Multi-objective process optimization for construction

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Chang ◽  
Leonhard Bernold

Much of the existing work in construction analysis focuses on determining the construction cost based on an allowable project duration. In this type of construction analysis, two important questions are not considered. First, is the construction cost minimized for the allowable process duration? Second, would a small change in the process duration result in a significant change in the cost of the project? An optimization method is proposed to answer these questions. The approach consists of an integration of computer simulation with goal programming. The optimization method proposed allows one to assign priorities to the various design objectives such as cost and duration, which avoids the need to use subjective weights. Furthermore, since the approach simulates the construction process by computer, it can be applied to any repetitive construction process. In addition to the capability of the model to provide a single optimal solution to a construction optimization problem, it can be used to determine the trade-off between conflicting objectives. Examples are presented to illustrate the formulation process and the capabilities as a decision-making tool for construction. It is shown that the trade-off curves produced by the proposed model can provide useful information on the cost implications of various design variables, as well as on the trade-offs that exist among them. Key words: construction optimization, multi-objective optimization, goal programming, trade-off analysis, simulation.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Diehlmann ◽  
Patrick Siegfried Hiemsch ◽  
Marcus Wiens ◽  
Markus Lüttenberg ◽  
Frank Schultmann

Purpose In this contribution, the purpose of this study is to extend the established social cost concept of humanitarian logistics into a preference-based bi-objective approach. The novel concept offers an efficient, robust and transparent way to consider the decision-maker’s preference. In principle, the proposed method applies to any multi-objective decision and is especially suitable for decisions with conflicting objectives and asymmetric impact. Design/methodology/approach The authors bypass the shortcomings of the traditional approach by introducing a normalized weighted sum approach. Within this approach, logistics and deprivation costs are normalized with the help of Nadir and Utopia points. The weighting factor represents the preference of a decision-maker toward emphasizing the reduction of one cost component. The authors apply the approach to a case study for hypothetical water contamination in the city of Berlin, in which authorities select distribution center (DiC) locations to supply water to beneficiaries. Findings The results of the case study highlight that the decisions generated by the approach are more consistent with the decision-makers preferences while enabling higher efficiency gains. Furthermore, it is possible to identify robust solutions, i.e. DiCs opened in each scenario. These locations can be the focal point of interest during disaster preparedness. Moreover, the introduced approach increases the transparency of the decision by highlighting the cost-deprivation trade-off, together with the Pareto-front. Practical implications For practical users, such as disaster control and civil protection authorities, this approach provides a transparent focus on the trade-off of their decision objectives. The case study highlights that it proves to be a powerful concept for multi-objective decisions in the domain of humanitarian logistics and for collaborative decision-making. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, the present study is the first to include preferences in the cost-deprivation trade-off. Moreover, it highlights the promising option to use a weighted-sum approach to understand the decisions affected by this trade-off better and thereby, increase the transparency and quality of decision-making in disasters.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Alejandra Ríos ◽  
Eusebio E. Hernández ◽  
S. Ivvan Valdez

This paper introduces a two-stage method based on bio-inspired algorithms for the design optimization of a class of general Stewart platforms. The first stage performs a mono-objective optimization in order to reach, with sufficient dexterity, a regular target workspace while minimizing the elements’ lengths. For this optimization problem, we compare three bio-inspired algorithms: the Genetic Algorithm (GA), the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and the Boltzman Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm (BUMDA). The second stage looks for the most suitable gains of a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control via the minimization of two conflicting objectives: one based on energy consumption and the tracking error of a target trajectory. To this effect, we compare two multi-objective algorithms: the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition (MOEA/D) and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-III (NSGA-III). The main contributions lie in the optimization model, the proposal of a two-stage optimization method, and the findings of the performance of different bio-inspired algorithms for each stage. Furthermore, we show optimized designs delivered by the proposed method and provide directions for the best-performing algorithms through performance metrics and statistical hypothesis tests.


