• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.323-330
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• 2020

Project delays, cost overruns, and disputes are becoming a norm for the construction industry in Hong Kong. Researchers argue that the inability of traditional contracts to manage risk and associated changes are perhaps the main points of contention. The Institution of Civil Engineers published a new engineering contract (NEC), NEC4 Suite of Contracts in this to facilitate better risk management through collaborative culture in construction projects. NEC aims to increase the chances of project success thought its flexible nature of contracts, 'simple' and 'clearly written' documents and provision for the incentive by adopting a better management approach. This paper focuses on traditional and NEC contracts to compare risk management and change management aspects. Through literature review and preliminary interviews with three industry professionals, the paper is exploring how a change in traditional contracts can recuperate from disaster. Our interviewees in this work have extensive experience in traditional as well as in NEC contracts. The results suggest a proactive risk management provisions in NEC contracts does make a difference to avoid later escalation of issues. Whereas, management of change helps streamline all identified issues through a structured process without going in mediation or litigation. NEC, with its new approach to collaborative working, allows partners to be vigilant, yet gratifying in the project process.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.477-480
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• 2015

Construction projects are high-risk activities. When undertaking such projects in an international setting, it can be complicated by foreign exchange (FOREX) fluctuation risk. This affects the construction business performance in various ways, namely its progress due to delays, which in turn create further problems, specifically cost overruns as a result of price increase in raw materials, disputes, arbitration, litigation and even, total abandonment. Thus, the effective management of FOREX fluctuations is crucial. Previous studies have focused on the need for contract safeguards, adequate insurance, careful planning and management, as well as foreign exchange futures hedging to address some of the risks triggered by FOREX fluctuations. An analysis of FOREX fluctuations in the international construction industry revealed that more often it was focused on project-specific issues. Currently, there is a relative lack of awareness on Organizational Capabilities (OC), the abilities that owned by the organization, which is essential in managing the impact of FOREX fluctuations. Where research has focused on OC, these are viewed in isolation. Therefore, this study attempts to close the gap by proposing a framework on managing the impact of FOREX fluctuations in the international construction industry, employing the OC perspective.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2014

The construction progress control is very important because there are many unexpected factors affecting time schedule delay and cost overruns. A complicated measure including item quantity and inherent time and costs is used to monitor the progress. Another element to be considered is a productivity, which is cost effectiveness because productivity is primarily measured by the costs. Productivity is stated as constant in-place value divided by inputs such as worker-hour. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the productivity of structural formwork using a 3D BIM. In order to achieve the research objective, an integrated model of a BIM with a daily foreman's report is developed. The quantities being extracted from a 3D model and information are integrated with manpower utilized. The developed model is applied to a case project to measure and analyze the productivity in terms of individual building and work crew team. The results are discussed and further research topics will be addressed.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.434-440
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• 2013

Generally, the envelope of a freeform building is composed of a structure made with rectangular or C-shaped steel pipe, and steel or aluminum panel finishes on the structure. However, these construction methods increase material loss and cost and time. There are also numerous cases of misunderstanding of design and difficulties in construction, which frequently cause construction errors. Such construction errors decrease construction productivity, resulting in poor construction quality and the need for rework, as well as cost and time overruns. To solve the problem, this study proposes a 3D coordinate control technology for freeform structure implemented through a CNC(Computerized Numerical Control) Twisted tube method, and by extension, develops a BIM-based envelope construction method for freeform building.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.21-28
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• 2015

Construction defects are major components that result in cost overruns and schedule delays in construction projects. There have been extensive research efforts to investigate the cause of defects. However, little effort has been devoted to analyze correlation among various reasons of construction defects while a defect is not usually an outcome of a single cause, but rather occurs when several interrelated causes combine. Based on this recognition, this paper analyzes 831 nonconformity reports collected from 30 construction projects in Korea from 2011 to 2014. The correlation analysis revealed that a significant portion of construction defects occurred in the procurement and construction phase and as the pattern of function defect and installation defect. Triggered by human error, defective material and faulty method, these defects are treated by conccession, repair, rework that can significantly lower the cost and schedule performance. This paper is significant in terms of providing a theoretical basis for analyzing correlation among various reasons of construction defects and quantitative measures for establishing effective defect prevention strategies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.82-90
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• 2003

The Systems Engineering, as a methodology for engineering and management of today's ever-growing complex system, is a comprehensive and iterative problem-solving process. The process centers on the analysis and management of the stakeholders' needs throughout the entire life-cycle of a system and searches for an optimized system architecture. There are many essential needs and requirements to be met when a system development task is carried out. Systems Engineering Management Plan(SEMP), as a specification for system development process, must be established to satisfy constraints and requirements of stakeholders successfully and to prevent cost overrun and schedule delay. SEMP defines technical management functions and comprehensive plans for managing and controlling the entire system development process, specialty engineering processes, etc. Especially. in the case of a large-scale complex system development program where various disciplinary engineering such as mechanical; electrical; electronics; control; telecommunication; material; civil engineering etc. must be synthesized, it Is essential to develop SEMP to ensure systematic and continuous process improvements for quality and to prevent cost/schedule overruns. This study will enable the process knowledge management on the subject of SEMP as a core systems engineering management effort, that is, definitely defining and continuously managing specification of development process about requirements, functions, and process realization of it using a computer-aided systems engineering software. The paper suggests a systematic SEMP development process and demonstrates a data model and schema for computer-aided systems engineering software, RDD-100, for use in the development and management of SEMP. These are being applied to the systems engineering technology development task for the next-generation high-speed railway systems in progress.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2020

As the business environment is rapidly changing with globalization and complexity of information flows, the uncertainty is also very increased for project environment. Although many studies have been conducted to find out the critical factors for project success, there still exist different views to define project success. Furthermore, implementing success formula for one project does not necessarily guarantee a success for another project since there are other elements that impede the success of project. In this regards, it is imperative to examine what are the barriers to project success. This study aims to examine the barriers that impede the success of project. Past literature was thoroughly reviewed to collect and develop a preliminary list of elements that affected project performance negatively. Experts were interviewed to refine the list and the final list of the measurement items were developed. A survey questionnaire was developed with the final list of measurement items, and a survey was conducted on the practitioners with project experience. After the survey, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the final list to extract the component dimensions which in turn formed the group of project barriers. The exploratory factor analysis provided ten factors, which are difficulty of process management, failure of project feasibility analysis, cost overruns and lack of cost benefits, unclarity project plan, strategic consistency error, stakeholder conflict, inaccuracy of requirement definition, disturbance of communication, technical environment change, negative attitude of top management.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2015

This paper presents optimized artificial neural networks (ANNs) claims prediction and decision awareness framework that guides owner organizations in their pre-bid construction project decisions to minimize claims. The framework is composed of two genetic optimization ANNs models: a Claims Impact Prediction Model (CIPM), and a Decision Awareness Model (DAM). The CIPM is composed of three separate ANNs that predict the cost and time impacts of the possible claims that may arise in a project. The models also predict the expected types of relationship between the owner and the contractor based on their behavioral and technical decisions during the bidding phase of the project. The framework is implemented using actual data from international projects in the Middle East and Egypt (projects owned by either public or private local organizations who hired international prime contractors to deliver the projects). Literature review, interviews with pertinent experts in the Middle East, and lessons learned from several international construction projects in Egypt determined the input decision variables of the CIPM. The ANNs training, which has been implemented in a spreadsheet environment, was optimized using genetic algorithm (GA). Different weights were assigned as variables to the different layers of each ANN and the total square error was used as the objective function to be minimized. Data was collected from thirty-two international construction projects in order to train and test the ANNs of the CIPM, which predicted cost overruns, schedule delays, and relationships between contracting parties. A genetic optimization backward analysis technique was then applied to develop the Decision Awareness Model (DAM). The DAM combined the three artificial neural networks of the CIPM to assist project owners in setting optimum values for their behavioral and technical decision variables. It implements an intelligent user-friendly input interface which helps project owners in visualizing the impact of their decisions on the project's total cost, original duration, and expected owner-contractor relationship. The framework presents a unique and transparent hybrid genetic algorithm-ANNs training and testing method. It has been implemented in a spreadsheet environment using MS Excel$^{(R)}$ and EVOLVERTM V.5.5. It provides projects' owners of a decision-support tool that raises their awareness regarding their pre-bid decisions for a construction project.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2014

Risk factors are the reason behind cost overruns and delays in long-term large-scale IT service projects. Major risks originate from the integration of complex IT system components, including software, hardware, and solutions; the competitive bidding process; the turnkey and firm-fixed price nature of contracts; and the project execution environment. We have identified several risk factors such as delay in acceptance, low quality of deliverables, delay in payment, adding and changing requirements and scope, unclear definition of roles and responsibilities of the buyer and supplier, and unclear procedures of change and quality management during the project execution phase. One needs to manage risks proactively before signing the contract. In order to weed out or lower the risk factors well in advance, we need to identify and remove risk factors contained in contract clauses and attached contract documents. We propose a checklist for assessing IT service project contracts. To validate the checklist's utility, we applied it to an IT service project in the finance industry. The results show that the checklist is effective in identifying and removing risk factors pertaining to IT service projects.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.1 no.1 s.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2000

In Korea, demand for the Social Overhead Capital(SOC) projects has tremendously increased since 1970's and is expected to keep growing to support national economic development as well as to enhance the quality of life. In these projects, project planning and feasibility study phase is one of the most critical phases because it determines the success of later phases. However, we have experienced trial and errors repeatedly such as cost overruns and schedule delays in many of the SOC projects. These problems can be prevented or at least expected in the earlier phase and it requires well-developed and standardized project planning process and systems before design, procurement, and construction phases begin. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate current problems in this phase and provide framework for a model for the project planning management which can be used for the SOC projects to insure the whole project success.