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a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Accepted 5 April 2011
Available online 4 May 2011
Keywords:
Ready mixed concrete
Incident
Schedule adjustment
Truck dispatching
Network ow
a b s t r a c t
In this study, the authors develop a systematic network ow model designed to help RMC carriers effectively
adjust schedules following RMC mixer breakdowns. A timespace network technique is employed to
formulate the production of the RMC and truck eet ows in the dimensions of time and space. A solution
algorithm, incorporating a problem decomposition technique and the use of a mathematical programming
solver, is developed to efciently solve the problem. Finally, the model and solution method are evaluated by
performing a case study. The test results show that, with the application of the model and the solution
algorithm, mixer breakdowns do not lead to much deterioration in the system operating performance. In
addition, the system operating cost is signicantly improved (by 10.75 %) compared to that obtained using the
manual approach. As a result, the model and the solution algorithm could be useful for actual operations.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the last few years, ready mixed concrete (RMC) production has
become increasingly automated. The process includes procurement of
materials, feed and mixing proportions, discharging, prolonged
agitation during travel, delivery of concrete to the construction site,
and the placement operation at the site. However, if an incident (e.g.,
machine malfunction, electricity problem, etc.) occurs so that some of
the mixers cannot produce concrete, the supply of concrete to the
RMC trucks is interrupted which interferes with the dispatch
schedule. The RMC production and truck dispatching plan has then
to be adjusted. Operating time and overhead costs may increase if the
RMC is not delivered according to schedule. In a worst case scenario,
interruption of delivery leads to the occurrence of cold-joint
problems. Preventive action is needed to ensure construction security.
Cold-joint problems can be handled in several ways given the nature
of the load bearing structure being poured at the placement site. If the
placement site is not in a major load bearing area, the surface of the
concrete can be dug away manually, allowing the placement to
continue after the application of adhesives to the roughed surface.
However, if the placement site is at a key location, to ensure quality,
the site manager must remove all concrete that has already been set.
The plant must then compensate by replacing all the RMC at the
placement site. Under these circumstances, both the plant and the
construction site managers can lose considerable amounts of capital
and resources owing to the delay in work and increased overhead
Corresponding author. Tel.: + 886 3 422 7151x34141; fax: + 886 3 425 2960.
E-mail address: t320002@cc.ncu.edu.tw (S. Yan).
0926-5805/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2011.04.005
1042
develop a solution method that could lead to signicant improvements in solution quality over simpler greedy procedures for largescale resource management problems. Zegordi et al. [28] proposed a
gendered genetic algorithm that considered two different chromosomes with non-equivalent structures for transportation scheduling
problems. However, the above problem characteristics are different
from ours so that these models and solution methods are not
applicable to our problem.
It should be mentioned that, to improve previous models where
the relationship between the production and dispatching processes
has been ignored, Yan and Lai [24] developed an optimization model
that integrates RMC production scheduling and truck dispatching into
the same framework to decide on the optimal RMC supply schedule
for both normal working hours and overtime. However, Yan and Lai's
[24] and the aforementioned approaches are used to deal with RMC
production and/or truck dispatching. They are not applicable to the
problem of schedule adjustment of RMC production and truck
dispatching following incidents, because of differences in the problem
context. There has not yet been any research in literature on optimal
schedule adjustments for the production and dispatching of RMC
following incidents. Therefore, in this study, the authors develop a
systematic model, coupled with a solution method that will help RMC
carriers effectively adjust their production and truck dispatching
schedules following incidents.
3. Modeling Approach
This section introduces the scheduling model. Major elements in
the model include the timespace network, operating constraints, and
mathematical formulation, as described below.
3.1. Timespace Network
A network consists of nodes and arcs. This representation is useful
for modeling a wide range of physical and conceptual situations [1].
Among the network approaches, the timespace network technique,
which has recently received considerable attention in the logistics
eld, is both a natural and exible means of modeling conveyance
routing/scheduling problems. Only a few nodes, links or additional
side constraints must be modied, without adjusting the original
network structure. It should be noted that timespace network ow
techniques have been successfully applied to elds other than
construction management, such as airline eet scheduling/routing,
ight timetable setting, bus routing/scheduling, crew scheduling,
work team scheduling, vessel scheduling/routing and supply chain
management (e.g., see [8,10,18,19,2123,25,26,29]). Yan and Lai [24]
recently used a timespace network technique to develop an
optimization model to help decide on effective RMC production and
truck dispatching schedules/routes. In this study, the timespace
technique is adopted to develop the model. This technique can easily
represent the operation of RMC production and truck dispatching due
to its natural representation of conveyance routing in the dimensions
of time and space. The timespace network developed to formulate
the model is described below (for a detailed description, please see
[18,26]).
