Load balancinginprojectassignment

In thispaper,westudyaprojectassignmentproblem.Specifically,asetofprojects,eachofwhichneeds to befinishedoveraprojectdevelopmentcycle,aretobeassignedtoagroupofidenticalengineersover a discreteplanninghorizon.Theworkloadoftheprojectsisdifferentandfluctuatesovertheir developmentcycles.Ineachperiod,engineershaveamaximumallowedworkload.Theobjectiveofthe problemistoassigntheprojectstoengineerswiththeobjectiveofbalancingthetotalworkloadamong the engineers;theloadbalanceismeasuredbythedifferencebetweenthemaximumandtheminimum total workload.Suchaproblemisnewtotheliterature.AfterprovingtheproblemisstronglyNP-hard, we proposeatwo-stageheuristicapproachtosolveit.Extensivenumericalexperimentsshowthatthe proposedapproachcanachieveoptimalornearlyoptimalsolutionsforalltestcases;suchperformance is muchbetterthanwhatcanbeobtainedfromanIPmodelsolvedwithILOGCPLEX.Ananalysisofthe algorithmhasalsobeenprovidedtoexplainhowthesuperiorperformancehasbeenachieved.