Time–cost trade off in critical path method networks by simulated annealing

In this paper a simulated annealing algorithm for time–cost trade off in CPM networks is proposed. The algorithm solves the problem in the case that discrete time-cost combinations for the activities are imposed. The algorithm uses the total slack of activities as criterion to create new candidate solutions. The goal is to minimize the total cost, i.e. the sum of direct and indirect cost. The algorithm was programmed in Microsoft Project and a computational analysis on randomly generated projects was performed in order, on the one hand, to determine values of algorithm's parameters improving its effectiveness and, on the other hand, to evaluate its performances.