Optimum resource determination for project scheduling

The critical path technique has had a great impact on all sectors of the economy since it came into existence in the late 1950s. The assumption of unlimited resource availability associated with it has, however, cast a shadow over its suitability in resource-constrained situations. Over the years, several solution techniques, both analytical and heuristic, have appeared to deal with this resource, duration-minimization problem. However, the difficulty of deciding the level of each type of resource to keep has become even more problematic. Solution to this aspect was readily found in the use of priority rules; work content being one of them. This study shows that resource levels based on work content have failed to produce the project duration as dictated by the critical path technique and that estimates derived thereof are unnecessarily high for some resources. This research is primarily aimed at providing a suitable heuristic for finding an optimum resource level which ought to be kept over the project execution period, and a sensitivity analysis of which resource type ought to be increased in order to reduce the project completion time towards the ultimate. The study makes use of resource utilization and a 'constraining index' in the search for optimal solutions to these problems.