• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.601-608
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• 2022

This study examines the current status of smart manufacturing innovation policies in Germany and Korea, compares and analyzes the supply industry strategies of both countries, and suggests the direction for Korea's smart manufacturing innovation supply industry. Germany's supply industry strategy aims to strengthen the market dominance of domestic suppliers through high technology, compatibility, and high reliability based on reference for global demanding companies. On the other hand, the Korea's supply industry strategy remains at the level improvement of the demanding companies by stage, so it is time to take a long-term and consistent response with the goal of implementing smartization at the advanced level. By referring to Germany's supply industry strategy for the advancement of smart factories, it was intended to help in establishing government support policies and supplier strategies. In addition, based on the analysis results of the supply industry strategies of both countries, improvement measures for the advancement of Korea's smart factories were presented. Ultimately, the contents of this study can be used as basic data for policy establishment to strengthen the industrial competitiveness of Korea's small and medium-sized suppliers.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.27-36
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• 2024

The effective control of cost overrun is a crucial issue for construction companies to secure profitability. Especially in situations where cost pressures are significant due to factors such as rising raw material prices and increased financial costs due to high-interest rate policies, cost overruns resulting from project failures have a highly detrimental impact on the profitability of construction firms. The objective of this study is to analyze the current status of cost overrun control measures adopted by construction companies using the IPA technique and provide key characteristics and implications. The IPA analysis results showed that practitioners in general contractors exhibit a high level of interest and effort regarding cost overrun while the performance level is relatively low. Nevertheless, the measures considered important to control cost overruns generally show a high tendency for execution as well. Cost overrun control measures that show high importance but low execution are primarily related to collaboration and communication sectors. To effectively control cost overruns, enhancing collaboration and communication with construction supervisors/CM, headquarters, and regulatory authorities emerged as the most urgent need. Through this study, the current status and areas for improvement regarding cost overrun control measures in general contractors can be identified. This can be valuable for deriving directions and enhancements for future cost overrun control strategy development.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.46-57
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• 2014

This study analyzes whether the value-added structure of Korean wind power industry exhibits a virtuous cycle through the value chain(VC) within wind power firms and the value system(VS) among the wind power industries, using a regression analysis based on a survey about Korean wind power companies. According to the VC, the government's R&D support is analyzed to have contributed to an increase in the R&D investments of the wind power companies. An increase in corporates' R&D investments has led to an increase in corporates' R&D outputs, and in turn, induced a remarkable increase in the amounts of production. But an increase in production has not led to a decrease in the costs of production, not resulting in an increase in profit rates per sales amount. In addition, while an increase in profit rates is analyzed to have contributed to an increase in production, this did not induce further investments in corporate's R&D. The virtuous cycle of the value chain in Korean wind power firms is, therefore, analyzed to be weak. Next, the VS is analyzed by dividing the whole chain into the system group including rotor blades, gear boxes, and power generators, and the structure group, such as towers. Two groups are analyzed to have mutually positive effects in the processes of the government's support for corporates' R&D, corporates' investment in R&D, R&D outputs, and profit rates per sales amount. Such mutual positive effects are, however, not found in the processes of the amounts of production and the costs of production. These results demonstrates that the value system of Korean wind power industry is not completed. This study has a policy implication to need further efforts to create the virtuous cycle in the VC and VS of Korean wind power industry.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.101-123
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• 2010

