB1 (published in Journal of Scheduling)

The following datasets were designed by the Operations Research and Scheduling group in the first paper:

  • 6 projects per instance (60 activities / project)
  • 12 projects per instance (60 activities / project)
  • 24 projects per instance (60 activities / project)

Reference: Van Eynde, R. and Vanhoucke, M., 2020, Resource-constrained multi-project scheduling: Benchmark datasets and decoupled scheduling. Journal of Scheduling, 23, 301–325.

Multi-project Library MPLIB2 (published in European Journal of Operational Research)

The following datasets were designed by the Operations Research and Scheduling group in a second paper:

  • Set 1.  Instances with no precedence relations between projects (MP= 0, MF= 1) and all projects use all resource types (CR=1)
  • Set 2. Instances with interproject precedence relations and but all projects use all resource types (CR=1)
  • Set 3. Instances with no precedence relations between projects, but CR, RD and PD are varied
  • Set 4. Instances for which all parameters values vary within a range (all combinations)

Reference: Van Eynde, R., & Vanhoucke, M. (2022). New summary measures and datasets for the multi-project scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 299(3), 853–868.

Transfer times and costs  (paper under submission)

The multi-projects of the MPLIB set contain global resources that are shared between projects. Sometimes these resource transfers consume time (or cost), and so they can be extended with transfer times and costs (under single and multiple modes) as presented in the following paper:
    •    Liu, W., Zhang, J. and Vanhoucke, M., 2023, "Resource allocation models for decentralized multi-project scheduling with resource transfers", Under Submission

Existing databases

Existing databases from the following papers were converted to the .rcmp file format:

  • MPSPLIB: (MPSPLIB.zip): Homberger, J. (2007). A multi-agent system for the decentralized resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem. International Transactions in Operational Research, 14(6):565-589 and Homberger, J. (2012). A ()-coordination mechanism for agent-based multi-project scheduling. OR spectrum, 34(1):107-132.
  • RCMPSPLIB: (RCMPSPLIB.zip): Vázquez, E. P., Calvo, M. P., and Ordóñez, P. M. (2015). Learning process on priority rules to solve the rcmpsp. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 26(1):123-138.
  • BY: (BY.zip): Browning, T. R., and Yassine, A. A. (2010a). A random generator of resource-constrained multi-project network problems. Journal of scheduling, 13(2):143-161.

B. Solution procedures

Different solution procedures to solve the multi-project resource-constrained project scheduling problem have been compared and published in the following paper:

You can now download the solutions of all these procedures (in excel file available when you download the databases).