Development and Application of a Systematic Innovation Procedure for Construction Technology

Technology innovation has been recognized as a main driver for the advancement of construction industry. Due to the lack of systematic innovation procedure, the advancement of construction technologies has been slow compared with the other industries, e.g., ICT and Biotech Engineering. This paper proposed a Systematic Technology Innovation Process (STIP) for innovation of construction technologies. The STIP method integrates several techniques adopted for product research and development in other fast innovating industries including patent mapping, root cause analysis, TRIZ, function modeling, simplify design, etc. Details of the proposed STIP method are revisited. The pit-hole repairing technology for road maintenance work is selected for case study. Step-by-step application of the STIP method to the selected construction technology is demonstrated. Deliverables obtained from each step of the STIP is reviewed and evaluated via a technology stage gate (TSG) process, which is commonly adopted in high-tech manufacturing industry. Finally, an innovative design of new pit-hole repairing technology is developed. Evaluation of the innovative technology is also conducted to ensure its feasibility.