Optimal materials purchasing for ready-mixed concrete in construction projects with environmental effects

Construction project managers require many different kinds of ready-mixed concrete. In this paper, a materials purchasing optimisation model is established for ready-mixed concrete in construction projects. The proposed model can determine the optimal balance between different objectives and takes account of the complex dynamics and uncertainties in the decision-making process. Further, materials recycling and carbon emissions can also be considered as part of the materials supply planning. We also show the feasible constraints that the managers may have a finite preference for some resource limitation. Then, a dynamic programming-based particle swarm optimisation is developed to determine the optimal solutions to the material purchasing problem. The operational performance of the proposed quantitative method is tested using data from a Chinese hydropower construction project in which it is shown that human uncertainty can be a significant factor in the purchasing problem that materials purchasing quantities are significantly influenced by recycling and that including recycling in the purchasing problem can not only save money but also reduce pollution.