Three-dimensional Gantt Chart Based Resource-constrained Multiple Projects
Scheduling and Critical Chain Identification
J. Q. Wang1, 2, S. F. Zhang1, 2, J. Chen1, 2, S. Wang1, 2, Y. F. Zhang1, 2
1
Institute of System Integrated & Engineering Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
2
Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology, Ministry of Education,
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
(wangjq@nwpu.edu.cn)
Abstract - Aiming at resources-constrained multiple
projects scheduling problem (RCMPSP), a three-
dimensional representation is presented through extending
the two-dimensional representation of resources-constrained
scheduling problem by adding resource dimension to the
two-dimensional Gantt chart. It can clearly display the
resources consumption of every activity and provide
valuable reference for concerning bottleneck resources and
solving the resources conflict. In addition, a hybrid
algorithm which combined the merits of bidirectional
scheduling and parallel schedule generation scheme (PSGS)
is proposed to optimize the RCMPSP. Furthermore how to
use the presented three-dimensional Gantt chart to
represent the schedule and identify critical chain is also
described in details. The results of single project with single
resource scheduling, single project with multiple resources
scheduling, multiple projects with single resource scheduling
and multiple projects with multiple resources scheduling
show that the proposed approach is effective and explicit for
resource constrained project scheduling and critical chain
identification.
Keywords - Three-dimensional Gantt chart, critical
chain, resource-constrained multiple projects scheduling
problem (RCMPSP)
I. INTRODUCTION
Project scheduling, as special case of the job shop
scheduling, is a typical combinational optimization
problem and belongs to the NP-hard problem [1]. Project
scheduling optimization and critical chain identification
are two basic and hot issues in project management.
Aiming at resource-constrained project scheduling
methods, Rainer Kolisch [2] revisited serial and parallel
resource-constrained project scheduling method and
stated that sampling method can improve the performance
of single-pass scheduling significantly, and parallel
schedule generation scheme (PSGS) can work well in the
condition of single-pass, small-scale scheduling and low
resource strength, while serial schedule generation
scheme (SSGS) can do better when facing with large-
scale scheduling and high resource strength condition.
Robert Klein [3] claimed that bidirectional planning
strategy can overcome the major disadvantage of PSGS.
Vicente Valls [4] proposed that incorporating justification
technique into other algorithms can improve the solving
quality significantly without consuming more computing
time.
___________________________________
978-1-61284-449-7/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

Aiming at the project scheduling representation,
network diagram is a popular approach with the
development of PERT technique and critical path. In
network diagram system arc represents activity, node
represents event, and network structure represents inner-
relations between activities. Apparently network diagram
only deals with time aspect without considering resource
constraints [5]. However resource constraints play an
important and key rule in project scheduling. Later some
research on critical chain in theory of constraints (TOC)
put resource constraints on an important position. But for
the multiple projects, the existing approaches which only
consider project dimension and time dimension cannot
explicitly and effectively illustrate the third dimension,
resource dimension. In addition, the current critical chain
identification was mostly based on critical path method
(CPM) of project management [6]. Actually CPM does
not consider the resource constraints. Therefore the
method that first get critical path and then identify critical
chain by excluding resource conflict does not really work
when it is difficult to solve resource conflict under the
unclear precedence relations among project activities.
Furthermore when there is more than one critical path
among all project activities, it may identify different
critical chain using different critical path, which will
affect the real critical chain identification.
The paper focus on the resource-constrained multiple
projects scheduling problem (RCMPSP) and
identification of critical chain, the remaining parts of this
paper are organized as follows. Section 2 presents a new
presentation of project scheduling. Section 3 gives a
solving approach for RCMPSP and identification of
critical chain. Section 4 shows some case studies and
discussions and Section 5 draws some conclusions.
II. THREE-DIMENSIONAL GANTT CHART
REPRESENTATION
In the field of job shop scheduling, Christopher V.
Jones [7] extended the representation of the well known
Gantt chart to three-dimensional coordinate system, in
which machines, jobs and time are three orthogonal axes.
Introducing Gantt chart and three-dimensional
presentation into project scheduling, a new three-
dimensional Gantt chart representation is presented for
solving project scheduling and critical chain identification,
which is illustrated in Fig. 1. Here the coordinate axes are
composed of time axis T , projects axis P and resources ft (i ) : forward scheduling time of the ith activity;
axis R . bt (i ) : backward scheduling time of the ith activity.
How to fully utilize resource and effectively obtain the
optimum project scheduling is the key issue before
identifying critical chain. Forward scheduling can find the
Rn earliest beginning time of every activity and the longest
path from the activities’ beginning time to the end time,
and backward scheduling can find the latest beginning
Resources

