Scheduling Markovian PERT networks to maximize the net present value: new results

Ben Hermans and Roel Leus

No 588552, Working Papers of Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management, Leuven from KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management, Leuven

Abstract: We study the problem of scheduling a project so as to maximize its expected net present value when task durations are exponentially distributed. Based on the structural properties of an optimal solution we show that, even if preemption is allowed, it is not necessary to do so. Next to its managerial importance, this result also allows for a new algorithm which improves on the current state of the art with several orders of magnitude, both in CPU time and in memory usage.

Keywords: Project scheduling; Net present value; Exponentially distributed activity durations; Markov decision process; Monotone optimal policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-ppm
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Published in FEB Research Report KBI_1709

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ete:kbiper:588552

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