Optimizing profit and logistics for precast concrete production

Abstract

This study serves as a practical model for optimizing production planning, allocation of precast component storage, and transportation sites as well as for making timely adjustments for contracted projects. To ensure that the structure of the research model is reasonable and matches actual applications, the study uses a field survey to directly observe the largest precast concrete plants in Taiwan for a period of 6 months, followed by in-depth interviews with experts involved with the planning, design, installation, and manufacturing for precast projects. The mathematical model is then established and evaluated using the data containing over 90% of national production in Taiwan. The results show that the tested corporate profits increase by an impressive 38.4% and performance is significantly increased by 97.75%. The proposed model can not only make up for oversights in human decision-making but improve the decision-making process boosting corporate competitiveness.

A holistic review of off-site construction literature published between 2008 and 2018

“…Finally a total of 33 main keywords were shortlisted and visualised in Fig.4. Fig.4 show these main research areas within OSC: 1) OSC has often being linked to lean construction (Arashpour et al, 2016), which is in the same cluster with productivity (Chen et al, 2017), simulation (Mitterhofer et al, 2017), and risk management (Shahtaheri et al, 2017); 2) OSC does not simply refer to the site assembly of building components, but involves the project design and planning (Choi et al, 2016), which is further linked to automation (Isaac et al, 2016) and standardization (Lei et al, 2015); 3) precast concrete is one of the commonly studied off-site manufacturing products; 4) OSC has been more frequently studied of its sustainability applications (Kamali and Hewage 2016), supply chain management issues (Wikberg et al, 2014), and critical success factors (CSFs) (Yunus and Yang, 2012); 5) case study (Gledson 2016 has been one of the main research methods in investigating CSFs in OSC; 6) several countries or regions have been active in researching OSC, including Malaysia, HK (i.e., Hong Kong), China, and Sweden. The readiness (Osman et al, 2017) of local industry to implement OSC has been a concern.…”

“…Empirical data from site investigations were collected from these studies. Chen et al (2017) adopted a comprehensive research approach from site observation, expert interview, and mathematical model to evaluate the performance throughout the planning, design, installation, and manufacturing for precast projects. It was found that precast project could increase the corporate profits by nearly 40%.…”

A Conceptual Development Framework for Prefabricated Construction Supply Chain Management: An Integrated Overview

“…It is necessary for the supplier to develop an appropriate inventory management plan of prefabricated components for the delivery requirements of multiple contractors [83]. In contrast, contractor procurement decision-making includes multi-component coordination and supplier relationship management [84]. Supplier selection affects the performance of PCSCM, and its evaluation criteria include procurement process, operational efficiency, relationship coordination, and strategic adjustment [85].…”

Transshipment approach to coordinate materials for a contractor’s project portfolio

“…There has been a limited amount of studies in relevance to the use of transshipment methods in the construction supply chain. For example, Chen et al (2017) suggested that transshipment is effective in coping with the demand variability in production schedules in the precast fabrication supply chain. Nevertheless, the topic should have received more attention and be investigated with advanced information communication technologies, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) platforms.…”