Simulating the implementation of technological innovations in construction

Introducing new technologies or innovative processes can enhance construction efficiency and enable organisations to achieve objectives of lowering costs, continuous improvement and competitive advantage. New ideas have to show significant benefits before they are accepted. Despite the differences between the construction and manufacturing industries, opportunities are still available to learn from manufacturing approaches to innovation. A fundamental challenge facing construction innovation is the way that construction organisations plan and control the implementation of innovation where many projects do not fulfil their time and cost objectives. Management should not only improve techniques for planning and scheduling but also allow managers to assess and simulate the anticipated performance resulting from innovation. According to this assessment, managers would be more able and perhaps more ready to accept new processes/products or iterate the implementation process until a satisfactory level of performance has been achieved. Intangible benefits offered by advanced construction technologies are hard to quantify using traditional economic analysis techniques. This could result in the rejection of a potentially profitable idea. Benefits to be gained from improvements in operational efficiency are measured by cost and time-savings and increasing productivity. These benefits, in addition to intangible benefits, need to be measured and quantified. Simulating the implementation process of innovation has not been addressed, although many models have been developed to describe the innovation process in construction which considered implementation as a sequential process incorporating iterations. Existing models attempt to describe the content of each innovation implementation stage, but do not specify the outcomes of the activities within each stage or how managers could simulate these activities. On the other hand, several models have been developed to help managers assess the value of new technologies. These models have not considered innovation as a dynamic process and have not dealt with the implementation phase from a planning perspective. The characteristics of construction innovations emphasise that traditional planning techniques need to be developed to more effectively support the implementation process of innovative projects. The literature review undertaken as part of this research highlighted the limitations of traditional planning tools when used on innovative projects. The proposed tool should simulate the nature of experimentation, iteration and refinement activities considering the ’influence information’ affecting these projects and the ’performance indicators’ to assess the implementation process of innovation. This technique deals with the various uncertain outcomes inherent in innovative projects, define all situations of a particular innovation, plan the implementation activities and improve the ability to manipulate uncertain events. This research aims to simulate the implementation of innovation. The simulation tool can fill the gap of fostering innovation in construction where the most important characteristics of construction innovation, high level of uncertainty and iterative nature of its activities, can be simulated and monitored effectively. The objectives of the research are to: study the innovation process in construction and identify its planning and monitoring stages; examine the existing decision support systems used to assess innovations; and simulate the implementation stage of innovation considering the influence information and the methods of assessment. To achieve these objectives the following steps are offered: propose a systematic approach for the innovation implementation phase; develop a technique for simulating the influence information of this phase; develop a technique to simulate the implementation assessment; develop a technique to identify loops of iterative tasks of innovation; integrate the above techniques in a user-friendly computer package for planning purposes; and validate the proposed techniques and package. After establishing the research aim and objectives, semi-structured interviews were held with industry professionals involved in innovative construction projects. Data required for the simulation tool were collected from two projects and a third project was used for the purpose of validation. The interview structure was developed to identify: the main information that influences the implementation of innovation; the implementation stages; performance indicators used to assess implementation; and the planning tools used to control the process. This research introduces an IT simulation tool (Implementing inNOVations In Construction Engineering Technologies - INOVICET) that simulates the implementation of innovation in construction. The tool describes the information affecting innovative projects. The tool takes into account the results of the implementation phase of innovation and uses measurement techniques suitable for dealing with uncertain environments. The proposed simulation tool comprises four techniques: Monte Carlo technique to simulate the influence information on the innovation implementation phase; a planning tool to simulate the implementation phase of innovation; a Fuzzy Logic approach to simulate the innovation performance; and the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) to simulate the iteration inherent in the implementation phase. Decision-maker preferences are used to run and analyse the output of the simulation tool. The programme produced by the simulation tool provides a systematic methodology for implementing an innovative project. This was endorsed by the case study project team. The application highlighted that INOVICET represented the innovative project activities clearly and could be used as a check-list for the project phases to monitor the planned activities. The main conclusion of the study was that INOVICET may be applied to any project with minor adjustments to fit the specific nature of each project.