Hierarchical indices for measuring the effectiveness of construction automation implementation

The construction industry in Taiwan is reaching the turning point of industry upgrade and is confronted by such problems as slow productivity growth; increases in labour costs, and awareness of environmental protection requirements. In addition, Taiwan is vigorously preparing to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Agreement on Government Procurement will be signed. Then the market of local public works will be able to be opened. After Taiwan has joined the WTO, local contractors will no longer enjoy special protection, and will compete with foreign contractors on equal grounds. To address these problems, Taiwan is launching the first phase of a construction automation plan (1990-2000), trying to assist local contractors in boosting their global competitiveness through automation. This paper establishes a Taiwanese approach to measuring the overall effectiveness of automation implemented in the construction industry in Taiwan. With this approach, 30%, 71% and 94% increases in commitment aspects and 15%, 20% and 24% increases in benefit aspects have been achieved from 1991 to 1993 (taking 1990 as the base year): significant improvements after the launch of the construction automation plan. The effectiveness of the commitment aspects, however, is far greater than that of the benefit aspects.