Resource leveling in construction projects with activity splitting and resource constraints: a simulated annealing optimization

Overtime and over-budget construction projects are not pleasant to any stakeholder. Stakeholders want construction projects to be completed without delay and excessive cost. It is possible to meet these objectives by using resource management techniques such as resource leveling. Due to the limitation of resources and different types of them in a construction project, optimizing the resource utilization is crucial. In this paper, a meta-heuristic simulated annealing resource leveling model is presented. The novelty of this model lies not only in the type of modeling and optimization but also in its assumptions. Our model simultaneously allows activities to split and considers a limitation in resource availabilities. The developed model was implemented in a computer program. Then, it was applied to an example from the literature of resource leveling. The model successfully solved the problem. The results of our model are compared with those already available in the literature.