Development of a Construction Logistic Planning for Optimizing Material Purchasing and Construction Site Storage

Development of a Construction Logistic Planning for Optimizing Material Purchasing and Construction Site Storage

Making a good plan of materials purchasing and storage on construction sites can lead to significant improvements in construction productivity and project profitability. Existing material procurement models focus on procurement decisions without considering the availability of material storage space on dynamic construction site layouts. On the other hand, existing dynamic site layout planning models focus on on-site layout decisions without considering the impact of material procurement decisions on inventory levels and storage space needs. Overlooking these critical interdependencies between material procurement and site-space availability can lead to serious project problems including material shortages, improper storage, poor and unsafe site layout, and productivity losses. This paper presents the development of a new optimization model for construction logistics planning that is capable of simultaneously integrating and optimizing the critical planning decisions of material procurement and material storage on construction sites. The model utilizes a hybrid dragon algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization to minimize construction logistics and inventory cost. The validation results demonstrate superior optimization compare to past research. These new capabilities of the developed model should prove useful in the challenging tasks of planning and optimizing material procurement and storage decisions, especially for long-lead items, in construction projects.