Stability measure for prefab balancing in prefabrication construction supply chain management

Abstract

Effective management of the prefabrication construction supply chain management (PCSCM) requires careful consideration of rational resource allocation and Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery. The transportation and storage of materials can be a significant expense in the construction industry, making it essential to prioritize the efficient allocation of resources. When resource allocation and delivery schedules are not properly managed, it can result in additional costs and project delays. Current practices mainly depend on the foreman’s experience, leading to unpunctual delivery and insufficient distribution. Punctual delivery involves collaboration with many stakeholders, including main contractor, logistics companies, foreman, etc. This paper proposes a resource allocation model with a penalty mechanism to comprehensively consider the benefit of the main contractor under PCSCM, aiming to minimize costs and strategically allocate resources. Buffer space, as a crucial safety place, is beneficial for balancing the stability of PCSCM and controlling the cost among stakeholders. This research takes into account several practical considerations, including limitations on storage and buffer space, penalty of unpunctual delivery, and the availability of multiple transportation routes. Especially, research seldom includes the penalty mechanism with a soft time window related to the demand and supply of resources based on the storage limitation. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the result of the proposed PSO is similar to CPLEX in small-scale instances. The results show that implementing a penalty also significantly saves the CPU around 38% for the main contractor compared with the model without penalty mechanism in a practical case. These contributions allow stakeholders to optimize resource allocation and project timelines while minimizing waste through a rational penalty mechanism.