Simulation-Based Optimisation Using Simulated Annealing for Crew Allocation in the Precast Industry

The increasing complexity of solving crew allocation problems in a number of labour-intensive industries has led them to require more sophisticated and innovative allocation systems to satisfy such requirements. The aim of this study is to develop an innovative crew allocation system that can efficiently allocate possible crews of workers to precast concrete labour-intensive repetitive processes in order reduce the allocation cost and achieve a better flow of work. As a part of the methodology used in developing Crew Allocation System ‘SIMSA_Crew’, process simulation is used to model and imitate all production processes involved and Simulated Annealing is then developed to be embedded within the simulation model for a rapid and intelligent search. A Dynamic Mutation operator is developed to add more randomness to the searching mechanism for solutions through solution space. The results showed that adopting different combinations of crews of workers had a substantial impact on reducing and minimising production cost.