Optimizing construction schedules and material deliveries in city logistics: a case study from the building industry

Abstract

We consider the problem of designing a logistics system to assure efficient urban construction processes for an innovative urban building area in the city of Vienna. We address the challenges of coordinating workers and the timely delivery and storage of material with the objective of optimizing resource-efficiency as well as reducing traffic related to construction tasks. The problem is formulated as a hierarchical optimization problem, incorporating tactical construction logistics planning as well as operational construction logistics planning. On the tactical level a time schedule of tasks for different construction phases and the corresponding material transports and storage decisions are optimized on a weekly basis, while on the operational level the daily optimization of material transports, modeled as an inventory routing problem, is addressed. A mixed-integer programming formulation of the problem on each planning level is provided and solved using CPLEX. The suggested approach is tested on realistic data from the city of Vienna. The results associated with different scenarios are analyzed to illustrate the value of the proposed approach for the design of construction logistics processes.