R3

R2 time of each activity and analyze float time of each

R1 activity [9]. What’s more, bidirectional planning merging
the merits of forward scheduling and backward
scheduling can easily get the optimal scheduling plan. At
Pn R Tn
P3 the same time, parallel schedule scheme has the merits of
P2 P T
Projects P1 T3 running fast and can obtain better results than the serial
T1 T2 Time
one when applied to large projects [10] since it searches
Fig. 1. Three-dimensional coordinate system of project scheduling. in a smaller solution space than the serial scheduling
scheme.
Resource-constrained project scheduling is divided Here, for the resource-constrained project scheduling
into four kinds of scheme, namely single project with problem, a scheduling algorithm is presented, which
single resource, single project with multiple resources, combined the merits of bidirectional planning and parallel
multiple projects with single resource and multiple schedule generation scheme in order to accelerate
projects with multiple resources [8]. Apparently the convergence speed and use resources more effectively.
former two schemes are the special case of the latter two The flow diagram of hybrid scheduling algorithm for
schemes. Therefore only facing with multiple projects, RCMPSP is described in Fig. 2.
single resource or multiple resources, the project axis is
necessarily added in coordinate system.

III. SCHEDULING ALGORITHM AND CRITICAL

CHAIN IDENTIFICATION
T  LB
A. Hybrid Scheduling Algorithm

The notations used are defined as follows.

i, j : activity index, i 1, 2,...J1 , j 1, 2,...J 2 , where J1
LB cJ
and J 2 is the total number of activities;
si : start time of the ith activity;
ci : finish time of the ith activity;
T : planning horizon;
FSn : forward scheduling set during n period, n 1,..., T ;
BSn : backward scheduling set during n period;
ESi : earliest start time of the ith activity;
LFi : latest finish time of the ith activity;
FDsub : sub set of the forward scheduling set;
BDsub : sub set of the backward scheduling set;
m, n : positive real number;
T cJ
Ei ,bef : predetermined ith critical activity;
Ei : the ith critical activity;
Ei ,bef : predetermined ith critical activity; Fig. 2. Flow diagram of hybrid scheduling algorithm for RCMPSP.
J : predetermined last critical activity;
U : predetermined critical activity set; The solving steps of hybrid scheduling algorithm for
S : feasible scheduling scheme; RCMPSP are described as follows.
LB : delivery time for forward scheduling;


 Example 1 of single project single resource is given,
FS BS FE BE FS sub BS sub S ‡; T ft bt 0;
where only one kind of renewable resource is used in a
ES j , single project, and there are four units of resource to be
T LB : cJ ;
used in these activities, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Using the
proposed project scheduling approach, the optimum
cj , schedule is obtained in Fig. 4. The critical chain is
highlighted in red line on Fig. 4.
FE ( FS ( j ), ft ( j ))
LB cJ ;
BE ( BS ( j ), bt ( j ))
(1,2)
j*
FE ( FS ( j * ), ft ( j* )) z ‡ BE ( BS ( j * ), bt ( j * )) z ‡ (2,2) 5
ES j* ( FS ) d T  LFj* ( BS ) (5,3)
FSsub m j * ; 2 (1,1)
9
BSsub m j * ;
7
(5,1) (2,1) (0,0)
i BS1 BSend
(0,0) (3,2)
4 6 11
ith
1 3 (4,2)
S FS sub  BS sub ;
T cJ ;
10
T  LB (6,2) (di,ui)
8 i

B. Identification of Critical Chain Fig. 3. Network diagram of example 1.

According to the obtained scheduling solution, all 4

activities which both satisfied precedence and resource 
R es ourc e

constrains are found gradully starting from the farthest 3  


activity. Until the earliest activity is found, the whole 2

critical chain is gained. 

