Chan, W T and Hu, H (2002) Constraint programming approach to precast production scheduling. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 128(6), pp. 513-521. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Current scheduling practices in precast plants are fairly basic and depend greatly on experience. This may lead to inefficient resource utilization, over-inventory, and/or missing delivery dates. Computer assisted scheduling may therefore be useful in producing better production schedules. This paper shows how constraint programming (CP) can be applied in production scheduling for precast plants. The paper describes a constrained precast scheduling model that incorporates the key constraints and objectives considered by production schedulers. A capacity-based backward-scheduling earliest due date rule and a CP approach are developed to solve the model. The CP approach is computationally efficient, even though it incorporates many problem-derived constraints. The efficiency of the CP approach lies in the fact that the representation (model) is separated from the algorithm (solver). Strategies to improve the performance of the CP approach are identified, and the CP approach is compared against commonly used heuristic rules on an example problem.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | computer aided scheduling; computer programming; construction |
| Index terms: | efficiency, constraint programming, strategy, inventory, key constraint, programming, scheduler, resource utilization, scheduling, heuristic |
| Subjects: | practitioner, performance management, risk assessment, site logistics, management, control systems, algorithms, programming, inventory management, operations research |
| Topics: | Project Management, Time Control, Site Management, Business Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Risk Management, Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here