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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to predict the concrete pouring production rate by considering both construction and supply parameters, and by using a more stable learning method. Design/methodology/approach – Unlike similar approaches, this paper considers not only construction site parameters, but also supply chain parameters. Machine learner fusion-regression (MLF-R) is used to predict the production rate of concrete pouring tasks. Findings – MLF-R is used on a field database including 2,600 deliveries to 507 different locations. The proposed data set and the results are compared with ANN-Gaussian, ANN-Sigmoid and Adaboost.R2 (ANN-Gaussian). The results show better performance of MLF-R obtaining the least root mean square error (RMSE) compared with other methods. Moreover, the RMSEs derived from the predictions by MLF-R in some trials had the least standard deviation, indicating the stability of this approach among similar used approaches. Practical implications – The size of the database used in this study is much larger than the size of databases used in previous studies. It helps authors draw their conclusions more confidently and introduce more generalised models that can be used in the ready-mixed concrete industry. Originality/value – Introducing a more stable learning method for predicting the concrete pouring production rate helps not only construction parameters, but also traffic and supply chain parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the implementation of machine learning (ML) techniques in order to automatically measure the feasibility of performing ready mixed concrete (RMC) dispatching jobs. Design/methodology/approach – Six ML techniques were selected and tested on data that was extracted from a developed simulation model and answered by a human expert. Findings – The results show that the performance of most of selected algorithms were the same and achieved an accuracy of around 80 per cent in terms of accuracy for the examined cases. Practical implications – This approach can be applied in practice to match experts’ decisions. Originality/value – In this paper the feasibility of handling complex concrete delivery problems by ML techniques is studied. Currently, most of the concrete mixing process is done by machines. However, RMC dispatching still relies on human resources to complete many tasks. In this paper the authors are addressing to reconstruct experts’ decisions as only practical solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]