Mathematical model to optimally solve the lift planning problem in high-rise construction projects

Abstract

Abstract The availability of resources such as workforce and materials at each level of a high-rise construction project just before the commencement of building tasks is a crucial issue that might have direct impacts on project progress. To avoid delays caused by lack of human resources and construction materials, a construction management team always tries to find a better way to facilitate supply chain process specifically for construction projects facing a significant number of simultaneous and repetitive tasks. The other challenge in a high-rise construction project is vertical transportation that requires special machinery e.g. cranes or lifts, and also, maximizing their utilities. In this paper, it is tried to automate vertical transportation planning process in high-rise construction projects by introducing a platform that handles the entire lifting process. This platform considers (i) tasks attributes (e.g. required resources, location and commencement time) from the project schedule, (ii) lifting system specifications (e.g. travel speed, weight, and volume capacity) and (iii) project geometrics (e.g. current height of the project). In details, the introduced platform provides an optimized daily delivery plan by developing a Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) model that covers workforce and construction materials. In this paper, the proposed platform is also tested using field data obtained from a 34-story construction project in Mashhad, Iran. The model could find a solution with 0% optimality gap in approximately 1 h, which is an acceptable amount of computational cost for the problem. The results show how the introduced platform can assist the construction management team to efficiently handle the supply process within stories while avoiding delays caused by a lack of resources required for each task.