Understanding the competitiveness factors of Korean contractors in the international construction market

The international construction markets (ICM) are constantly changing with new pressures creating opportunities and threats., Enterprises from advanced major advanced economies have been successful in venturing overseas and winning projects by exploiting their design, engineering, technological, and managerial competencies. Construction markets have changed with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish construction enterprises securing more projects overseas. Understanding and exploiting the competitive advantage possessed by enterprises from major advanced economies is being challenged by enterprises from newly industrialised economies. This study investigates the competitiveness factors of the Korean construction (KOC) enterprises to understand how they have been successful in exploiting their competitive advantages. The competitiveness evaluation model (CEM) is developed using system dynamics which compares the project performances between the models generated by general and Korea-featured competitiveness factors in winning work in the ICM. The findings reveal that ownership of the enterprise, government strategy and support for the construction industry enterprises, strong leadership, technology-intensive, and special characteristics of large Korean enterprises (Chaebol system) could be critical factors for creating competitive advantage

A power filter for the detection of burst sources of gravitational radiation in interferometric detectors

We present a filter for detecting gravitational wave signals from burst sources. This filter requires only minimal advance knowledge of the expected signal: i.e. the signal's frequency band and time duration. It consists of a threshold on the total power in the data stream in the specified signal band during the specified time. This filter is optimal (in the Neyman-Pearson sense) for signal searches where only this minimal information is available.Comment: 3 pages, RevTeX, GWDAW '99 proceedings contribution, submitted to Int. J. Modern Phys.

Minimisation of risk exposure at the pre-production stage through the use of contractor-led design management

Many large-scale construction projects (LSPs) are designed in a collaboration between famous international architects and local design firms. Design management usually evolves as a tool at the design stage for designers and design solution. One of the special characteristics of the Korean construction environment places a duty and responsibility on the contractor to coordinate and check design information. Hence the contractor must manage and integrate diverse design information into the production process. This research considers how the design management diagram (DMD) can help as a part of the system at the pre-production stage of LSPs in Korea. The pre-production stage receives insufficient attention from the research community from the perspective of design management; it is a complex process involving interdependence, risk, and uncertainty. Through the application of a DMD from the pre-production stage, the contractor can predict and manage the design-related uncertainty during production stages. The design management factors (DMFs) were analysed by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and then used complexity system theory to understand the interrelationship between the causal factors. DMFs are presented as a causal loop diagram which can help the contractor to cope with design related uncertainties at the early production phase

The Paradigm Shift Needed by Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterpsies to Operate in The International Construction Market

Commercial burdens and dogmas are not always on the same path, especially in the construction sector. In a constantly changing working environment, with strong market fluctuations that need to be absorbed, Micro, Small and Medium sized construction companies might need to seek new market sections overseas. In order to do so, they would need to leverage strong competitive advantages to establish themselves in different contexts, outside of their domestic markets. This paper focuses on the paradigm shift needed by Micro, Small and Medium size construction companies serving the sector venturing overseas. It will be explored the existing gap between theory and practice, before highlighting some of their main features, including their entrepreneurial mind-set when it comes to considering construction technologies and specialist services. After overviewing patterns, values, challenges and features of these companies, the focus will then be on the competitive advantage features and the paradigm shift characteristics to build a framework able to allow these companies to operate in international markets. A mixed methodology gathering information from observations, semistructured interviews, document reviews about specific case studies, will be put in place. It emerged the importance to raise MSMEs’ awareness about how to fit their features to international market

Balanced approach for tendering practice at the pre-contract stage: the UK practitioner’s perspective

Tender documents often lack clarity and are incomplete, making it difficult for contractors to appropriately price projects. A general view is that the quality of tender documents has declined, which has affected the bidding strategies of contractors. However, the academic literature has focused mainly upon the views of contractors. To obtain a more balanced view of tendering practices, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 practitioners (client, consultant, and contractor) who are involved in a common project at the same time in the UK construction industry. The contractor was satisfied that the quality of tender documents had been consistent. By contrast, both the client and the consultant agreed that the quality of tender documents is an ongoing issue. During the study it was revealed that tendering practice is influenced by the relationship between stakeholders or the unbalanced access to information rather than the accuracy and analysis of tender documentations. Tendering practices and proposed efficient ways of improving the bidding environment were examined. Using the awareness of other project stakeholder’s perspectives, this study can help the contractor to establish suitable tendering practices, and to mitigate tender risk at the bidding stage, which could effectively be implemented in the UK construction industry

Contractor-Led Critical Design Management Factors in High-Rise Building Projects Involving Multinational Design Teams