1   
The identification steps of critical chain are given as 
following. Here Eend is defined as the farthest activity 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

from origin of coordinates in the three-dimensional Time

representation, or the farthest activity from the resources Fig. 4. Scheduling scheme of example 1.
axis or projects axis in the two-dimensional representation.
(2) Single project with multiple resources
Initialization:CC ‡,U {E1,bef , E2,bef ,...Eend,bef }, m 0, n L length(U); Example 2 of single project multiple resources is
While md L given, there needed three categories of resource R1 , R2
If Eend is the farthest activity then
and R3 . The constant availability of the resource R1 is
CC(J) Eend ;
End limited to three units per time unit, R2 four units and R3
If Em1 satisfied both precedence and resource dependencies then five units. The detailed description is shown in Fig. 5.
CC(n) Em1; Using the proposed project scheduling approach, the
End optimum schedule is obtained in Fig. 6. The critical chain
m m1; is highlighted in red line on Fig. 6.
n n 1;
End
Output critical chain CC;
(4,1,R1) (7,3,R1) (4,2,R1)
IV. CASE STUDIES AND DISCUSSIONS 2 5 9
According to the four kinds of resource-constrained (0,0,0) (7,4,R2) (8,3,R2) (0,0,0)
project scheduling problem, four corresponding examples
are given to verify the presented approach, where di 1 3 8 10
represents duration of activity i , ui represents the
quantity of resources ri required per period and ri (4,5,R3) (6,3,R3) (4,4,R3) (di,ui,ri)
represents resource category. 4 6 7 i
(1) Single project with single resource
Fig. 5. Network diagram of example 2.


 (7,1,R1) (6,3,R2) (5,1,R2) (3,3,R1)
Resource3 5
(5 units)
4
p1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
3


(6,1,R2)
2



(3,1,R3) (5,1,R1) 2.3 (4,1/2,R1/R2)
1

Resource2 4
p2 2.1 2.2 (7,2,R2) 2.5
(4 units)
3 2.4
2 
1
 (7,1,R3) (6,1,R3) (3,1,R2) (di,ui,ri)
Resource1 3 p3 3.1 3.2 3.3 i
(3 units)
2

 Fig. 8. Network diagram of example 4.

1 

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time

Fig. 6. Scheduling scheme of example 2.

8

7 

In the above two situations, the present literature 6

always use the form of resource profile, when multiple

Resources
5

projects appear, it seems there no effective way to express 4 


3
the scheduling results. Now, we will use three- 2 

dimensional Gantt chart to represent. 1 

(3) Mult iple projects with single resource 0


Example 3 of multiple projects single resource is Project3

Project2  22 23 24
25

given, there are P1 , P2 and P3 three projects, project P1 is  10 11 12

13 14 15
16 17 18
19 20 21

Project1 3 4 5
6 7 8 9

composed of activity 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, project P2 is 0 1 2

Time
activity 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, and project P3 is Fig. 9. Scheduling scheme of example 3.
activity 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, resource R has totally eight
units per time unit. The detailed description is as Fig. 7. 8

Using the proposed project scheduling approach, the

7 

optimum schedule is obtained in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 is
lateral view. The critical chain is highlighted in red line 6


on Fig. 10. 5
Resources

(4) Multiple projects with multiple resources 

Example 4 of multiple projects multiple resources is 4 


given, there are R1 , R2 and R3 three resource types, 3

resource R1 has constant availability of three units per 2


 
time unit, resource R2 has constant availability of four 1



units per time unit, and resource R3 has totally two units 0 Project1 Project2 Project3
per time unit. The detailed situation is as Fig. 8. Using the
proposed project scheduling approach, the optimum Fig. 10. Lateral view of scheduling scheme of example 3.
schedule is obtained in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 is lateral view.
The critical chain is highlighted in red line on Fig. 12.
Resource3 2

(2 Units) 1
(7,1) (6,3) (5,1) (3,3) Resource2 4  
(4 Units) 3
p1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2


(6,1) Resource1 3
1 

(5,3) (5,2) 2.3 (4,3) (3 Units) 2

1

p2 2.1 2.2 (7,2) 2.5 0 
Project3  

2.4 Project2 25
22 23 24
19 20 21
(7,1) (6,2) (3,2) (di,ui) Project1
1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15
16 17 18

p3 3.1 3.2 3.3 i Time

Fig. 7. Network diagram of example 3. Fig. 11. Scheduling scheme of example 4.


Resource3 2

(2 Units)  ACKNOWLEDGMENT

1

 
Resource2 4
This work is supported by the National Natural
(4 Units)
3  Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 50705077),

2 Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province
  of China (Grants No. 2009JQ9002) and graduate starting
1 
 seed fund of Northwestern Polytechnical University
Resource1 3

(3 Units) (Grants No. Z2011058).

2

 
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Project1
Project2
Project3 0
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project scheduling problem, four corresponding examples
are given to verify the presented approach. The results of
single project with single resource scheduling, single
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projects with single resource scheduling and multiple
projects with multiple resources scheduling show that the
proposed approach is effective and explicit for resource
constrained project scheduling and critical chain
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