Innovative Production Machines and Systems Conference

Much research has been invested in the optimisation of the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) using Genetic Algorithms. Reviews of this work can be found in Lancaster and Ozbayrak [1] and Kolisch and Hartmann [2]. This research however doesn’t extend to the solution of real world RCPSP. As part of ongoing research the authors describe a practical implementation of Genetic Algorithm optimisation within a commercial scheduling package applied to simple real world problems. The paper will show the effectiveness of genetic algorithms when applied to real world RCPSP.

Section 1 provides an introduction to Genetic Algorithms applied to the RCPSP, section 2 outlines the algorithm that has been implemented and the development process undertaken, section 3 gives a description of the problem that has been utilised, section 4 provides results and finally section 5 concludes and makes recommendations for further research.