• PROJECT CODE: N2-0434
• PROJECT TITLE: SUSTAINABLE AND OPTIMISED MODULAR CONSTRUCION VALUE CHAIN
• PROJECT LEADER: Jakub Sandak, PhD
• PERIOD: 1. 3. 2026 – 28. 2. 2030
• FINANCING: Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS)
• PROJECT COORDINATOR: UP IAM (Slovenia)
• PARTNERS: UP IAM (Slovenia); Poznań University of Economics and Business (Poland)

The construction sector faces challenges related to resource depletion, waste management, and carbon emissions, particularly in the production and distribution of building materials. Traditional supply chain processes are often linear and inefficient, resulting in higher costs and increased environmental impact. These issues could be addressed by exploring alternative, sustainable materials and creating models for an optimised, circular value chain that emphasises material reuse and efficient operations in building construction. In recent years, off-site construction methods, such as modular construction, have been adopted as an alternative to traditional on-site methods; modules are built at a manufacturing facility, and then transported to the final site for assembly. This approach not only saves time and money, but also offers several benefits in terms of material use, energy consumption and environmental impact.

Three key areas were identified in the problem domain of modular construction: 1) logistics networks design for construction and demolition, 2) multi-objective optimisation of construction materials, elements, and layout, 3) sustainable life cycle and resource recovery. The first area focuses on solving routing, material flow, and network design problems within the construction and demolition value chain. The second area addresses the optimisation of building materials and layout to achieve buildings with desired quality and performance standards. The third area deals with the(long-term) service life of buildings and material recovery at the end of a building’s life. This involves the product-as-a-service concept, where manufacturers move from selling products to providing services, retaining ongoing responsibility for the end-of-life process. While these areas can be studied independently, their complex interdependencies can form a dynamic and holistic framework for the construction value chain that balances economic goals with sustainability and resilience.

The goal of this project is to tackle optimization problems in the modular construction value chain and develop optimization methods that can reduce the logistics costs and environmental impact of the system. These methods will be designed in a holistic way, with a strong focus on the circularity of the entire system.

Empirical research will be conducted as the foundation of the project with the use of primary and secondary sources. Based on the collected data, materials, elements, service life of buildings, material recovery, and operations in the construction of modular buildings will be identified.

Mathematical models will be formulated for the optimization problems that are identified through careful analysis of the collected data.

Efficient algorithms will also be provided for solving problem instances where an exact solution is not obtainable in acceptable time. We intend to implement novel hybrid techniques that integrate exact and heuristic approaches, such as the large neighborhood search (LNS) to find sufficiently accurate solutions in reasonable time. Additionally, we will investigate various multi-objective methods based on multi-objective local search and evolutionary approaches to generate pareto optimal solutions.

To analyse the applicability of our methods in the field of modular construction, we need to provide an extensive set of diverse instances. Since we expect that the availability of real-world input will be limited, we will need to develop a dataset of artificial inputs. We plan to define key features that effectively characterise these real-world instances and use them to generate additional examples through instance space analysis. Finally, using the generated dataset and applying the solution methods, different scenarios for business models will be simulated, with a special focus on the product-as-a-service approach.