IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orijoc/v34y2022i6p3042-3058.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization Strategies for Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems in Underground Mining

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Hill

    (Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California 93407)

  • Andrea J. Brickey

    (Mining Engineering and Management, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701)

  • Italo Cipriano

    (Alicanto Labs, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile)

  • Marcos Goycoolea

    (School of Business, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile)

  • Alexandra Newman

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401)

Abstract

Effective computational methods are important for practitioners and researchers working in strategic underground mine planning. We consider a class of problems that can be modeled as a resource-constrained project scheduling problem with optional activities; the objective maximizes net present value. We provide a computational review of math programming and constraint programming techniques for this problem, describe and implement novel problem-size reductions, and introduce an aggregated linear program that guides a list scheduling algorithm running over unaggregated instances. Practical, large-scale planning problems cannot be processed using standard optimization approaches. However, our strategies allow us to solve them to within about 5% of optimality in several hours, even for the most difficult instances.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Hill & Andrea J. Brickey & Italo Cipriano & Marcos Goycoolea & Alexandra Newman, 2022. "Optimization Strategies for Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems in Underground Mining," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(6), pages 3042-3058, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orijoc:v:34:y:2022:i:6:p:3042-3058
    DOI: 10.1287/ijoc.2022.1222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.1222
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/ijoc.2022.1222?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. H. Russell, 1970. "Cash Flows in Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 357-373, January.
    2. A. Alan B. Pritsker & Lawrence J. Waiters & Philip M. Wolfe, 1969. "Multiproject Scheduling with Limited Resources: A Zero-One Programming Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 93-108, September.
    3. Christofides, Nicos & Alvarez-Valdes, R. & Tamarit, J. M., 1987. "Project scheduling with resource constraints: A branch and bound approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 262-273, June.
    4. Marshall L. Fisher, 1973. "Optimal Solution of Scheduling Problems Using Lagrange Multipliers: Part I," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(5), pages 1114-1127, October.
    5. Carrasco, Rodrigo A. & Iyengar, Garud & Stein, Cliff, 2018. "Resource cost aware scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(2), pages 621-632.
    6. Leslie A. Hall & Andreas S. Schulz & David B. Shmoys & Joel Wein, 1997. "Scheduling to Minimize Average Completion Time: Off-Line and On-Line Approximation Algorithms," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 513-544, August.
    7. A. Kimms, 2001. "Maximizing the Net Present Value of a Project Under Resource Constraints Using a Lagrangian Relaxation Based Heuristic with Tight Upper Bounds," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 221-236, February.
    8. Mario Vanhoucke & Erik Demeulemeester & Willy Herroelen, 2001. "On Maximizing the Net Present Value of a Project Under Renewable Resource Constraints," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(8), pages 1113-1121, August.
    9. Gonzalo Muñoz & Daniel Espinoza & Marcos Goycoolea & Eduardo Moreno & Maurice Queyranne & Orlando Rivera Letelier, 2018. "A study of the Bienstock–Zuckerberg algorithm: applications in mining and resource constrained project scheduling," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 501-534, March.
    10. Rolf H. Möhring & Andreas S. Schulz & Frederik Stork & Marc Uetz, 2003. "Solving Project Scheduling Problems by Minimum Cut Computations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 330-350, March.
    11. Renaud Chicoisne & Daniel Espinoza & Marcos Goycoolea & Eduardo Moreno & Enrique Rubio, 2012. "A New Algorithm for the Open-Pit Mine Production Scheduling Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(3), pages 517-528, June.
    12. Dorit S. Hochbaum, 2008. "The Pseudoflow Algorithm: A New Algorithm for the Maximum-Flow Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 992-1009, August.
    13. Brucker, Peter & Drexl, Andreas & Mohring, Rolf & Neumann, Klaus & Pesch, Erwin, 1999. "Resource-constrained project scheduling: Notation, classification, models, and methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 3-41, January.
    14. Alexandra M. Newman & Enrique Rubio & Rodrigo Caro & Andrés Weintraub & Kelly Eurek, 2010. "A Review of Operations Research in Mine Planning," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 222-245, June.
    15. Hartmann, Sönke & Briskorn, Dirk, 2022. "An updated survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(1), pages 1-14.
    16. Newman, Alexandra M. & Kuchta, Mark, 2007. "Using aggregation to optimize long-term production planning at an underground mine," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(2), pages 1205-1218, January.
