Article
Developing a Resource Allocation Approach for
Resource-Constrained Construction Operation under
Multi-Objective Operation
Wei He , Wenjing Li and Wei Wang *
Citation: He, W.; Li, W.; Wang, W.
Developing a Resource Allocation
Approach for Resource-Constrained
Construction Operation under
Multi-Objective Operation.
Sustainability 2021, 13, 7318. https://
doi.org/10.3390/su13137318
Academic Editor: Edmundas
Kazimieras Zavadskas
Received: 19 May 2021
Accepted: 23 June 2021
Published: 30 June 2021
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4.0/).
School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China;
hewei@ysu.edu.cn (W.H.); liwj@ysu.edu.cn (W.L.)
* Correspondence: 13B910046@hit.edu.cn
Abstract:
In the construction industry, it is of great importance for project managers (PM) to consider
the resource allocation arrangement problem based on different perspectives. In this situation, the
management of resources in construction becomes a challenge. Generally speaking, there are many
objectives that need to be optimized in construction that are in conflict with each other, including time,
cost, and energy consumption (EC). This paper proposed a multi-objective optimization framework
based on the quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) to obtain the best trade-off relationship among these
goals. The construction resources allocated in each construction activity would eventually determine
its execution time, cost, and EC, and a complexed time-cost-energy consumption trade-off framework
of the project is finally generated due to correlations between construction activities. QGA was
performed to find the best combination among time, cost, and EC and the optimal scheme of resource
arrangement under this state. The construction process is simulated in BIM to check the rationality of
this resource allocation mode. An industrial plant office building in China is presented as an example
to illustrate the implementation of the proposed model. The results show that the presented method
could effectively reduce 7% of cost, 17% of time, and 21% of energy consumption. This developed
model is expected to help PMs to solve the problem of multi-objective optimization with limited
resource allocation.
Keywords:
construction; resource-constrained scheduling; multi-objective trade-off; time-cost-energy
consumption overruns; resource allocation
1. Introduction
The construction industry has led to a huge consumption of resources [
1
]. It is of great
importance for PMs to draw up a resource allocation arrangement in planning the process
of a construction project [
2
] to avoid an uneven allocation and waste of resources. However,
the construction sector has been known for its low productivity for several years [
3
], and
inefficient construction resource allocation may lead to delays, cost overturns, and resource
waste in the construction process [2,4].
Construction management is the work of allocating time and resources to each activity
under the requirements of construction objectives [
5
]. Generally speaking, the allocation
of project resources has a direct impact on the project’s progress. A reasonable project
schedule also could help shorten the construction time and improve the resource utilization
efficiency [
6
]. Much scientific research has developed different models to solve the resource
allocation problem. At first, scholars took the goals of optimizing resource allocation,
minimizing the time limit, and complying with all project precedence relationships to
establish models [
7
–
10
]. Afterwards, the connection between resource allocation and cost
management was taken into consideration. Feng and Chung suggested using the genetic
algorithm (GA) for cost-time optimization in resource management [
11
]. Elazouni and
Metwally developed a finance-based scheduling method that considered cost, time, and
Sustainability 2021, 13, 7318. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137318 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
