Resource loading models for multi-project planning: Properties and efficient solution procedures.

Both in production and in service sectors, a large number of organizations subdivide work into projects, and this within a wide variety of areas, such as R&D, construction, software development, process re-engineering and maintenance operations. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique result, and it occupies diverse and mostly limited company resources such as manpower, equipment and space during its execution. Project management deals with the selection of projects as well as with their operation, planning and control. Traditionally, research in project planning has focused on planning isolated projects. An increasing number of companies, however, tend towards an organizational structure in which multiple projects are run in parallel and share the same scarce resources (a so-called ‘matrix structure’). Frequent conflicts of interest arise when more than one project requires the same resource at the same time. This research proposal sets out the use of quantitative methods ((discrete) optimization techniques, algorithm design, computer support) for deciding when and with which resources a portfolio of projects will be executed – we refer to these decisions as resource loading. We focus on tactical planning, which has a horizon from multiple weeks to multiple months into the future. We will also customize the models and algorithms to relevant industrial cases encountered in aircraft maintenance, helicopter maintenance and sheet-metal production.