Crane planning optimization for construction

In the construction industry, crane planning is crucial for the success of a project since it has a major impact on construction sequencing, scheduling, budgeting, and safety. Typically, crane planning includes two parts: crane selection and crane placement. These two parts interact with each other, so an integrated planning is desired. Meanwhile, the building information modeling (BIM) technology is growing fast these days. Most of the world’s leading architecture, engineering, and construction firms have already used BIM instead of CAD technologies for nearly all their projects. Hence the combining of crane planning with the BIM technology is a new direction in construction planning and management. The main purpose of this research is to develop necessary methodologies and concepts for automated crane planning system involving crane selection optimization and crane location optimization. For this purpose, this dissertation proposes an overarching framework to integrate, interpret, and analyze the requirements for crane selection and crane placement. Primary factors affecting crane planning are captured and formulated into mathematical expressions, these factors include: crane coverage, work balance, material supply region connection, project time, site boundary, crane assembling and dismantling, crane rental cost, and relocation expenses.