As shown in Fig. 1, a node designates a plant at a specic time,
while an arc represents an activity between two different timespace
points, such as the holding of a truck, or the movement of a truck from
a plant to a construction site. The arc ows express the ow of trucks
in the networks. The horizontal axis in Fig. 1 denotes the RMC plant
and construction sites, while the vertical axis represents the time
duration from the starting time when the mixer rst breaks down
(which may add a preparation time), to the ending time of the RMC
plant when the period of overtime ends.
Here, overtime refers to the labor time after an eight hour work
day. The plan shown in Fig. 1 represents the timespace network with
respect to the recovery time that is before the overtime. However, the
incident time can last until after the overtime period, meaning the
recovery time could be after the overtime. The time gap depends on
the production of the mixer. Assume that each mixer produces 3 m3
concrete per minute and each truck takes, on average, 1.5 min to load
the maximum quantity of 4 m3. With an additional buffer time, a twominute period is taken as the time gap. Each node, except for the
starting node and the ending node, represents the RMC plant or a
construction site at a specic time. The starting node supply and the
ending node demand are the same, which is the number of RMC
trucks in the eet. Based on practical considerations, the network
analysis period is set at one day, including the remaining normal
operating time and an overtime period. Each arc represents an activity
for a truck. There are eight types of arcs, as can be seen below.
Plant 1
Plant 2
Plant a
(3)
(3)
1043
Starting node
(Breakdown)
Site 1
Site 2
Site m
(3)
Starting time
(6)
(4)
(6)
(1)
(4)
(6)
(2)
(2)
(6)
(5)
External
supply node
(5)
Recovery time
(6)
(1)(8)
(6)
Overtime
(7)
(7)
(7)
(7)
Ending time
f
Ending node
1044
iN jN
+ v +
mMf
mMf nS
m m
q yn
pPf
mMf nMC
m m
q n
Subject to:
8
< B; if i = v
xij xhi = 0; if i Nfv; f g
:
jN
hN
B; if i = f
xij
i;jAm ASm OSm
iN
i N Rp ; p Pf
xij 1
i;jTDi
mMf
m m
p
p
tif G 1 if
m Mf
if AR ; pPf
4
5
if ARp ; pPf
p tvi + G 1 pvi
em tlm
ij G 1 xij
1045
Table 2
List of variables.
Symbol
Name/description
xij
Arc (i,j) ow
cij
p,m
p,m
NRp
N
APp
AP
VMp
VM
AH,E
AR
AT
TDi
Set of all initial supply arcs, holding arcs and return arcs
Set of assignment arcs and supporting assignment arcs
emanating from node i
Set of assignment arcs associated with construction site m
Set of plants that have not ended operations before the
system plan starts
Set of all assignment arcs, A = Am
m
Set of supporting assignment arcs associated with
construction site m
Set of all supporting assignment arcs, AS = ASm
m
Set of external supply arcs associated with construction
site m
Set of all external supply arcs, OS = OSm
p
m
f,v
o,B
dm
tif
tvi
G
uif,uvi
m
tlm
ij ,taij
tfp
tfm
m
tlm
n ,tan
CPBm
n
QPBm
n
OS
Mc
Sm,Qm
MCm
I
10
wp p tf p
pPf
11
mMf
12
m
G m
n + n 1
m
m
xij + ym
n n + n 1
i;jCPBm
n
Gn + tln e
m
m
Gm
n + tan
m
m
m
m
n + 1 yn + yn + 1 2n
xij
i;jQPBm
n
p
nSm ; mMf 13
nS ; mMf
14
nSm ; mMf
15
nMC m ; mMf
nQ m ; mMf
1
m
16
17
mMf ; pPf
18
; 0
mMc ; pPc
19
xij f0; 1g
ijAASOSEVM
20
m tam
ij + G 1 xij
v e tf
m
n
m m m
m
n ; n ; yn ; n f0; 1g
Mf
ym
n
xij 0; xij I
Pc
m
n
AS
OSm
m
n
A
ASm
pvi
w ; v ; ; e 0
Am
Pf
em, p
wp
vm
pif
ijAT
nSm ; mMf
21
22
1046
Eqs. (7) and (8) determine the starting time of plant p, which is
equal to the time associated with the rst truck entering plant p. The
binary variable pvi is designed to indicate whether there are trucks
entering plant p at the time associated with node i. Once the
assignment arc ow is positive (i.e.,xsi N 0), variable pvi will be 1 and
the starting time of plant p can then be found. Eq. (9) determines the
ending time of each construction site, which is equal to the departure
time of the last truck from each construction site. Eq. (10) determines
the starting time of each construction site, which is equal to the arrival
time of the rst truck at the construction site. Eqs. (11) and (12)
respectively determine the overtime period associated with every
plant and every construction site.
