• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.259-266
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• 2020

This study analyzes the effects of the obsolescence assets on the asymmetry of costs. Cost asymmetry refers to a lower percentage of costs when sales fall than increases in costs when sales increase. the obsolescence asset induces various decisions, including high maintenance costs and management improvements and replacement of facilities. This study is to analyze the cost behavior according to those decisions. The analysis showed that the higher the obsolescence of assets rate, we found cost elasticity, with a greater reduction in costs when sales decrease than the increase in costs when sales increase. Second, the lower the cost will not appear as the obsolescence of assets rate increases in case that the concentration of an item of property, plant and equipment is high, and when sales decrease. The above result means that the obsolescence of assets rate acts as operating risk and thus operates resources flexibly according to changes in sales, but when the concentration of property, plant and equipment is high, the decision-making constraint make it difficult for the flexible operation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.123-127
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• 1978

The major objective of this research is to identify those hospital characteristics that best explain cost variation among hospitals and to formulate linear models that can predict hospital costs. Specific emphasis is placed on hospital output, that is, the identification of diagnosis related patient groups (DRGs) which are medically meaningful and demonstrate similar patterns of hospital resource consumption. A casemix index is developed based on the DRGs identified. Considering the common problems encountered in previous hospital cost research, the following study requirements are estab-lished for fulfilling the objectives of this research: 1. Selection of hospitals that exercise similar medical and fiscal practices. 2. Identification of an appropriate data collection mechanism in which demographic and medical characteristics of individual patients as well as accurate and comparable cost information can be derived. 3. Development of a patient classification system in which all the patients treated in hospitals are able to be split into mutually exclusive categories with consistent and stable patterns of resource consumption. 4. Development of a cost finding mechanism through which patient groups' costs can be made comparable across hospitals. A data set of Medicare patients prepared by the Social Security Administration was selected for the study analysis. The data set contained 27,229 record abstracts of Medicare patients discharged from all but one short-term general hospital in Connecticut during the period from January 1, 1971, to December 31, 1972. Each record abstract contained demographic and diagnostic information, as well as charges for specific medical services received. The 'AUT-OGRP System' was used to generate 198 DRGs in which the entire range of Medicare patients were split into mutually exclusive categories, each of which shows a consistent and stable pattern of resource consumption. The 'Departmental Method' was used to generate cost information for the groups of Medicare patients that would be comparable across hospitals. To fulfill the study objectives, an extensive analysis was conducted in the following areas: 1. Analysis of DRGs: in which the level of resource use of each DRG was determined, the length of stay or death rate of each DRG in relation to resource use was characterized, and underlying patterns of the relationships among DRG costs were explained. 2. Exploration of resource use profiles of hospitals; in which the magnitude of differences in the resource uses or death rates incurred in the treatment of Medicare patients among the study hospitals was explored. 3. Casemix analysis; in which four types of casemix-related indices were generated, and the significance of these indices in the explanation of hospital costs was examined. 4. Formulation of linear models to predict hospital costs of Medicare patients; in which nine independent variables (i. e., casemix index, hospital size, complexity of service, teaching activity, location, casemix-adjusted death. rate index, occupancy rate, and casemix-adjusted length of stay index) were used for determining factors in hospital costs. Results from the study analysis indicated that: 1. The system of 198 DRGs for Medicare patient classification was demonstrated not only as a strong tool for determining the pattern of hospital resource utilization of Medicare patients, but also for categorizing patients by their severity of illness. 2. The wei틴fed mean total case cost (TOTC) of the study hospitals for Medicare patients during the study years was $11,27.02 with a standard deviation of $117.20. The hospital with the highest average TOTC ($1538.15) was 2.08 times more expensive than the hospital with the lowest average TOTC ($743.45). The weighted mean per diem total cost (DTOC) of the study hospitals for Medicare patients during the sutdy years was $107.98 with a standard deviation of $15.18. The hospital with the highest average DTOC ($147.23) was 1.87 times more expensive than the hospital with the lowest average DTOC ($78.49). 3. The linear models for each of the six types of hospital costs were formulated using the casemix index and the eight other hospital variables as the determinants. These models explained variance to the extent of 68.7 percent of total case cost (TOTC), 63.5 percent of room and board cost (RMC), 66.2 percent of total ancillary service cost (TANC), 66.3 percent of per diem total cost (DTOC), 56.9 percent of per diem room and board cost (DRMC), and 65.5 percent of per diem ancillary service cost (DTANC). The casemix index alone explained approximately one half of interhospital cost variation: 59.1 percent for TOTC and 44.3 percent for DTOC. Thsee results demonstrate that the casemix index is the most importand determinant of interhospital cost variation Future research and policy implications in regard to the results of this study is envisioned in the following three areas: 1. Utilization of casemix related indices in the Medicare data systems. 2. Refinement of data for hospital cost evaluation. 3. Development of a system for reimbursement and cost control in hospitals.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.190-198
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• 2009

