Developing a Resource Allocation Approach for Resource-Constrained Construction Operation under Multi-Objective Operation

Wei He,Wei Wang,Wenjing Li

doi:10.3390/su13137318

Abstract

In the construction industry, it is of great importance for project managers (PM) to consider the resource allocation arrangement problem based on different perspectives. In this situation, the management of resources in construction becomes a challenge. Generally speaking, there are many objectives that need to be optimized in construction that are in conflict with each other, including time, cost, and energy consumption (EC). This paper proposed a multi-objective optimization framework based on the quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) to obtain the best trade-off relationship among these goals. The construction resources allocated in each construction activity would eventually determine its execution time, cost, and EC, and a complexed time-cost-energy consumption trade-off framework of the project is finally generated due to correlations between construction activities. QGA was performed to find the best combination among time, cost, and EC and the optimal scheme of resource arrangement under this state. The construction process is simulated in BIM to check the rationality of this resource allocation mode. An industrial plant office building in China is presented as an example to illustrate the implementation of the proposed model. The results show that the presented method could effectively reduce 7% of cost, 17% of time, and 21% of energy consumption. This developed model is expected to help PMs to solve the problem of multi-objective optimization with limited resource allocation.

Highlights

The construction industry has led to a huge consumption of resources [1]
The project generates numerous construction activities through work breakdown structure (WBS) decomposition, and the resource allocation of each activity will affect its time, cost, and energy consumption required for the construction completion, which affects the whole project
Taking the shortest construction time, the lowest cost, and the least EC as the goals, the optimal combination of time, cost, and energy consumption and the optimal resource allocation scheme of each construction activity are sought for this project

Summary

Introduction

The construction industry has led to a huge consumption of resources [1]. It is of great importance for PMs to draw up a resource allocation arrangement in planning the process of a construction project [2] to avoid an uneven allocation and waste of resources. A reasonable project schedule could help shorten the construction time and improve the resource utilization efficiency [6]. Scholars took the goals of optimizing resource allocation, minimizing the time limit, and complying with all project precedence relationships to establish models [7,8,9,10]. Feng and Chung suggested using the genetic algorithm (GA) for cost-time optimization in resource management [11].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion