• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.17
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• pp.107-133
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to analyze a trend of profitability classified by characteristics of hospitals and to analyze related factors. The data for this study were derived from survey material conducted by the Korean Hospital Association on 33 hospitals in Korea between 1993 and 2002. Profitability was measured in the aspect of investment profit rate and operation profit rate with net profit to total assets, normal profit to total assets and operating margin to gross revenue as dependent variables. Independent variables were classified by general factors (ownership, number of beds, period of establishment, region), financial factors (total asset turnover, liabilities to total assets, current ratio, fixed ratio, inventories turnover, personnel costs per operation profit, material costs per operation profits), composition of manpower and facilities(personnel and area per beds), productivity index(the number of daily patients per medical doctor, the number of daily patients per nurse), the score of quality assurance activities. First, Concerning the specialists per beds or area per beds and profitability of hospitals there was not statistically significant. Second, Those hospitals having the most daily patients per nurse had significantly higher profitability than the others, but the number of daily patients per medical doctor had little effect on the profitability. Thirds, Those hospitals having a higher proportion total asset turnover tended to show significantly higher profitability compared to other hospitals, but the liabilities to total assets and liquidity ratio had a little difference to the profitability. Those hospitals having a higher proportion personnel costs per operation profit and material costs per operation profits tended to show significantly lower hospital profitability compared to other hospitals. Fourth, In regression analysis, hospital profitability had negative relationship with personnel costs per operation profit or material costs per operation profits. While it had positive relationship with total asset turnover, the number of daily patients per nurse. In conclusion, private hospitals had higher profitability than that of public hospitals. Though factors related to profitability of hospital were different according to ownership, it is important for securing appropriate profitability by operating appropriate number of nurse, raising total asset turnover, and reducing personnel costs, material costs per operation profits. This study can be used as a baseline data for planning of hospital management. But the study may be limited in that the results cannot be generalized due to its small sample size. However, this longitudinal observation of 33 hospitals over ten year period has significant merit alone.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.91-99
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• 2013

PURPOSES : This study aims at proposing the methodology for benefit evaluations in pavement maintenance methods and timings using KoPMS(Korean Pavement Management System) software which was developed for efficient pavement management. METHODS : This study classified pavement sections into 4 clusters considering AADT(Annual Average Daily Traffic) and ESAL(Equivalent Single-Axle Load) using cluster analysis and used the deterioration models in each cluster. Increased user costs due to pavement deterioration as time goes by and agent costs for maintenance were estimated. Based on deterioration model and KoPMS software, Methodology for benefit evaluation was proposed in pavement maintenance methods and with/without implementation using real pavement section data. RESULTS : This study verified that considering agent costs only would be constrained to decide pavement maintenance methods and timings, and ascertained that decision making with agent and user costs would be effective. In addition, this study revealed that pavement maintenance methods and timings can be affected by AADT and ESAL and frequent pavement maintenances can be more efficient for benefits in pavement sections with more AADT and ESAL. Also this study found that user costs would be more affected to decision making than agent costs. Moreover, Delay of conducting pavement maintenance caused increased vehicle operating costs and environmental costs because of poor conditions of pavements. CONCLUSIONS : This study proposed LCCA and benefit estimation methodology of pavement with considering agent and user costs. The results of this study can be used for baseline data of efficient pavement asset management.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.450-458
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• 1997

It is inadequate to compare operating costs between some logging machines with a low rate of utilization of them except the effect of operating time. The operating volume to maximize the utilization of the logging machines is different from each other, thus it is important to choose the proper logging machines and operating system according to the size of logging management. This study presents one of the methods to choose the economical optimum logging machines according to the operating volume to promote the economical efficiency of the machines. In order to go ahead with the Korean forestry mechanization plan, it should be considered which machine or operating system has the economical priority and if it can be suitable to the effect of wage increment.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.225-234
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• 2016

This project sought to conduct an economic feasibility study regarding the commercial production of bio-hydrogen by the marine hyperthermophilic archaeon, Thermococcus onnurineus NA1 using carbon monoxide-containing industrial off-gas. We carried out the economic evaluation of the bio-hydrogen production process using the raw material of steel mill by-product gas. The process parameter was as follows: $H_2$ production rate was 5.6 L/L/h; the conversion of carbon monoxide was 60.7%. This project established an evaluation criterion for about 10,000 tonne/year. Inflation factors were considered as 3%. The operating costs were recalculated based on prices in 2014. The total investment required for development was covered 30% by capital and 70% by a loan. The operation cost for the 0.5-year test and integration, and the cost for the first three months in the 50% production period were considered as the working capital in the cost estimation. The costs required for the rental of office space, facilities, and other related costs from the construction through to full-scale production periods were considered as continuing expenses. Materials, energy, waste disposal and other charges were considered as the operating cost of the development system. Depreciation, tax, maintenance and repair, insurance, labor, interest rate charges, general and administrative costs, lubrication and miscellaneous expenses were also calculated. The hydrogen price was set at US$ 4.15/kg for the economic evaluation. As a result, the process was considered to be economical with the payback period of 6.3 years, NPV of 18 billion Won and IRR of 26.7%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.431-440
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• 2015

This study aims to quantify the railway freight performance using various indicators, to compare it over many countries, and to evaluate efficiency of railway freight in Korea. The indicators developed in this study was classified into two categories; country-specific and company-specific indicator. The former includes freight train density, average gross train load and average haul while the latter contains revenue/ton-km, ratio of operating costs to revenue, revenue per employee, ton-km per employee, costs per ton-km and ratio of labor costs to total operating costs. The results of this study shows that Korail performance is in low efficiency due to multi-frequency small amounts transport. The productivity of railway freight in Korea represented as ton-km per employee appears to be lower than that of other oversea companies considered in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.335-344
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• 2022

The study was aimed to investigate the operational meal costs by kindergarten size in Seoul and to analyze recognition for optimal meal prices. A survey (31.6% recovery rate) was conducted on all kindergartens (779 kindergartens) in Seoul on April 2021 using descriptive analysis, t-test, and dispersion method. A price sensitivity measurement (psm) method was used to determine optimal meal prices. Result showed an average food cost for kindergartens of 2,647 won, an average labor cost of 605 won, an average operating cost of 146 won, and the total meal cost of 3,506 won. Total meal cost decreased with increasing kindergarten size (p<0.001). On the other hand, kindergartens with more students decreased the ratio of food cost to total meal cost, and operating cost and labor costs (p<0.001) increased. The optimal price of kindergarten operators' meal cost (OPP) was KRW 3,673. Furthermore, the analysis showed the sensitivity of operators' meal costs to kindergarten size was insignificant.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.356-362
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• 2015

Many burial sites were constructed in a short time to prevent the rapid spread of foot and mouth disease in infected livestock carcasses in Korea. More than 4,700 carcass burial sites were constructed in 2011. Approximately seven million poultry and 3.5 million livestock, including cattle and swine, were buried on farmland. Some burial sites were suspected of leachate leakage and were excavated and carcasses redisposed in a bioaugmentation process. This study performed interviews in order to understand the economic issues related to carcass burial and redisposal. The internal data from local government and the assumption data from online sites were analyzed to evaluate the costs; the focus was on burial site construction. The results showed that the local government paid $4.7 and $10.9 per carcass for traditional burial and redisposal. The comparable costs shown online were $4.5. This study found that the standard operating procedures should be carried out to reduce environmental impact and avoid additional costs. We estimated that the cost could be reduced by the advance preparations of materials against the emergency situations such as catastrophe of epidemics. In addition, the innovative technology for the stabilization of carcasses should be established through a future study.

• IE interfaces
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.135-143
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• 1997

The importance of training for NC, CNC and Machining Center has been greatly increased. This paper presents implementation of a DNC(Direct Numerical Control) operating software for educational system. This system is able to connect 8-32 CNCs to Control PC with RS232 multi-port serial card. Therefore, it allows much efficiency in training even after costs are considered. The KISCO DNC S/W for above system includes various communication functions, communication parameters setting, program editor and user-friendly environment. This software was developed with C and Windows programming. It was proved in function and stability by iterative field tests.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.197-200
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• 2007

Advanced control is getting increasingly demanded in water and wastewater treatment systems. Various case studies have shown significant savings in operating costs, including energy costs, and remarkably short payback times. It has been demonstrated that instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) may increase the capacity of biological nutrient removing wastewater treatment plants by 10-30% today. With further understanding and exploitation of the mechanisms involved in biological nutrient removal the improvements due to ICA may reach another 20-50% of the total system investments within the next 10-20 years. Disturbances are the reason for control of any system. In a wastewater treatment system they are mostly related to the load variations, but many disturbances are created also within the plant. In water supply systems some of the major disturbances are related the customer demand as well as to leakages or bursts in the pipelines or the distribution networks. Hardly any system operates in steady state but is more or less in a transient state all the time. Water and energy are closely related. The role of energy in water and wastewater operations is discussed. With increasing energy costs and the threatening climate changes this issue will grow in importance.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2003

Quality is a critical competitive factor in today's environment because of the impact of quality on costs and delivery. Many companies regard quality as a key concept of company strategy in order to achieve the competitive edge. Measuring and reporting quality cost is the first step in quality management program. The supposition of quality cost model is that investment in prevention activities will bring rewards from reduced failure costs, and that further investment in prevention activities will show profits from reduced appraisal costs. In this study, the degree of quality cost deviation is conceptualized. This means a deviation between the ideal and present ranking in the amounts of quality cost categories. This study analysed that the effect of its deviation on quality management activity and performance variables. However, there are no difference in these variables. The major reason is that most of companies are endeavoring for quality management but operating quality cost system unsystematically. The review against a prevention and appraisal activity is necessary.