Framework to establish the relationship between factors influencing construction productivity using fuzzy interpretive structural modeling

Construction project productivity is affected by numerous factors that range from the micro level (i.e., activity, crew, and project levels) to the macro level (i.e., organizational, provincial, national, and global levels) and that may have either a direct or an indirect effect. Predictive models commonly map a set of inputs (i.e., influencing factors) to construction productivity but ignore the interrelationships between those different factors. The factors that influence construction productivity are, however, rarely independent from each other, and changes in certain factors may cause changes in other factors. It is therefore necessary to consider the interactions between factors in order to develop more comprehensive predictive models. This is a challenging problem due to the subjective uncertainties associated with the interactions between factors influencing construction productivity. In order to address these uncertainties, this paper combines fuzzy logic with the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique to create a fuzzy ISM approach for identifying the interrelationships between the factors that influence construction productivity. The proposed approach will assist in specifying the direction and degree of influence of the relationships between these factors, and it is also capable of categorizing factors based on their level of influence and dependency on other factors.