Solving the Resource Renting Problem with an Adapted Fix-and-optimize Heuristic

In this paper, we consider the RRP/max which takes procurement costs and time-dependent renting costs for resources, used in a project, into consideration. The objective of the RRP/max is to determine a time-feasible schedule for a project while minimizing the total resource costs to execute a project with general temporal constraints. Applications for the RRP/max arise e.g. in planning the operations of heavy machinery at construction sites. The renting of resources, rather than buying them for a project, has increased in relevance in recent times. We propose a MIP-based heuristic approach to solve the RRP/max. By adapting a fix-and-optimize heuristic to the structural properties of the RRP/max, we were able to find promising solutions for the problem. In a computational study, we investigate the performance of the heuristic for instances from the literature, by comparing the results to those of a MILP model solved by CPLEX.