Recently, firms are operating a number of teams to accomplish organizational performance. Especially, ad hoc teams like proposal preparation team are quite different from permanent teams like R&D team in the sense of how the team forms network structure and deals with organizational learning culture and knowledge management participation efforts. Moreover, depending on the team characteristics, individual creativity will differ from each other, which will lead to organizational performance eventually. Previous studies in the field of creativity are lacking in this issue. So main objectives of this study are organized as follows. First, the issue of how to improve individual creativity and organizational performance will be analyzed empirically. This issue will be performed depending on team characteristics such as ad hoc team and permanent team. Antecedents adopted for this research objective are cultural and knowledge factors such as organizational learning culture, and knowledge management participation. Second, the network structure such as degree centrality, and structural hole is used to analyze its influence on individual creativity and organizational performance. SI (System Integration) companies are facing severely tough requirements from clients to submit very creative proposals. Also, R&D teams are widely accepted as relatively creative teams because their responsibilities are focused on suggesting innovative techniques to make their companies remain competitive in the market. SI teams are usually ad hoc, while R&D teams are permanent on an average. By taking advantage of these characteristics of the two kinds of teams, we will prove the validity of the proposed research questions. To obtain the survey data, we accessed 7 SI teams (74 members), and 6 R&D teams (63 members), collecting 137 valid questionnaires. PLS technique was applied to analyze the survey data. Results are as follows. First, in case of SI teams, organizational learning culture affects individual creativity significantly. Meanwhile, knowledge management participation has a significant influence on Individual creativity for the permanent teams. Second, degree centrality Influences individual creativity significantly in case of SI teams. This is comparable with the fact that structural hole has a significant impact on individual creativity for the R&D teams. Practical implications can be summarized as follows: First, network structure of ad hoc team should be designed differently from one of permanent team. Ad hoc team is supposed to show a high creativity in a rather short period, implying that network density among team members should be improved, and those members with high degree centrality should be encouraged to show their Individual creativity and take a leading role by allowing them to get heavily engaged in knowledge sharing and diffusion. In contrast, permanent team should be designed to take advantage of structural hole instead of focusing on network density. Since structural hole can be utilized very effectively in the permanent team, strong arbitrators' merits in the permanent team will increase and therefore helps increase both network efficiency and effectiveness too. In this way, individual creativity in the permanent team is likely to lead to organizational creativity in a seamless way. Second, way of Increasing individual creativity should be sought from the perspective of organizational culture and knowledge management. Organization is supposed to provide a cultural atmosphere in which Innovative idea suggestions and active discussion among team members are encouraged. In this way, trust builds up among team members, facilitating the formation of organizational learning culture. Third, in the ad hoc team, organizational looming culture should be built such a way that individual creativity can grow up fast in a rather short period. Since time is tight, reasonable compensation policy, leader's Initiatives, and learning culture formation should be done In a short period so that mutual trust is built among members quickly, and necessary knowledge and information can be learnt rapidly. Fourth, in the permanent team, it should be kept in mind that the degree of participation in knowledge management determines level of Individual creativity. Therefore, the team ought to facilitate knowledge circulation process such as knowledge creation, storage, sharing, utilization, and learning among team members, which will lead to team performance. In this way, firms must control knowledge networks in permanent team and ad hoc team in a way mentioned above so that individual creativity as well as team performance can be maximized.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.273-284
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• 2024

This study investigates the impact of international oil price fluctuations on overseas construction orders secured by domestic and foreign companies. The analysis employs statistical data spanning the past 20 years, encompassing international oil prices, overseas construction orders from domestic firms, and new overseas construction orders from the top 250 global construction companies. The correlation between these variables is assessed using correlation coefficients(R), determination coefficients(R²), and p-values. The results indicate a strong positive correlation between international oil prices and overseas construction orders. The correlation coefficient between domestic overseas construction orders and oil prices is found to be 0.8 or higher, signifying a significant influence. Similarly, a high correlation coefficient of 0.76 is observed between oil prices and new orders from leading global construction companies. Further analysis reveals a particularly strong correlation between oil prices and overseas construction orders in Asia and the Middle East, potentially due to the prevalence of oil-related projects in these regions. Additionally, a high correlation is observed between oil prices and orders for industrial facilities compared to architectural projects. This suggests an increase in plant construction volumes driven by fluctuations in oil prices. Based on these findings, the study proposes an entry strategy for navigating oil price volatility and maintaining competitiveness in the overseas construction market. Key recommendations include diversifying project locations and supplier bases; utilizing hedging techniques for exchange rate risk management, adapting to local infrastructure and market conditions, establishing local partnerships and securing skilled local labor, implementing technological innovations and digitization at construction sites to enhance productivity and cost reduction The insights gained from this study, coupled with the proposed overseas expansion strategies, offer valuable guidance for mitigating risks in the global construction market and fostering resilience in response to international oil price fluctuations. This approach is expected to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic and foreign construction firms seeking success in the international arena.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2014

