Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2009, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (5): 974-984.

• SYSTEMS ENGINEERING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Minimal feasible sets in variable resource constrained projects

Cui Wanan1,2,3, Yue Chaoyuan3, Chen Yingchun4 & Cao Xiuning5   

  1. 1. Coll. of Management, Guangxi Univ. for Nationalities, Nanning 530006, P. R. China;
    2. School of Economics and Management, Wuhan Univ., Wuhan 430072, P. R. China;
    3. Inst. of Systems Engineering, Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China;
    4. Unit 91388 of the PLA, Zhanjiang 524022, P. R. China;
    5. School of Business, Hunan Univ. of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, P. R. China
  • Online:2009-10-22 Published:2010-01-03

Abstract:

To determine the reasonable resource dependent relations between activities for the purpose of exactly computing the total floats and the free floats of activities, correctly identifying critical activities and critical sequences in a project schedule with variable resource constraints, the concept of the minimal feasible set (MFS) is proposed and the properties of MFS are discussed. The methods to identify optimal MFSs and resource links are then studied. Furthermore, MFS is generalized to the situation that the preconditions of MFS are not satisfied. Contrastive results show that in establishing resource links and resolving floats, MFS is at least not inferior to other methods in all cases and is superior in most situations.