Simulation of vehicle movements for planning construction logistics centres

Materials supply is one of important elements in construction operation and a major factor affecting the quality of construction projects. With materials accounting for 60% of the on-site cost of a typical construction project, effective management of this vital resource is essential. Logistics processes, being crucial for successful completion of the project, are often entrusted to external professionals specialized in logistic services, such as logistics centres. However, this tendency is yet to be developed in construction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of managing logistics costs by planning construction logistics centres. The planned centres are then evaluated using vehicle movement simulations. The enclosed results from the simulations indicate that using a logistics centre will have reduced waste for the construction project considered. A literature review and case study analysis are employed, with simulation results using Flexsim. The paper emphasizes that creating a logistics centre for a project at its early stages of planning and then designing an integrated logistics service for that project may help find ways of making the overall construction project more effective by improving management of materials.