Objectives : The objective of this study is to estimate the economic costs of cancer on society. Methods : We estimated the economic burden of people with cancer in South Korea. To perform the analysis, we reviewed the records of people who were cancer patients and those who were newly diagnosed with cancer. The data was compiled from the National Health Insurance Corporation, which included the insurance claims database, a list of cancer patients, a database that records the cancer rates, the Korea Central Cancer Registry Center s cancer patient registry database and the Korea National Statistical Office s causes of death database. We classified the costs as related to cancer into direct costs and indirect costs, and we estimated each cost. Direct costs included both medical and non-medical care expenses and the indirect costs consisted of morbidity, mortality and the caregiver's time costs. Results : The total economic costs of cancer in South Korea stood at 14.1 trillion won in 2005. The largest amount of the cost 7.4 trillion won, was the mortality costs. Following this were the morbidity costs (3.2 trillion won), the medical care costs (2.2 trillion won), the non-medical care costs (1.1 trillion won) and the costs related to the caregiver's time (100 billion won). As a result, the economic cost of cancer to South Korea is estimated to be between 11.6 trillion won to 14.1 trillion won for the year 2005. Conclusions : We need to reduce the cancer burden through encouraging people to undergo early screening for cancer and curing it in the early stage of cancer, as well as implementing policies to actively prevent cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.115-122
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• 2010

The importance of the life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for bridges has been recognized over the last decade. However, it is difficult to predict LCC precisely since the costs occurring throughout the service life of the bridge depend on various parameters such as design, construction, maintenance, and environmental conditions. This paper presents a methodology for the optimal life cycle cost design of a bridge. Total LCC for the service life is calculated as the sum of initial cost, damage cost, maintenance cost, repair and rehabilitation cost, user cost, and disposal cost. The optimization method is applied to design of a bridge structure with minimal cost, in which the objective function is set to LCC and constraints are formulated on the basis of Korean Bridge Design Code. Initial cost is calculated based on standard costs of the Korea Construction Price Index and damage cost on damage probabilities to consider the uncertainty of load and resistance. Repair and rehabilitation cost is determined using load carrying capacity curves and user cost includes traffic operation costs and time delay costs. The optimal life cycle cost design of a bridge is performed and the effects of parameters are investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1158-1164
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• 2007

Recently, the demand on the practical application of life-cycle cost effectiveness for design and rehabilitation of civil infrastructure is rapidly growing unprecedentedly in civil engineering practice. Accordingly, it is expected that the life-cycle cost in the 21st century will become a new paradigm for all engineering decision problems in practice. However, in spite of impressive progress in the researches on the LCC, so far, most researches in Koreahave only focused on roadway bridges, which are not applicable to railway bridges. Thus, this paper presents the formulation models and methods for uncertainty-based LCCA for railroad bridges consideringboth objective statistical data available in the agency database of railroad bridges management and subjective data obtained form interviews with experts of the railway agency, which are used to anew uncertainty-based expected maintenance/repair costs including lifetime indirect costs. For reliable assessment of the life-cycle maintenance/repair costs, statistical analysis considering maintenance history data and survey data including the subjective judgments of railway experts on maintenance/management of railroad bridges, are performed to categorize critical maintenance items and associated expected costs and uncertainty-based deterioration models are developed. Finally, the formulation for simulation-based LCC analysis of railway bridges with uncertainty-based deterioration models are applied to the design-decision problem, which is to select an optimal bridge type having minimum Life-Cycle cost among various railway bridges types such as steel plate girder bridge, and prestressed concrete girder bridge in the basic design phase.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2018

