The resource constrained project scheduling problem with multiple crashable modes: An exact solution method

We introduce a formulation and an exact solution method for a nonpreemptive resource constrained project scheduling problem in which the duration/cost of an activity is determined by the mode selection and the duration reduct ion (crashing) within the mode. This problem is a natural combination of th e time/cost tradeoff problem and the resource constrained project schedulin g problem. It involves the determination, for each activity, of its resourc e requirements, the extent of crashing, and its start time so that the tota l project cost is minimized. We present a branch and bound procedure and re port computational results with a set of 160 problems. Computational result s demonstrate the effectiveness of our procedure. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Son s, Inc.