Generation of stacking plans for prefabricated exterior wall panels shipped vertically with A-frames

To apply prefabricated wall panels to construction projects in a cost-effective manner, it is important to reduce logistics costs for stacking, transportation, and installation processes. However, currently stacking planners often generate stacking plans that incur unnecessary logistics costs. For example, generated plans often result in stacks that require panel reshuffling work or unstable stacks that require additional braces. To enable the planners to generate stacking plans rapidly and systematically considering not only the constraints of reshuffling effort and panel stability but also the objective of using the minimal number of trailers, the authors developed a methodology based on the first fit algorithm. By applying the methodology to two case projects, the authors found that it generates stacking plans with lower reshuffling effort and higher panel stability while using the same number of trailers and in a fraction of the time compared to the conventional practice.