Application of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for Ranking and Selection of Innovation in Infrastructure Project Management

In the absence of strong market forces driving innovation in infrastructure construction environments, the role of the project owner becomes critical in creating the motivation to innovate. Successful infrastructure projects addressed innovation systematically, by employing incentivizing mechanisms. Whilst this is recognized, this study seeks to answer the question: In what order can innovations be ranked when infrastructure projects are set for developing innovation incentive system? Addressing this, a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)-based questionnaire was used to run a pairwise comparison matrix for the classified types of innovation. These were ranked, and unique weights were developed for each of the classified innovations. This paper proposes a procedure for determination of the weights of alternative innovations in the FAHP, which is based on expected values of the fuzzy numbers and their products. The results show that classified innovations have various levels of importance in infrastructure projects. A case study of SCIRT’s infrastructure rebuild in Christchurch, New Zealand, which reported more than 500 innovations, has been undertaken and analyzed. This enables current research to gain a better insight and understanding of the behaviors of innovation in different types. As a main contribution, the study demonstrates how the classification system could be used by project owners, to put in place mechanisms to influence the development and adoption of various types of construction innovation. In addition, the findings inform industry professionals of how to enable classified innovations in infrastructure projects to maximize productivity performance.