Title: Construction supply chain-based dynamic optimisation for the purchasing and inventory in a large scale construction project

Authors: Qiurui Liu; Jiuping Xu; Zhiqiang Zhang

Addresses: Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China ' Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China; State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China ' China Datang Corporation Maoxian Tianlonghu Hydroelectric Limited Corporation, Chongqing, 404100, China

Abstract: The aim of this article is to develop a construction supply chain-based (CSC) material supply model to enable project participants to control the operational cost under a certain environment. Cost reductions are considered as the fundamental objectives for overall CSC improvement. CSC-based purchasing requires a dynamic purchasing plan which includes long-term capital asset procurement. So, the financial impacts are also considered. Another objective is to control the delayed quantity during the supply process. Further, the viability and operational integrity is ensured by the establishment of a real resources limitation. Then, a new hybrid simulated annealing particle swarm optimisation algorithm is applied to solve the model. Finally, a practical application case in China was studied to examine the efficiency of the proposed model. By controlling the information, material and capital flow, construction period and cost can be aligned with the uncertain environment and the limited resource conditions. [Received: 15 September 2014; Revised: 18 December 2014; Accepted: 15 February 2015]

Keywords: construction supply chains; dynamic optimisation; uncertainty; supply chain management; SCM; purchasing; inventory management; large scale projects; construction projects; cost reduction; capital asset procurement; simulated annealing; particle swarm optimisation; PSO; information flow; material flow; capital flow.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIE.2015.074383

European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2015 Vol.9 No.6, pp.839 - 865

Published online: 26 Jan 2016 *

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