Optimizing the Construction Job Site Vehicle Scheduling Problem

Concrete is one of the most important, versatile, and widely used building materials worldwide. Thus, an optimized delivery schedule of ready-mixed concrete (RMC) is a critical issue that can reduce CO2 emission from RMC delivery vehicles. RMC is the most popular form of concrete material supplied to construction projects. When delivering RMC to construction sites, optimizing the transportation can be complex since there are many alternatives in terms of route choice. The objective of this research was to optimize the travel operation of RMC delivery vehicles to ensure that they travel via the most economical routes. The researchers developed a dynamic simulation model to solve this vehicle scheduling problem (VSP), applied an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm as a mathematical model, and analyzed the results achieved by the basic and improved ACO methods; the goals were to reduce travel distance and improve the simulation’s performance. Ultimately, the researchers found that the improved ACO method provided a more optimized transportation solution with a higher level of efficiency