2009 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 459-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAM T. BUI ◽  
MICHAEL BARLOW ◽  
HUSSEIN A. ABBASS

In this paper, we propose a risk-based framework for military capability planning. Within this framework, metaheuristic techniques such as Evolutionary Algorithms are used to deal with multi-objectivity of a class of NP-hard resource investment problems, called The Mission Capability Planning Problem, under the presence of risk factors. This problem inherently has at least two conflicting objectives: minimizing the cost of investment in the resources as well as the makespan of the plans. The framework allows the addition of a risk-based objective to the problem in order to support risk assessment during the planning process. In other words, with this framework, a mechanism of progressive risk assessment is introduced to capability planning. We analyze the performance of the proposed framework under both scenarios: with and without risk. In the case of no risk, the purpose is to study several optimization-related aspects of the framework such as convergence, trade-off analysis, and its sensitivity to the algorithm parameters; while the second case is to demonstrate the ability of the framework in supporting risk assessment and also robustness analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Jian Yin ◽  
Huiyun Zhou ◽  
Jing Yang

<p>With the development of economic globalization, the scale of international trade continues to expand. Ports are very important for cross regional transactions. However, the construction cost is also very high in the actual construction process because port engineering is a relatively large project. Cost management can effectively control the cost and improve the economic benefits of port engineering project construction. The traditional cost management model has been unable to meet the needs because the construction cost control is a dynamic process and runs through the whole process of the project. BIM information technology is a technology with engineering digital model as the core. Based on BIM, this article studies the refined cost management of port engineering project, and aims to provide some help for relevant practitioners.</p>


Author(s):  
Saad M. Alzahrani ◽  
Naruemon Wattanapongsakorn

Nowadays, most real-world optimization problems consist of many and often conflicting objectives to be optimized simultaneously. Although, many current Multi-Objective optimization algorithms can efficiently solve problems with 3 or less objectives, their performance deteriorates proportionally with the increasing of the objectives number. Furthermore, in many situations the decision maker (DM) is not interested in all trade-off solutions obtained but rather interested in a single optimum solution or a small set of those trade-offs. Therefore, determining an optimum solution or a small set of trade-off solutions is a difficult task. However, an interesting method for finding such solutions is identifying solutions in the Knee region. Solutions in the Knee region can be considered the best obtained solution in the obtained trade-off set especially if there is no preference or equally important objectives. In this paper, a pruning strategy was used to find solutions in the Knee region of Pareto optimal fronts for some benchmark problems obtained by NSGA-II, MOEA/D-DE and a promising new Multi-Objective optimization algorithm NSGA-III. Lastly, those knee solutions found were compared and evaluated using a generational distance performance metric, computation time and a statistical one-way ANOVA test.


Author(s):  
Lu Chen ◽  
◽  
Bin Xin ◽  
Jie Chen ◽  
◽  
...  

Multi-objective optimization problems involve two or more conflicting objectives, and they have a set of Pareto optimal solutions instead of a single optimal solution. In order to support the decision maker (DM) to find his/her most preferred solution, we propose an interactive multi-objective optimization method based on the DM’s preferences in the form of indifference tradeoffs. The method combines evolutionary algorithms with the gradient-based interactive step tradeoff (GRIST) method. An evolutionary algorithm is used to generate an approximate Pareto optimal solution at each iteration. The DM is asked to provide indifference tradeoffs whose projection onto the tangent hyperplane of the Pareto front provides a tradeoff direction. An approach for approximating the normal vector of the tangent hyperplane is proposed which is used to calculate the projection. A water quality management problem is used to demonstrate the interaction process of the interactive method. In addition, three benchmark problems are used to test the accuracy of the normal vector approximation approach and compare the proposed method with GRIST.


In fuzzy classification system, accuracy has been gained at the cost of interpretability and vice versa. This situation is known as Interpretability-Accuracy Trade-off. To handle this trade-off between accuracy and interpretability the evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are often used to optimize the performance of the fuzzy classification system. From the last two decades, several multi-objective evolutionary systems have been designed and successfully implemented in several fields for finding multiple solutions at a single run. In Financial Decision making concerning Credit Allocation, Classification is a significant component to obtain credit scores and predict bankruptcy. A fuzzy classification system for the financial credit decision has been designed and find out the Accuracy and Interpretability parameters for applying various MOEAs to get the pareto optimal solution resulting in to improvement in the performance of the proposed system. The proposed model implemented on standard benchmark financial credit allocation datasets i.e., German Credit Approval system available from the UCI repository of machine learning databases (http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml) and using the open source tool MOEA framework (http://www.moeaframework.org). The experimental analysis highlights that the NSGA-III works efficiently for financial credit approval system and improves the performance by making a balanced trade-off between accuracy and interpretability.


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