Abstract
Materials required for precast fabrication are dissimilar to those cast at construction sites. Fabricators who lack materials must wait until specific suppliers deliver the required materials. The objective of this study is to reduce total material management costs in the supply chain system through the most advantageous transshipment strategies. A material supply chain framework that enables fabricators to implement lateral transshipment is first proposed. Transshipment strategies are then formulated into a mathematical model. The most advantageous transshipment strategies are analyzed using computer simulation. Diverse order lead times, demands, transportation costs, and shortage costs are simulated to approximate operational conditions encountered in supply chain systems. Through various experiments, the most advantageous strategy for precast fabrication industry can be found. In addition, four rules are developed based on simulation results to enhance transshipment decision making. This research is one of the pioneering studies applying lateral transshipment to precast production management.
Highlights
Precast fabricators strive for business success by delivering products on time
This study developed a framework for applying lateral transshipment to precast construction
Simulation results show that the transshipments based on availability priority policy I (TBAPR I) strategy induces minimum inventory and material shortage costs (SC) when implementing lateral transshipment
Summary
Precast fabricators strive for business success by delivering products on time. This goal cannot be achieved without flexible and sufficient material supply (Ko, Ballard 2004). Precast fabricators make material plans primarily depending on experience (Ko, Wang 2011; Blakemore, Konda 2010) This unsystematic manner in which plans are made depends on the subjective recognition that material requirements cannot be appropriately targeted for production (Tah, Carr 2001; Vollmann et al 2004). A tardiness penalty occurs when precast fabricators cannot deliver elements to the construction site on time (Ko 2006; Sambasivan, Soon 2007), causing business reputation to deteriorate due to late deliveries
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