A novel multiple objective whale optimization for time-cost-quality tradeoff in non-unit repetitive projects

Abstract

Project managers are the ones who struggle to complete the project with the shortest possible time, the least amount of costs and, the highest quality. The primary objective in the planning stage of the project management process is to identify the most suitable schedule from provided time–cost-quality curve. Scheduling of construction repetitive projects assumes the same production and hard logic between units. This study proposes a free-parameter multiple objective whale optimization (MOWO) to tradeoff the time, cost and, quality factors in non-unit repetitive projects (NRP). An external scheduling system shall consider project activities dependencies, multiple crew assignments, and soft logic in units to calculate project duration, cost and, quality. A construction case study was used to examine MOWO performance. Furthermore, some broadly recognized multiple objective evolutionary algorithms are employed to compare with the proposed algorithm. Result comparison points out that MOWO attained the best optimization outcomes in handling the time-cost-quality tradeoff in non-unit repetitive construction projects. Highlights This study presents an advanced multiple optimization algorithm MOWO. A scheduling subsystem is proposed to enable TCQ tradeoff in non-unit repetitive projects. MOWO is applied to solve TCQ for non-unit repetitive construction projects. The model performance is demonstrated in the experimental results.