A software prototype for material handling equipment selection for construction sites

Abstract

Nowadays, every industry is experiencing demographic, economic and technological shifts, which have made innovation indispensable for them. The innovation in the construction industry can be evidenced through availability of a diverse range of new material handling equipments (MHEs) in the market having varying advanced features. An MHE is a critical investment made by a construction company that may significantly affect its future performance, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, selectingthe best MHE with the desirable characteristics from a vast array of available alternatives is one of the most onerous tasks as often being faced by the constructionengineers. Inthispaper, a software prototype based on quality function deployment (QFD) techniqueis designed and developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selecting two most suitable bulk-type MHEs, i.e. excavator and wheel loader for specific applications at a construction site. It is integrated with QFD method to provide due importance to the spoken and unspoken needs of the customers/construction engineers. It automates the entire MHE selection process and also performs sensitivity analysis study to investigate the effect of changing criterion weight on the alternative MHEs' ranking pattern. Its potentiality and applicability in solving bulk-type MHE selection problems is demonstrated in detail.