Model of Construction Subcontractors Selection with Time Windows for their Availability

Abstract

Most construction projects involve subcontracting some work packages. A subcontractor is employed on the basis of their bid as well as according to their availability. A viable schedule must account for resource availability constraints. These resources (e.g. crews, subcontractors) engage in many projects, so they become at the disposal for a new project only in certain periods. One of the key tasks of a planner is thus synchronizing the work of resources between concurrent projects. The paper presents a mathematical model of the problem of selecting subcontractors or general contractor’s crews for a time-constrained project that accounts for the availability of contractors, as well as for the cost of subcontracting works. The proposed mixed integer-binary linear programming model enables the user to perform the time/cost trade-off analysis.

Keywords

• construction project
• project scheduling
• subcontractor selection
• discrete time/cost trade-off problem