A decision support system for optimizing labor acquisition in construction

The construction industry has been criticized for poor team coordination, a crucial factor in effective project delivery. Integrating design data, construction schedules, and labor acquisition can enhance coordination among design, planning, and procurement teams, reducing labor-related issues and improving productivity. An integrated and optimized labor management system can ensure the smooth and efficient acquisition of labor. However, limited research addresses these aspects comprehensively. Previous studies neglected the integration of building information modeling (BIM) with labor acquisition, overlooked optimization of labor release/rehire and idling costs, and lacked dynamic coordination among design, planning, and procurement teams. Limited studies have addressed labor retention thresholds, location-adjusted costs, or multiobjective optimization for workforce management. This study proposes a decision support system (DSS) that integrates design data and construction schedules while optimizing labor acquisition. The DSS utilizes a custom integration developed by the authors between Revit version 2023 and Primavera P6 Professional 22 to facilitate 5-dimensional (5D) BIM. A multiobjective optimization model based on the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) was developed to balance labor release and rehiring, idling, peak labor demand, and overall labor costs. The output of the DSS was visualized using a custom C# application that showed the optimized labor acquisition plan to the end user. The DSS was validated through a building project, where it reduced labor fluctuations by 19.75% and labor costs by 0.19% compared with the actual project schedule. It also outperformed Primavera P6, reducing labor fluctuations by 10.96% and costs by 0.55%, and lowering peak daily labor demand by 7.03% compared with the original plan and 11.85% compared with Primavera P6. By integrating BIM, construction scheduling, and optimization, the DSS offers a cost-effective, dynamic labor acquisition system. It enables practitioners to engage laborers efficiently, minimizing idling and hiring gaps, ultimately ensuring timely project completion within budget.