An Examination of Engineering Personnel Assignment Policies in the Multi-Project, Capacity Constrained Situation

Engineering management is often done in a multi-project setting where projects arrive dynamically, engineering human resources are overloaded, and preemption is allowed. In this simulation research, factors of that setting are varied to identify ideal resource assignment policies associated with personnel capacity loading and the use of personnel preemption. The experimental factors include resource overloading, learning rate, and the frequency and length of preemption. The performance measures are project set flow time, resource utilization, and mean project duration. The best situation is one where preemption is not allowed but where engineering resources are overloaded to 200% of capacity. The results of this research are important for engineering resource utilization and for the timely project completion, and have the additional benefit of recommending a best practice for project initiation and engineering project portfolio management.