Eq. (13) determines whether there is a positive arc ow in a coldjoint-preventing bundle set, i.e., if a cold-joint-preventing bundle ow
(the sum of the bundle arc ows) is equal to 1. If not, then ym
n is equal
to one, meaning that the penalty for handling the cold-joint problem
in reality is added into the objective. Eq. (14) denotes that there is no
positive arc ow entering a construction site (i.e., no delivery) after its
demand has been satised. On the other hand, there will be a positive
arc ow entering the construction site (a delivery) if its demand has
not yet been satised. Eq. (15) ensures that there is a positive arc ow
entering the construction site once the construction site starts to
operate. Eq. (16) prevents the need to recalculate the cold-joint
penalty cost. If two consecutive cold-joint-preventing bundle constraints are violated, then only one penalty is needed. In this case, m
n
will be equal to one, meaning that one additional penalty needs to be
subtracted to prevent the incurred penalty being double counted.
Eq. (17) prevents the queuing of trucks at every construction site
(i.e., the sum of the arc ows in each queuing-preventing bundle set
for every construction site is less than or equal to 1). Eqs. (18) and
(19) indicate that the time variables are nonnegative. Eq. (20) denotes
that the assignment arc, supporting assignment arc, middle supply
arc, ferry arc and external supply arc ows are binary. Eq. (21)
indicates that the holding arc, initial supply arc and return arc ows
are all nonnegative integers. Eq. (22) ensures that the cold-jointpreventing bundle variables are binary. Eq. (23) ensures that the
variables, pif and pvi are binary.
4. Solution Method
The model is formulated as a mixed integer network ow problem
with side constraints, which is characterized as NP-hard in terms of
optimization [7]. The primary elements related with the problem
complexity mainly include the number of plants, the number of
construction sites and the system planning time. The RMC demand,
the eet size and other parameters are not correlated with the
problem size. The authors adopted the mathematical programming
solver ILOG CPLEX (denoted as CPLEX hereafter), applying a branchand-bound technique coupled with the simplex method to rst solve
the problem. In preliminary tests, CPLEX could not solve a realistically
large-scale problem, with two plants and twenty construction sites,
within one day. In addition, as discussed with experienced staff from
Firm Y manual approaches would require a long time to solve for only
a feasible solution for an even smaller problem, with one plant, two
construction sites and a one-day planning time. This shows that the
problem is so complicated that it is hard to solve. An effective model
with an efcient solution method that would allow carriers to
effectively adjust their RMC production and truck dispatching
schedules following incidents would be very useful. Therefore, the
authors develop an efcient heuristic algorithm which integrates a
problem decomposition and relaxation technique to solve the
problem. The solution procedure is discussed below. By cutting the
time points to divide the planning time and relaxing some of the
constraints, the authors build a series of sub-problems. The rst subproblem, the smallest one, is solved using CLPEX. The second subproblem is created by incorporating an additional period into the rst
m m
Z = cij xij + q yn
mMf nSm
iN jN
+G
m m
q n
mMf nMC m
24
mMf
1.2
ij
i;jAm ASm
+ d mMf
25
1047
Table 5
Internal solution results for the large-scale problem.