According to the 2013 construction market outlook report, the liquidation of construction companies is expected to continue due to the ongoing residential construction recession. Bankruptcies of construction companies have a greater social impact compared to other industries. However, due to the different nature of the capital structure and debt-to-equity ratio, it is more difficult to forecast construction companies' bankruptcies than that of companies in other industries. The construction industry operates on greater leverage, with high debt-to-equity ratios, and project cash flow focused on the second half. The economic cycle greatly influences construction companies. Therefore, downturns tend to rapidly increase the bankruptcy rates of construction companies. High leverage, coupled with increased bankruptcy rates, could lead to greater burdens on banks providing loans to construction companies. Nevertheless, the bankruptcy prediction model concentrated mainly on financial institutions, with rare construction-specific studies. The bankruptcy prediction model based on corporate finance data has been studied for some time in various ways. However, the model is intended for all companies in general, and it may not be appropriate for forecasting bankruptcies of construction companies, who typically have high liquidity risks. The construction industry is capital-intensive, operates on long timelines with large-scale investment projects, and has comparatively longer payback periods than in other industries. With its unique capital structure, it can be difficult to apply a model used to judge the financial risk of companies in general to those in the construction industry. Diverse studies of bankruptcy forecasting models based on a company's financial statements have been conducted for many years. The subjects of the model, however, were general firms, and the models may not be proper for accurately forecasting companies with disproportionately large liquidity risks, such as construction companies. The construction industry is capital-intensive, requiring significant investments in long-term projects, therefore to realize returns from the investment. The unique capital structure means that the same criteria used for other industries cannot be applied to effectively evaluate financial risk for construction firms. Altman Z-score was first published in 1968, and is commonly used as a bankruptcy forecasting model. It forecasts the likelihood of a company going bankrupt by using a simple formula, classifying the results into three categories, and evaluating the corporate status as dangerous, moderate, or safe. When a company falls into the "dangerous" category, it has a high likelihood of bankruptcy within two years, while those in the "safe" category have a low likelihood of bankruptcy. For companies in the "moderate" category, it is difficult to forecast the risk. Many of the construction firm cases in this study fell in the "moderate" category, which made it difficult to forecast their risk. Along with the development of machine learning using computers, recent studies of corporate bankruptcy forecasting have used this technology. Pattern recognition, a representative application area in machine learning, is applied to forecasting corporate bankruptcy, with patterns analyzed based on a company's financial information, and then judged as to whether the pattern belongs to the bankruptcy risk group or the safe group. The representative machine learning models previously used in bankruptcy forecasting are Artificial Neural Networks, Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) and, the Support Vector Machine (SVM). There are also many hybrid studies combining these models. Existing studies using the traditional Z-Score technique or bankruptcy prediction using machine learning focus on companies in non-specific industries. Therefore, the industry-specific characteristics of companies are not considered. In this paper, we confirm that adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) is the most appropriate forecasting model for construction companies by based on company size. We classified construction companies into three groups - large, medium, and small based on the company's capital. We analyzed the predictive ability of AdaBoost for each group of companies. The experimental results showed that AdaBoost has more predictive ability than the other models, especially for the group of large companies with capital of more than 50 billion won.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.589-595
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• 2016

