A multi-agent system for decentralized multi-project scheduling with resource transfers

To incorporate this feature the resources are planned to transfer in advance for the eligible successor activities to schedule within the current time. The proposed approach can solve complex large-sized multi-project instances without any limiting assumptions regarding the number of activities, shared resources or the number of projects. The DMAS/RIA is tested on standard set of 140 problem instances. Computational experiments compare the presented managerial approach with two transfer time neglecting approaches. The result found the relative GAP with an average of 33.43% with respect to average project delay (APD). Whereas, the percentage gap of total makespan (TMS) is obtained with an average of 16.52%. The result proves the impact of resource transfer time on project delay and increase in multi-project duration that can be minimized by project managers considering it in planning phase.