Resource allocation on condition of random resource demand of network activities

Abstract

A general network model is considered. Each activity may require several storable and productive resources. Fixed amounts of storable resources are delivered at fixed times. The capacities of the productive resources are assumed to be constant. A general resource allocation problem is derived in order to optimize the cost for the execution of the network activities, In the main, the case is considered where the resource demands of the activities are random variables. For this case, the means of resource demands are estimated and a method is presented to obtain a vector of start times and durations of the activities so that a cost function is minimized and the probability that, at any time, there appears no lack of resources is maximized.

Keywords:

• Network model
• storable and productive resources
• random resource demand
• resource allocation
• Monte-Carlo method

AMS 1980 Subject Classifications:

• Primary: 90 B 14
• Secondary: 05 C 35