This study evaluated the environmental impacts for landfill treatment of the wastewater treatment sludge (WTS) from petrochemical firms by life cycle assessment (LCA) and reviewed the impact reduction by landfill gas (LFG) utilization. The functional unit was 'landfill of 1 ton of WTS', and the system boundary included the process of input and treatment for WTS in landfill site. The impacts were high at landfill process (LP) and leachate treatment process (LTP). Global warming (GWP) and photochemical oxidants creation (POCP) were high at LP, while abiotic depletion (ADP), acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), ozone depletion (ODP) were high at LTP. The major substances of various impact categories were crude oil (ADP), $NO_X$ (AP, EP), $CH_4$ (GWP, POCP), $Cl_2$ (ODP), respectively. The major factor of ADP, AP, EP was attributed from the generation of electricity used in LTP, and the methane within uncollected LFG was main factor of GWP and POCP. Therefore, electricity consumption reduction is identified to be an impact improvement option, and the flaring system installation or enhanced LFG recovery could be an alternative to reduce impacts. Among the various categories, GWP accounted the highest impact (${\geq}90%$) followed by ADP, POCP. In the avoidance impact resulted from the utilization of LFG, to substitute B-C oil or LNG showed the impact reduction of 32.7% and 12.0%, respectively.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.129-137
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• 2012

For construction project in extreme cold region, it is essential to establish basic data on the site such as topographical data from the early stage of construction of planning and designing, and it is needed to frequently perform site investigation when necessary. However, extreme cold regions are characteristic of being at long distance and difficult in approaching, and special regions such as Antarctica, in particular, are hard to conduct site investigation. Although a site investigation may be conducted, those who can visit Antarctica are sufficiently limited so that most of the staff may participate in construction without knowledge of the site and increase the risk of errors in decision making or designing. In order to resolve such problems, the authors in this study identified methods of building wide-area topographical data and bedrock classification data of exposed areas via remote sensing and of building precise topographical data on the construction site. Also, the authors attempted to present methods by which such data can be managed and visualized integrally via three-dimensional GIS technology and all the participants in construction can learn sense of field and conduct necessary analysis as frequent as possible. The areas around the Jangbogo Antarctic Station were selected to be the research area for conducting effective integrational management and three-dimensional visualization of various spatial data such as wide-area digital elevation model, ortho-images, bedrock classification data, local precise digital elevation model, and site images. The results of this study may enable construction firms to analyze local environments for construction whenever they need for construction in extreme cold regions and then support construction work including decision making or designing.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

As an important basic building block of the smart grid environment, smart meter provides real-time electricity consumption information to the utility. However, ensuring information security and privacy in the smart meter data aggregation process is a non-trivial task. Even though the secure data aggregation for the smart meter has been a lot of attention from both academic and industry researchers in recent years, most of these studies are not secure against internal attackers or cannot provide data integrity. Besides, their computation costs are not satisfactory because the bilinear pairing operation or the hash-to-point operation is performed at the smart meter system. Recently, blockchains or distributed ledgers are an emerging technology that has drawn considerable interest from energy supply firms, startups, technology developers, financial institutions, national governments and the academic community. In particular, blockchains are identified as having the potential to bring significant benefits and innovation for the electricity consumption network. This study suggests a distributed, privacy-preserving, and simple secure smart meter data aggregation system, backed up by Blockchain technology. Smart meter data are aggregated and verified by a hierarchical Merkle tree, in which the consensus protocol is supported by the practical Byzantine fault tolerance algorithm.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.133-151
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• 2007

In the era of 21st new century. reinforcement of regional competitiveness by establishing innovation system is taking its place of main small and medium sized enterprise policies in major developed countries. The model of regional balanced development for promoting small and medium sized enterprise is a main frame of governmental small and medium sized enterprise policies. which complements national innovation process. And in the level of local area, the model is regional network system, molded in the process of induction, application, modification, proliferation of new technologies and knowledge by local businessman and innovators. This study focused on the strategy development for small and medium sized businesses to increase local competitive power, in terms of regional balanced development. In order to find the real problems and improvement alternatives for local competitive power, this study both reviewed the common strategies and action programs advanced in developed countries for small businesses, and did research on the current economic conditions in local area. Based on the lessons from foreign cases and the analysis of the current situations in small business in local area, the study suggested the model of regional balanced development for promoting small and medium sized enterprise including formation of innovation network system through the invitation of leading firms in the area, industry-university partnerships, and development and attraction for small and medium sized businesses.