Research On Multi-project Scheduling Problems Of Complex Product Research&Development Based On Critical Chain

Along with the development of economic globalization and fierce international competition,complex product development&research(R&D) has became a core competence among enterprises,industries and nations. To acquire continuous international and domestic advantages, manyenterprises develop new complex products constantly.Due to the succession of technology and manufacturing, these complex products often developconcurrently, which lead to intense resources competition among several parallel complex productR&D projects, thus a new theory and practice put forward for multi-project scheduling onenterprise level. The results of current research have focused on resource allocation and schedulingof a single project, whereas less studies have been put on multi-project of a whole enterprise.Therefore, we should face the R&D process of complex product and study the resource allocationand scheduling of multi-project on enterprise level. Planning and controlling the multi-projectscheduling process of complex product R&D bases on the bottleneck of new product R&Defficiency. These are important in improving the capacity and resource utilization of complexproduct R&D enterprises.The dissertation aimed at the present situation of multi-project management of complexproduct R&D enterprises, studies the problem of complex product R&D multi-project schedulingbased on critical chain method(CCM), and presents the scheduling model and decision method ofmulti-project. Firstly, built the index system of project and task performance evaluation based onCCM and then evaluated the performance of project. Secondly, built the multi-project schedulingmodel based on CCM under the situation of a single resource used in all tasks. Scenario analysisand illustration of the example was done by Gantt Chart. Thirdly, established the bi-level decisionmodel of critical chain multi-project scheduling under the situation that all tasks using differentkinds of resources and set up the objective function as the minimum total delay cost inmulti-project. Finally, a multi-project scheduling management system based on CCM was built toassist the whole decision making process.The main research contents and contributions in the dissertation are summarized as follows:(1) It researched the problem of complex product R&D project and task performanceevaluation based on CCM. Firstly, analyzed the multi-project performance evaluation problembased on critical chain and the significance of multi-project scheduling under resource competition.Then, built the performance evaluation index system of project and task respectively based on thefigures of CCM. An evaluation method based on Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process(FAHP) and Evidence Reasoning(ER）was proposed in consideration of subjective uncertainty, fuzziness,co-existence of quantitative and qualitative indicators during the decision process of Complexproduct R&D multi-project scheduling. Lastly, evaluated the automotive product R&D projectperformance and the corresponding project priorities of a large automobile manufacturingenterprise. The simulation results verify the rationality and effectiveness of the evaluation method.(2) It researched the complex product R&D multi-project scheduling base on CCM under thesituation of a single resource used in all tasks. Firstly, analyzed the impact of project organizationstructure on multi-project resource allocation starting from the characters of complex product R&Dscheduling process. Meanwhile, it proposed that there are two basic axioms of multi-projectscheduling based on CCM. Then, set up the decision and organization responsibility model basedon bottleneck task of above axioms, and presented a new scheduling method when a singleresource used in all tasks. Thirdly, confirmed the project and task priorities on the basis of projectand task performance evaluation index system. Finally, applied the above new methods based onCCM to resolve the multi-project scheduling of automobile product R&D process, and comparedthe results with which obtained from the CCM based on project priority to illustrate theeffectiveness and advancement of the new proposed method.(3) It researched multi-project scheduling problem under the situation that all tasks usingdifferent kinds of resources. Firstly, presented a bi-level decision model based on CCM formenterprise’s overall performance to settled the Resource Constrained Multi-Project SchedulingProblem(RCMPSP) under the situation of tasks using different kinds of resources. Secondly,integrated the CCM and a bi-level decision method to build the critical chain multi-projectscheduling model under multi-resource environment with objective function as the minimum totaldelay cost and the minimum multi-project duration respectively. Then, proposed a new HybridSimulated Annealing (HSA) based on Serial Schedule Generation Scheme(SSGS) and SimulatedAnnealing (SA) and calculated the model. At last, verified and compared the above models andarithmetic in the complex product R&D multi-project scheduling plan of an automotive enterpriseand analyzed stability of the algorithm.(4) It researched the multi-project scheduling management system of CCM. Illustrated thefunctional characteristics of above system and it’s advantage in the area of automobile productR&D project management, and compared it to project scheduling system of Critical PathMethod(CPM). Then, faced to the current application situation of Chinese complex product R&Dindustry of multi-project scheduling system based on CCM. Built the general framework ofmulti-project management system under the above decision model and method, thus conducted therapid prototyping.