Fuzzy decision-making for dynamic resource allocation

For construction activities, timely resource allocation is crucial to avoid unnecessary waiting time of resources and delay of activities, especially under the condition of limited supply of resources. Timely resource allocation, i.e. determination of an activity that has the highest priority to obtain resources at that instant, is a dynamic decision-making process dependent on real-time information during a construction process. With the consideration of operational and stochastic characteristics of construction operations and the fuzziness of multiple-decision objectives for an appropriate allocation policy (due to imprecision or subjectivity in decision criteria), a fuzzy dynamic resource allocation (FDRA) based on the fuzzy decision-making approach is developed. In order to model the timely resource allocation decisions, the FDRA is built into a discrete-event simulation system with an activity scanning strategy. The benefit of FDRA on construction productivity is analysed through simulation experimentation by which comparisons among different allocation policies are made.