Maximizing Slack in Resource-Constrained Schedules: A Heuristic Approach

Abstract

The need for a standard measure of slack in resource-constrained schedules has been well documented. Several procedures have been proposed to serve this need. Resource allocation plays a central role in almost all of these procedures. Very little has been said about the effect that different resource allocations can have on the total slack and slack distribution of a schedule. This paper explores the impact that resource allocation can have on the total weighted slack of a schedule. Eight heuristic algorithms are proposed to maximize the slack of a resource-constrained schedule. The algorithms are tested on a large set of benchmark problems, and the results are presented and discussed.