Developing a Model to Estimate the Productivity of Ready Mixed Concrete Batch Plant

Abstract

Productivity estimating of ready mixed concrete batch plant is an essential tool for the successful completion of the construction process. It is defined as the output of the system per unit of time. Usually, the actual productivity values of construction equipment in the site are not consistent with the nominal ones. Therefore, it is necessary to make a comprehensive evaluation of the nominal productivity of equipment concerning the effected factors and then re-evaluate them according to the actual values.

In this paper, the forecasting system was employed is an Artificial Intelligence technique (AI). It is represented by Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to establish the predicted model to estimate wet ready mixed concrete (WRMC) plant production and dry ready mixed concrete (DRMC) plant production, in addition to determining the factors affecting productivity.

The results showed that the artificial intelligence neural network is an effective technique to estimate the productivity of the dry and wet ready mixed concrete batch plant. The ANN model showed satisfying results of validation for both training and external datasets with the range of training dataset and poor results with the data that exceeds the range of training. At the same time, the skills of the operators, frequent failure of concrete, and lack of construction materials were the most important factor that affected productivity.