Development of a Decision Support System for Site Layout and Works Scheduling for Medium-sized Housing Projects by Adopting an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

Construction operation is a successive process, in which the problems of site layout planning and work scheduling should be regarded as one system. However, the two problems are commonly solved independently, and there is little research on the relationship between them.This research project will focus on the site layout problem in conjunction with the optimization of work scheduling for medium-sized housing projects in Hong Kong using the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, which is widely used in other operations fields. The objectives of the study include optimizing site layout by the characterization of the primary and secondary facilities at different stages, minimizing the make-span of the whole project, and developing a Decision Support System (DSS), which will attempt to mitigate the current deficiencies. The expected outcome of the system will aid planners to analyze the two problems simultaneously and will help the industry deliver projects in a more efficient manner.