Automated generation of stacking plans for prefabricated panels transported by A-frame trailers

Abstract

Prefabrication is a sustainable construction method that improves productivity and reduces environmental footprints. Prefabricated panel is one typical type of components widely used in practice. When designing panel stacking plans for transportation, practitioners should consider numerous practical factors, e.g., panel stability and reshufflings. However, in current practice, stacking plans are made on the basis of planners’ intuition and experience. A scientific method that can yield satisfactory panel stacking plans is thus required. Motivated by this real need, this paper aims to address a practical problem for practitioners: how to stack prefabricated panels transported by A-frame trailers with high stability and little reshuffling. This paper extends the literature by innovatively formulating a bi-objective mixed-integer programming model that incorporates all the aforementioned factors and objectives. A non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is designed to approximate the Pareto optimal solutions. We conduct extensive numerical experiments to validate the effectiveness, efficiency, and applicability of our proposed model and algorithm. The developed model and algorithm are capable of automatically performing calculations and effectively generating vertical stacking plans of high quality for planners in real-world settings within seconds. Future research may be devoted to the optimization of stacking plans for other types of prefabricated components or the horizontal stacking plans for components transported by flat-bed trailers.