A methodology to align the logistical requirements of prefabricated wall panels

Stacking plans of prefabricated wall panels provide the logistics information that connects the stacking, transportation, and installation processes, and thus need to be generated with careful consideration of logistical requirements. Any conflicts on these plans due to the different foci of each process can cause costly logistical problems, such as panels requiring reshuffling work on site or unstable stacks that require additional bracing work. Therefore, these plans are important deliverables from the planning process that are directly associated with the cost-effectiveness of the wall panels. This dissertation formalizes two metrics to assess stacking plans: reshuffling effort to measure the efficiency of installation and panel/stack stability to measure the stability of panel stacks during transportation enabled by a stacking plan. Applying these metrics to two projects showed that current stack planning methods do not generate stable stacks that can be installed efficiently. In fact, for stacking planners, carefully considering the logistical requirements when generating stacking plans is often laborious and on an ad hoc basis because they do not have a formal methodology to do so. This dissertation presents a methodology that enables stacking planners to generate stacking plans for prefabricated wall panels rapidly and systematically considering the requirements of reshuffling effort, panel stability, and the number of required trailers. Panel Stacking Plan Generator (PSPG), a software prototype, was developed to automate the steps of the methodology. Compared to conventional manual practice, the three case studies with the prototype showed that the methodology allows stacking planners to generate stacking plans with no reshuffling effort and higher panel stability while not increasing the number of required trailers, which led to logistics cost savings. Results were obtained approximately 6 times faster than the conventional manual method including data preparation and computation time. Future research should focus on considering additional factors that affect the logistics of the wall panels (e.g., on-site laydown space availability), including installation plans to optimize the logistics and installation processes holistically, and studying additional objectives and criteria (e.g., sustainability) to understand the advantages and challenges of the wall panels more fully.