Managing and modelling general resource transfers in (multi-)project scheduling

Most approaches to multi-project scheduling are based on the assumption that resources can be transferred between projects without any expense in time and cost. As this assumption often is not realistic, we generalise the multi-project scheduling problem (RCMPSP) by additionally including transfer times and cost. To integrate this aspect, in a first step, we develop a framework for considering resource transfers in single and multi-project environments. It includes managerial approaches to handle resource transfers, a classification of resource transfer types and new roles that resources can take in these transfers. Afterwards, we define the multi-project scheduling problem with transfer times (RCMPSPTT) and formulate it in a basic and an extended version as integer linear programmes. Eventually, it is supplemented for the first time by cost considerations and introduced as resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem with transfer times and cost (RCMPSPTTC). Computational experiments compare the presented managerial approaches and prove the necessity of explicitly considering transfer times in project scheduling. Moreover, the experiments evaluate the presented MIP models and show that specialised solution procedures are vital.