energizing innovation in integrated project delivery final report - SPUR

Forum (CIF) is an international, non-profit organization formed in 1987 to recognize innovations
in the construction industry that improve the quality, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of
construction. CIF regularly recognizes innovations in the construction industry with its NOVA
Award to honor innovations that have proven to improve construction quality and cost. The
website lists those technologies that were nominated for the award and which received the
award, along with descriptions of the innovations and contact information. The innovations list
on the website for innovations listed within the past 5 years was downloaded along with
corresponding contact information.
The second source of innovations was the Emerging Construction Technologies (ECT) website
sponsored by Purdue University and the Construction Industry Institute (http://www.newtechnologies.org/ECT/Index.html).
This website describes promising construction industry
technologies related to a variety of materials, processes, and systems. The technologies listed on
this website were also downloaded along with the corresponding contact information.
A total of 233 innovative products were identified from the two websites, for which e-mail
addresses of 189 of the products were identified. A questionnaire similar to that used for the
benchmarking survey was developed for distribution to the product manufacturers. The
questionnaire along with the cover letter is provided in Appendix 9.2. The questionnaire was emailed
to the 189 firms. A list of the 233 products collected from both websites is shown in
Appendix 9.3.
3.4 Project Case Studies
The third research effort consisted of conducting case study reviews of construction projects to
understand what factors affect innovation on a project and how innovation can be measured. In
order to understand the factors that distinguish innovative projects, a study sample was created
which consisted of two types of projects: award-winning and “regular” projects. It was
conjectured that award-winning projects were different than other projects because they were in
some way innovative. The recognition given to the award-winning projects was assumed to be
reflective of new and unique features on the projects which made them stand out from other
projects. While other factors may have impacted their receipt of awards, such as project size,
type, or architectural design, the peer review process conducted to receive the awards was
assumed to account for these factors. “Regular” projects were those which have not received any
recognition for their design and construction. The regular projects were included in the study
sample to act as a comparison group and isolate those factors that impact innovation. It was
hypothesized that the award-winning projects would contain features or exhibit characteristics
that made them innovative, and that these features and characteristics would not be present, at all
or to as great an extent, in the regular projects. The ability to distinguish innovative projects
from other projects is a key aspect in the research study.
The list of award-winning projects was created from a variety of sources. Various regional and
national owner, designer, and constructor organizations and publications (i.e., DBIA, AGC,
ASCE, ENR, and other construction industry publications) regularly give out awards for projects
that stand out in their design and construction. The websites of these sources were searched for
projects that have received awards in the past 5 years, from which a list of 20 award-winning
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