Kenji Kimoto

Life cycle cost analysis on educational facilities in Japan

The life cycle cost (LCC) is considerably important in facility management. However, there are some problems related to the assessment of LCC. This research aims to establish an efficient facility management system for educational institutions. First, the analysis of the actual LCC of university facilities clarifies the difference between the theoretical LCC and the actual LCC. Second, from the standpoint of both engineering and management, this research examines the factors which cause the difference. The comparison between budget and closing accounts shows the actual adjusting function in facility management. In particular, the timing and cost of repairing and renovation is subject to the facility management policy. Finally, this paper shows the recommendation for the realistic estimation method of LCC based on different facility management policies and examples of LCC planning based on two types of facility management policies. This paper discusses how to plan and manage the LCC.

RESEARCH ON ORGANIZATION OF CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM OF PREFABRICATED WOODEN HOUSES

The prefabricated wooden houses have grown up rapidly along with high-speed economic growth. However, there is actually a current state that the construction on the site has not standardized and rationalized while the production in the factory has been standardized. In this research, it aims to well organize construction of the prefabricated wooden houses. So the construction on the site has been investigated. Through the site investigation, work analysis was done for four prefabricated wooden houses with the wood panel bonding industrial method. In this paper, whether the difference of productivity exists or not and the reason why the difference of productivity exists is made clear. The productivities of each kind of construction work are analyzed quantitatively. It also has been understood that carpenter occupied the majority work of the site on the man-hour. The man-hour of each construction work was different. Many reasons made the difference, such as the delivery of panel, the situation of the site, work efficiency, work method, etc. At last, some proposals to decrease the man-hour and enhance the productivity are shown.

Methodology of Mobile Computing in Construction Management

This paper reports the development of mobile computing in construction management. The paper focuses on the methodology of the development based on EUC. First, the paper indicates the effectiveness of EUC in construction projects. The authors introduce design pattern of user interface and the use of UML for EUC. Secondly, the paper describes the process of development of PDA Inspection Support System for Finish Work with UML. User interface is an interface between users and computer-aided system, and can be one between users and system developers. In the developed system, user interfaces are classified to some design patterns with the use of control function such as list, option button and scroll bar. End users can customize and combine them freely. As a result, they can make their own flowcharts. System developers can build computer-aided systems with them easily and quickly. The paper also shows the effectiveness of the system. Finally, the paper summarizes this methodology and concludes the effectiveness.

Simulation of Construction Planning or High-Rise RC Buildings a Process Plan Considering Overtimework

The study is aimed at better planning the cycle process that considers production characteristics in high-rise RC building construction and at establishing a better method by a simulation system using computer-aided tools. A special emphasis of this study is placed on examining the effect for shortening the cycle term of site works and the influence from overtime work on the productivity where situation of such real projects is taken into consideration. Furthermore, we examine choices of optimal working patterns even considering some additional labor cost generated by overtime work.