Influence of learning in resource-constrained project scheduling

• Learning effects for the discrete time/resource trade-off scheduling problem are analyzed.
• The impact of learning is investigated by a computational experiment.
• The accuracy and margin of error in project schedules is investigated.

Learning effects assume that the efficiency of a resource increases with the duration of a task. Although these effects are commonly used in machine scheduling environments, they are rarely used in a project scheduling setting. In this paper, the effect of learning in a project scheduling environment is studied and applied to the discrete time/resource trade-off scheduling problem (DTRTP), where each activity has a fixed work content for which a set of execution modes (duration/resource requirement pairs) can be defined. Computational results emphasize the significant impact of learning effects on the project schedule, measure the margin of error made by ignoring learning and show that timely incorporation of learning effects can lead to significant makespan improvements.