This study analyzes the cost fluctuation between cost in contract stage and cost in adjustment stage in defense R&D project. This research shows that certain costs hold with the cost fluctuation and their degree of influence. The results of first analysis show that 13 out of 17 costs have a relationship with the cost fluctuation. The estimate of direct labor cost is positive and significant at the 0.1% level(direct labor = 1.022, t = 38.355). The estimate of amount of cost paid to subcontractor is positive and significant at the 1% level(amount paid to subcontractor = 0.942, t = 51.894). The results of second analysis show that all the direct costs have a relationship with the cost fluctuation(The fact that cost system is focused on direct labor cost is a consideration in this analysis). The estimate of direct labor cost is positive and significant at the 0.1% level(direct labor = 2.014, t = 21.787). The estimate of amount of cost paid to subcontractor is positive and significant at the 0.1% level(amount of cost paid to subcontractor = 1.068, t = 15.636). This finding supports a proposal theory that cost system is focused on direct labor cost through actual proof analysis and an inducement that amount of cost paid to subcontractor is a way to reduce the R&D cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.503-508
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• 2007

The Equipment Expenses section of the Poom-Saem, that is used for Construction Cost Estimation on public sectors in Korea, has been rarely revised, and so does not reflect changes of construction equipment technology and construction methods, since it was established based on data from Japan and the U.S in the early 1960s. In order to make reasonable estimation of maintenance costs(Interest, Storage, Insurance, Tax), the equipment expenses section of the Poom-Saem and the domestic and overseas documentary records were investigated. Further, 16 construction sites were visited, and 20 Construction Equipment leasing services were surveyed. Based on results from analysing figures related with the estimation of maintenance costs, the maintenance cost is redefined. Then, construction equipment was classified into 6 exclusive construction equipment and general one, and realistic figures of the maintenance cost, which consists of interest, storage, insurance, tax, are suggested respectively. The optimum level of each item which consists of equipment costs was revealed based on the result of the analysis on the figures of equipment costs calculation from the Poom-Saem and the collected data. The research will be the foundation that helps to estimate appropriate construction costs and the ground work of related studies.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.15-26
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• 2002

The quantitative evaluation method of the safety management cost was suggested to prevent a gas accident as a major industrial accident. In a gas governor station, process risk assessments such as the fault tree analysis(FTA) and the consequence analysis were performed. Based on process risk assessments, potential accident costs were estimated and the cost-benefit analysis(CBA) was performed. From the cost-benefit analysis for five classification items of safety management cost, the order of the cost/benefit ratio was estimated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2012

This study analyzed the direct costs of fall accidents, which have the highest accident rate, for domestic construction industry workers. Firstly, the average insurance payment per person due to fall accidents in the construction industry is around 19 million won (18,971,000 won). Given that the average number of workers suffering fall accidents over ten years is 5,863, the total cost of losses from fall accidents is about 1.1 trillion won (111,360,000,000 won). Secondly, a cost-based economic feasibility analysis was done to develop nonstructural preventive measures for fall accidents. Since there was no data expressing the costs and effects of preventive measures in terms of monetary value, the economic feasibility analysis was attempted with a focus on how much the newly introduced preventive measures can reduce the accident loss costs due to fall accidents. Thirdly, if the accident loss size is grasped and the preventive measures for the causes of fall accidents are developed and strictly implemented, the insurance fee that can reduce the accident loss costs can be determined. Further study is needed to estimate the benefit of the accident loss cost reduction seen from the cost-based approach method.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.29 no.5 s.101
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• pp.421-429
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• 2005

Traditionally, determination of the optimal containership size is the most important factor for competitiveness of shipping companies in the shipping market. Under this environment, many shipping companies and researchers have studied about it. The objective of this research is to determine the optimal containership size using a total shipping cost in the main trunk lines. Total shipping cost is calculated at the ground of capital costs, vessel operation costs, voyage costs, port charges and miscellaneous costs for 'Europe-Far East', 'Far East-North America' and 'Europe-Far East-North America' services. Analysis results showed that the 6,500TEU containership is an optimal size on the 'Europe-Far East' and 'Europe-Far East-North America' services. And the 8,200TEU containership is an optimal size on the 'Far East-North America' service. Moreover, if the larger containerships over 8,200TEU class start operation afterward, it would be less competitive in the analyzed 3services.