High-rise building projects (HRPs) are comprised of various complex design elements. The involvement of a multinational design team increases design-related issues for contractors, which must be managed during the construction stage. Thus, contractors need to understand how appropriate design management can positively affect project performance and their profit. Identification of critical design management factors (CDMFs) can provide appropriate decision-making support for contractors, including how limited resources including money, manpower, and equipment can be allocated throughout the construction stage. This study identifies and ranks the CDMFs for HRPs designed by multinational design teams. Through a questionnaire survey in South Korea, 21 design management factors were acknowledged among 40 initial factors. Then, using factor analysis, these 21 identified CDMFs were categorized into four groups: interface management, design information, production stage, and risk contribution. Based on results, this study identifies general and regional features of design management. Because these CDMFs are chosen from the contractor’s perspective, if they are used to make appropriate decisions, the overall project performance should be increased during the construction phases

Contractor-led design risk management in international large project: Korean contractor’s perspective

In contemporary international large-scale projects (LSPs), where heavy responsibilities are placed on the contractor, the contractor needs to manage all design-related issues for production activities, unlike traditional design management. To mitigate the contractor’s design-related risks from the bid stage, this study identifies the design risk management (DRM) factors and analyzes them in terms of importance weight and application preference. Through the questionnaire survey and statistical analysis using SPSS, “Integrated design management team on-site [F11]”, “BIM application/ simulation [F27]”, and “Design-related value engineering [F04]” are recognized as the most important factors with over the 4.00 mean value and their application preferences are ranked 6th, 4th, and 17th, respectively. And then, the factor interrelationship analysis is carried with 18 high-rank DRM factors in order to investigate the structural features of design-related project elements. Overall, high application preference factors have diverse relationships with other factors, whereas high importance weight factors show a strong and direct relationship. Factor interrelationships of the highrank application preference factor (5.16) show more than twice of the average factor relationship (2.29). Finally, a causal loop diagram is generated using System dynamics based on factor interrelationships to verify the interrelationship structure among DRM factors. With the awareness of detailed DRM factors and their interrelationship structure, the contractor can understand how design-related risk issues are interconnected with various production activities on site and prepare suitable management methods according to the project's situation from an early project stage

Probing entropy bounds with scalar field spacetimes

We study covariant entropy bounds in dynamical spacetimes with naked singularities. Specifically we study a spherically symmetric massless scalar field solution. The solution is an inhomogeneous cosmology with an initial spacelike singularity, and a naked timelike singularity at the origin. We construct the entropy flux 4-vector for the scalar field, and show by explicit computation that the generalized covariant bound $S_{L(B,B')}\le (A(B)-A(B'))/4$ is violated for light sheets $L(B,B')$ in the neighbourhood of the (evolving) apparent horizon. We find no violations of the Bousso bound (for which $A(B')=0$), even though certain sufficient conditions for this bound do not hold. This result therefore shows that these conditions are not necessary.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; published version with typos correcte

Tracking and data systems support for the Helios project. Volume 2: DSN support of Project Helios April 1975 - May 1976

Deep Space Network activities in the development of the Helios B mission from planning through entry of Helios 2 into first superior conjunction (end of Mission Phase II) are summarized. Network operational support activities for Helios 1 from first superior conjunction through entry into third superior conjunction are included

Predicting the Starquakes in PSR J0537-6910

We report on more than 7 years of monitoring of PSR J0537-6910, the 16 ms pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using data acquired with the RXTE. During this campaign the pulsar experienced 23 sudden increases in frequency (``glitches'') amounting to a total gain of over six ppm of rotation frequency superposed on its gradual spindown of d(nu)/d(t) = -2e-10 Hz/s. The time interval from one glitch to the next obeys a strong linear correlation to the amplitude of the first glitch, with a mean slope of about 400 days ppm (6.5 days per uHz), such that these intervals can be predicted to within a few days, an accuracy which has never before been seen in any other pulsar. There appears to be an upper limit of ~40 uHz for the size of glitches in_all_ pulsars, with the 1999 April glitch of J0537 as the largest so far. The change in the spindown of J0537 across the glitches, Delta(d(nu)/d(t)), appears to have the same hard lower limit of -1.5e-13 Hz/s, as, again, that observed in all other pulsars. The spindown continues to increase in the long term, d(d(nu)/d(t))/d(t) = -1e-21 Hz/s/s, and thus the timing age of J0537 (-0.5 nu d(nu)/d(t)) continues to decrease at a rate of nearly one year every year, consistent with movement of its magnetic moment away from its rotational axis by one radian every 10,000 years, or about one meter per year. J0537 was likely to have been born as a nearly-aligned rotator spinning at 75-80 Hz, with a |d(nu)/d(t)| considerably smaller than its current value of 2e-10 Hz/s. The pulse profile of J0537 consists of a single pulse which is found to be flat at its peak for at least 0.02 cycles.Comment: 54 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Cleaner figure 2. V4 -- in line with version accepted by Ap