Young-Ki Huh

Sustainable green construction management: schedule performance and improvement

AbstractOver the last few years, the green building movement in Singapore has leaped bountifully. While environmental sustainability for greener construction has been emphasized, rare research has been conducted to analyze performance of green construction projects. As a result, this study aims to address schedule performance of green building construction projects and to provide some recommendations that may improve the targeted performance. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was developed and the responses from 30 companies were analysed, and interviews with 6 project managers were conducted to further supplement and substantiate the survey results. The analysis reported that green building projects required an average of 8% more time than traditional building projects of similar size and characteristics. In addition, on average, these projects were delayed by 4.8% when compared with their as-planned schedules. Lastly, a list of recommendations was also introduced, aiming to ameliorate the sched...

Feasibility Analysis Model for Developer-Proposed Housing Projects in the Republic of Korea

Abstract The current construction industry recession in the republic of Korea has caused many construction companies to promote their own housing development projects. However, developers are still proposing many housing projects. While many studies on feasibility analysis for housing projects have been released, the focus was on economic feasibility, and factors related to developers have not been identified clearly enough to be used in practice. A feasibility analysis model is developed for apartment development projects in Korea to help main contractors make sound decisions on projects proposed by developers. To establish the model, 31 driving factors behind projects’ success, in seven categories, were identified through several meetings with experts and surveys. Factors such as ‘developer’, ‘method of raising funds’ and ‘method of contract’, which were considered less important in previous studies, were included in the model. Criteria for each factor were also developed to assess the factors quantitat...

Development of Feasibility Analysis Model for Developer-requested Housing Projects

With construction industry recession, many construction companies are increasingly conducting the development projects by themselves. However, housing projects requested by developers still stand large portion. Although many studies on feasibility analysis were released, they mainly focused on economic feasibility and lacked research on factors and criterions of overall project. Also, because previous studies overly break downed factors related to project, they rarely used in practice. Therefore, this study developed the feasibility analysis model of housing development projects to help main contractors to easily and effectively decide if it is feasible enough to promote the projects requested by developers, and verified the reliability of the model. In this study, thirty one driving factors were identified under seven different categories and the criterion of each factor was also developed. The survey on important index of each factor found `salability`, `economic feasibility`, `site location` and `method of raising fund` significant. 12 projects were tested by the model and its results showed resonable reliability.

Productivity Measurement and Analysis on Factors in Steel Erection

In today`s construction industry, buildings have been more complicated and higher, the demands of steel works have been increasingly concerned, which makes the schedule planning and management more significant. However, in actual construction sites, management is more based on a manager`s construction experience than productivity data accumulated in previous projects. Moreover, most of the existing studies also featured a theoretical approach rather than an analysis of data straightforwardly collected in sites. In this study, a steel-erection site was visited to collect productivity data. The study found that there were significant disparities between aboveground work productivity and underground work; one tower crane operated work and two tower crane operated; and work productivity conducted in clear weather condition, cloud and rainy. However, the productivities of `first node on ground` and `second node on ground` were estimated similar. The productivity data collected and factors affecting the productivity will help managers to plan and control their similar steel-erection works. This study will also be beneficial for those performing related studies.

A Study on Estimating Construction Equipment Annual Standard Operating Hours

As use of construction equipment has been increasing continuingly, the proportion of equipment expense to the total construction cost has become higher. However, there is a difference between the equipment expenses section in `Poom-Sam` and practical data, because `Poom-sam` does not consider non-working days due to weather conditions, legal holidays and management conditions. Therefore, `Poom-Sam` does not present a reasonable standard for estimating construction equipment expenses. In this study, to estimate realistic construction equipment operating hours, firstly, construction equipment was classified according to work, and weather conditions, in which each work could not be executed, were established. Then, weather data on Seoul and Busan() and legal holidays were analyzed to suggest annual standard operating hours. The annual standard operating hours of earthmoving & excavating, compaction, and drilling equipment was estimated to be 1,430 hours, and lifting equipment, concrete paving equipment, asphalt paving equipment, concrete equipment, and crushing & conveying equipment were estimated to be 2,124 hours, 1,156hours, 1,188hours, 1,688hours, and 2,152hours respectively.

An Ordinary Management System for Updating Construction Equipment Prices in the Poom-Saem Based on the Standard Market Price1

Construction equipment cost is critical to estimate the total construction costs, particularly in large and complicated projects. Public construction projects are typically estimated using the Poom-Saem which includes hourly rates for workers and equipments. Despite its importance, the construction equipment cost may not properly reflect the current market value because it is being updated every six years at most. To keep the data for construction equipment cost estimation up to date, it is highly recommended to use the standard market price that is reported each year by the Ministry of Security and Public Administration (MOSPA). However, there is still a wide gap to directly adopt the standard market price for updating the construction equipment prices. Therefore, this paper suggests an effective way to develop an ordinary management systems for updating construction equipment prices in the Poom-saem based on the standard market price.

Suggestions of Policy for Revitalizing the Construction Industry in Busan

As the local economy has become stagnant, various policies have been made to revitalize the enormous construction industry. However, it is difficult for these policies to achieve their objective, as the construction industry is not an island unto itself but is interconnected in complex ways with diverse other areas of the economy. Interviews and surveys were conducted with experts in Busan, in order to identify the causes of the stagnant economy in the local construction market. The main findings were as follows. First, cost reduction and realistic master plans are needed as a solution for the problems of the redevelopment housing plan. Second, the alleviation of the construction policy is also necessary in order to overcome the problems of not considering the local construction industry. Finally, vocational training and quality education are needed to address the low awareness of construction feasibility analysis and the lack of highly trained human resources. The results of the study will help efforts to revitalize the local construction industry, and will provide an opportunity to reconsider the differences between the experts on issues of the industry.