A variable neighborhood search approach for the resource-constrained multi-project collaborative scheduling problem

Abstract Multi-mode and multi-skill project scheduling problems widely exist in the real-world industry. Many efforts have been devoted to the multi-mode project scheduling problem and the multi-skill project scheduling problem. However, the integrated multi-mode and multi-skill project scheduling problem was seldom considered. This paper studies the resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem in the development of high-end equipment and develops an integrated multi-mode and multi-skill scheduling model with different employee abilities. Based on the characteristics of high-end equipment development, we propose several optimal properties and design an effective heuristic algorithm. Since the resource-constrained project scheduling problem is NP-hard, three neighborhoods for the problem are constructed and a Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm (VNS) is developed to solve the problem in a reasonable time. Finally, computational experiments are carried out to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm.