Scheduling the production of prefabrication construction supply chains considering variable delivery times

The application of prefabrication and modularization in the construction industry has grown significantly recently. The efficiency of prefabrication supply chains yields substantial advantages for construction projects. A challenge is the variability in delivery times, which negatively impacts the economy and reliability of prefabrication supply chains. Most construction prefabrication suppliers have difficulty adjusting their schedules in response to delivery time changes in a timely manner. Despite this critical challenge, limited research has addressed proactive and robust production scheduling to mitigate these uncertainties. This study investigates a method for proactive and robust production scheduling for construction prefabrication suppliers, particularly those with multiple fabrication shops, responding to changes in delivery times. This paper introduces a multi-objective, two-stage stochastic programming model that facilitates the production planning with multiple fabrication shops, considering variable delivery times. Computational results from an experimental study demonstrate that the proposed optimization model achieves a 14.6% cost reduction compared to the traditional EDD method. Computational results also show that the expected cost of the stochastic programming model achieves a cost reduction of 0.23% compared to a deterministic model. These findings suggest the model’s capability to generate robust and flexible schedules that effectively balance cost minimization with time reduction.