Development of time–cost trade-off optimization model for construction projects with MOPSO technique

Balancing cost and time present a critical yet conflicting challenge in scheduling of construction projects. In today;s highly competitive construction market, achieving a subtle balance in optimizing objectives (time and cost) is vital for success of projects, requiring project participants to make essential trade-offs. With multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), this study presents a time–cost trade-off (TCT) optimization model to overcome the challenges and constraints associated with existing TCT models. The focus is on multi-mode construction project activities, where each mode represents a different option for a construction activity requiring varying amounts of resources, time, and cost. The paper aims to select the best alternatives for project activities. For demonstrating the effectiveness of the developed MOPSO method in generating a set of Pareto-optimal solutions, it is applied to a real case study project. The working of proposed method in simultaneously optimizing two objectives is evaluated against existing trade-off optimization methods. The project team is provided with trade-off plots and an a priori approach to select one of the generated Pareto-optimal solutions. Additionally, this research will benefit the project;s stakeholders by maximizing profits, and the findings of this study can assist organizations and project teams in improving their scheduling choices. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.