Production scheduling of off-site prefabricated construction components considering sequence dependent due dates

The growing environmental concerns, excessive utilization of natural resources, and high energy consumption have put a severe pressure on the construction industry to adopt new methods in response to these challenges. As a remedy, prefabricated construction methods are broadly utilized to enhance the productivity of the construction activities. However, challenges associated with on-time production of precast components have not adequately been addressed. Thus, this study proposes a new insight to the theory of scheduling dealing with sequence-dependent due dates, in which total weighted earliness and tardiness are minimized. To tackle uncertainties and complexities associated with the stochastic nature of production problems, three integrated simulation-optimization algorithms, which employ simulation methods inside a metaheuristic framework, are proposed. Three metaheuristic algorithms, including genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE), and imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), are employed to minimize objective function. A series of computational tests are conducted to investigate the performance of these approaches. Results indicate that integrated DE-simulation approach can provide better results in comparison with other approaches.