A Bi-Objective Approach to Multi-mode Resource-Constrained Scheduling with Contractor Selection

Contractor selection plays a pivotal role in real-world project management, critically influencing project completion time, total cost, and execution quality. This study introduces a novel integrated framework addressing the combined Multi-Mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MRCPSP) and Contractor Selection (CS), hereafter referred to as MRCPSP-CS. The proposed framework simultaneously resolves three key decisions: (۱) contractor assignment for each activity, (۲) execution mode selection, and (۳) activity scheduling. We develop a bi-objective optimization model to minimize both total project cost and makespan. Four prominent Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM) techniques are employed: individual optimization, max-min method, LP metrics, and Multi-Choice Goal Programming with Utility Functions (MCGP-U). Computational experiments demonstrate the superior performance of MCGP-U in minimizing makespan, LP metrics in cost reduction, and max-min in computational efficiency. Further evaluation using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) reveals MCGP-U's consistent outperformance across small-, medium-, and large-scale problem instances. This research contributes both methodologically through its integrated optimization framework and practically by providing project managers with a robust decision-support tool for complex project planning scenarios.

کلیدواژه ها:

Multi-mode Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MRCPSP) ، Contractor Selection (CS) ، Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM) ، Max-Min method ، LP metrics ، Multi-Choice Goal Programming with Utility Functions