    17. Pieter Leyman & Mario Vanhoucke, 2015. "A new scheduling technique for the resource–constrained project scheduling problem with discounted cash flows," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 2771-2786, May.
    18. W. Brian Lambert & Andrea Brickey & Alexandra M. Newman & Kelly Eurek, 2014. "Open-Pit Block-Sequencing Formulations: A Tutorial," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 127-142, April.
    19. Dieter Debels & Mario Vanhoucke, 2007. "A Decomposition-Based Genetic Algorithm for the Resource-Constrained Project-Scheduling Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 457-469, June.
    20. James H. Patterson, 1984. "A Comparison of Exact Approaches for Solving the Multiple Constrained Resource, Project Scheduling Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(7), pages 854-867, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gonzalo Muñoz & Daniel Espinoza & Marcos Goycoolea & Eduardo Moreno & Maurice Queyranne & Orlando Rivera Letelier, 2018. "A study of the Bienstock–Zuckerberg algorithm: applications in mining and resource constrained project scheduling," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 501-534, March.
    2. Hartmann, Sönke & Briskorn, Dirk, 2010. "A survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Mika, Marek & Waligora, Grzegorz & Weglarz, Jan, 2005. "Simulated annealing and tabu search for multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling with positive discounted cash flows and different payment models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(3), pages 639-668, August.
    4. Kolisch, R. & Padman, R., 2001. "An integrated survey of deterministic project scheduling," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 249-272, June.
    5. Weglarz, Jan & Józefowska, Joanna & Mika, Marek & Waligóra, Grzegorz, 2011. "Project scheduling with finite or infinite number of activity processing modes - A survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 208(3), pages 177-205, February.
    6. Chen, Jiaqiong & Askin, Ronald G., 2009. "Project selection, scheduling and resource allocation with time dependent returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 23-34, February.
    7. Rolf H. Möhring & Andreas S. Schulz & Frederik Stork & Marc Uetz, 2003. "Solving Project Scheduling Problems by Minimum Cut Computations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 330-350, March.
    8. Aristide Mingozzi & Vittorio Maniezzo & Salvatore Ricciardelli & Lucio Bianco, 1998. "An Exact Algorithm for the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem Based on a New Mathematical Formulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 714-729, May.
    9. Nancel-Penard, Pierre & Morales, Nelson & Cornillier, Fabien, 2022. "A recursive time aggregation-disaggregation heuristic for the multidimensional and multiperiod precedence-constrained knapsack problem: An application to the open-pit mine block sequencing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(3), pages 1088-1099.
    10. Hartmann, Sönke & Briskorn, Dirk, 2008. "A survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem," Working Paper Series 02/2008, Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA).
    11. Leyman, Pieter & Vanhoucke, Mario, 2017. "Capital- and resource-constrained project scheduling with net present value optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 757-776.
    12. Alexander Tesch, 2020. "A polyhedral study of event-based models for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 233-251, April.
    13. Osman Hürol Türkakın & David Arditi & Ekrem Manisalı, 2021. "Comparison of Heuristic Priority Rules in the Solution of the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, September.
    14. Kolisch, Rainer & Sprecher, Arno & Drexl, Andreas, 1992. "Characterization and generation of a general class of resource-constrained project scheduling problems: Easy and hard instances," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 301, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    15. Konstantinos G. Zografos & Michael A. Madas & Konstantinos N. Androutsopoulos, 2017. "Increasing airport capacity utilisation through optimum slot scheduling: review of current developments and identification of future needs," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 3-24, February.
    16. Amina Lamghari & Roussos Dimitrakopoulos & Jacques Ferland, 2015. "A hybrid method based on linear programming and variable neighborhood descent for scheduling production in open-pit mines," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 555-582, November.
    17. Schirmer, Andreas & Riesenberg, Sven, 1997. "Parameterized heuristics for project scheduling: Biased random sampling methods," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 456, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    18. Naber, Anulark & Kolisch, Rainer, 2014. "MIP models for resource-constrained project scheduling with flexible resource profiles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(2), pages 335-348.
    19. Bouleimen, K. & Lecocq, H., 2003. "A new efficient simulated annealing algorithm for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem and its multiple mode version," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 268-281, September.
    20. Kolisch, Rainer, 1994. "Serial and parallel resource-constrained projekt scheduling methodes revisited: Theory and computation," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 344, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orijoc:v:34:y:2022:i:6:p:3042-3058. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.