Modeling project time–cost trade-off in fuzzy random environment

•We model time–cost trade-off problem with fuzzy random activity durations.•We build three types of fuzzy random time–cost trade-off models.•An intelligent algorithm integrating fuzzy random simulations and GA is designed.

In real projects, the trade-off between the project cost and the project completion time, and the environmental uncertainty are aspects of considerable importance for managers. For complex environment with more than one type of uncertainty, this paper presents three types of time–cost trade-off models, in which the project environment is described via introducing the fuzzy random theory. The expected value and the chance measure of fuzzy random variable are introduced for modeling the problem under different decision-making criteria. After that, this paper is devoted to designing a searching method integrating the technique of fuzzy random simulations and genetic algorithm for searching the quasi-optimal schedules. Finally, some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed method for solving the proposed models.

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