Coordinating supplier selection and project scheduling in resource-constrained construction supply chains

In this paper, we study the problem of coordinating supplier selection and project scheduling, motivated by a real-life operational challenge encountered in the construction industry. In particular, we consider a project network consisting of multiple concurrent projects, with the objective of minimising the total tardiness of all projects. These projects are independent in operation but are subject to shared suppliers and the final quality inspection by the same committee, which then leads to the need for project review sequencing. The earliest starting time of each activity in a project depends on the availability of required resources (both renewable and non-renewable), as well as the activity precedence constraints. We formulate this problem as a mixed integer linear programming model, and propose a mathematical programming-based heuristic to solve the model. The heuristic decomposes the model into subproblems, and solves the subproblems through an iterative process. Each subproblem has a much smaller size and can be solved quickly and independently. The information obtained in solving subproblems is used to guide the search process. Numerical examples show the computational effectiveness of the proposed heuristic, and the benefits of coordination.