Problem scale
# variables
# constraints
Solution method
Computation time
OBJ (NT$)
GAP (%)
Small-scale
2241
4374
CPLEX
12 h
43,552.90
3.99
Problem scale
# variables
# constraints
Solution method
Computation time
OBJ (NT$)
GAP (%)
Large-scale
144,436
268,863
CPLEX
Internal results
Heuristic algorithm
10 s
45,293.20
Heuristic algorithm
331 s
696,382.20
Total services
# of truck trip assignments
# of supporting truck trip assignments
# of ferry truck trips
Average plant overtime (min.)
# external supply truck trips
Cold-joint penalty value
Average truck return time (min)
Average plant operating time (min)
Average construction site operating time (min)
438
163
275
187
181.00
0
0.00
330.75
661.00
195.60
Table 4
Heuristic algorithm results compared with manual results.
Solution method
Manual method
Heuristic algorithm
GAP (%)
OBJ (NT$)
771,267.00
696,382.20
10.75
Fig. 2. Objective values and computation times for different RMC demands.
1048
Fig. 5. Average construction site operating times for different RMC demands.
Fig. 3. Average plant operating times for different RMC demands.
not addressed here to save space. The data set mentioned in Section 5.1
and the proposed solution method was used for the analysis.
5.2.1. RMC Demand
To examine the inuence of the RMC demand at construction sites
on the results, this study changes the RMC demand, ranging from 70%,
80%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 120%, 130% and 140% of the original demand. As
shown in Fig. 2, the RMC demand positively affects the objective. In
particular, when the RMC demand decreases to 70%, the objective
value is reduced from 696,382.2 to 498,304.85, a decrement of 39.8%
(=(696,382.2498,304.85)/498,304.85). When the RMC demand
increases to 140%, the objective value is increased from 696,382.2 to
985,374.3 (=(985,374.3696,382.2)/696,382.2), an increase of 41.5%.
Additionally, the solution time increases with rising demand.
However, even when the RMC demand increases to 140% the model
is able to solve the problem in 764 s, indicating that the proposed
model and solution algorithm could be efcient for resolving large
RMC demands that arise in the real world.
Moreover, when the RMC demand is less than or equal to 130%, the
plants can adequately supply RMC to construction sites. However,
when the RMC demand reaches 140%, it is necessary to input RMC
from an outside contractor, because the placement amount exceeds
the maximum for a day's work at some construction sites. It was also
found, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, that the average plant operating time
and the average plant overtime basically increase as RMC demand
increases. Note that the average plant operating time and the average
plant overtime for a demand of 90% are slightly less than those for a
demand of 80%, mainly due to the convergence error of the solution
algorithm that often occurs for heuristics.
Similarly, as shown in Fig. 5, as the RMC demand increases, the
average construction site operating time increases, meaning that
increasing RMC demand will increase average operating time at
construction sites. Additionally, as shown in Fig. 6, the average truck
return time (i.e., average truck service time including travel time,
pouring time and waiting time) increases as the RMC demand
increases, indicating that increasing RMC demand will lengthen the
average truck service time. Finally, as shown in Fig. 7, the number of
ferry truck trips increases as the RMC demand increases, indicating
trucks should be more exibly relocated to plants/construction sites
so as to systematically and effectively supply RMC from plants to
construction sites to meet the demand.
Table 6
Results for different required repair times.
Scenario
OBJ (NT$)
Difference of OBJ (%)
Average plant operating
time (min)
Average construction
site operating time (min)
Average truck return time (min)
# ferry truck trips
Average plant overtime (min)
1049
Note: c = (b a) / a.
Internal result
681,731.1a 690,078.5b 696,382.2 708,274.0
1.22c
0.91
1.71
637.0
646.5
656.5
688.5
191.2
194.2
196.8
196.2
330.06
158
157
336.45
204
226.5
331.56
210
296.5
332.69
194
388.5
1050
References
Table 7
Results for different incident starting times.
Scenario
OBJ (NT$)
Difference of OBJ (%)
Average plant operating time (min.)
Average construction site operating
time (min.)
Average truck return time (min.)
# ferry truck trips
Average plant overtime (min.)
Internal result
787,625.4a
11.58%c
759.00
219.00
696,382.2b
9.09%
656.50
196.80
633,063.6
308.42
380
279
331.56
210
176.5
358.64
113
161
641.00
163.80
Note: c = (a b)/a.
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