In modern society, cutting-edge smart technology is attracting attention, and recently the 4th Industrial Revolution, which represents a new industrial era based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is rapidly affecting a wider range of ...
In modern society, cutting-edge smart technology is attracting attention, and recently the 4th Industrial Revolution, which represents a new industrial era based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is rapidly affecting a wider range of industries. In particular, the introduction of smart technology is more required in the construction industry since it has a strong tradition and is labour-intensive. Core elements of smart technologies are Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, big data, and mobile. Research on their application to construction management are actively undertaken, but most of them are limited to specific technologies and only applied to quality and safety management at the construction phase. So, there are always limitations in responding to the changing environment in the construction industry.
In particular, social and environmental changes in Korean construction industry, including the 52-hour workweek system initiated in 2018, act as a delay factor for the construction time, resulting in increased direct and indirect industrial cost such as claims, and the importance of construction schedule management is rapidly rising. It is a fact that the goal of scheduled completion date has been merely a plan with little possibility of realization, as the construction time has been calculated and suggested in an old-fashioned conventional method without applying these changes to construction project. In case of advanced countries, the managing group starts a new construction project by utilizing the accumulated database of completed ones to look up the similar cases in the planning phase and to plan the schedule more systematically and for managing it more efficiently, thereby for minimizing potential disputes. In case of the railway project particularly, it has the characteristics of being intricately linked with various fields of engineering, and safety is the top priority, so it has been granted to acquire conservatively a proven system rather than a new technology. A systematic planning and management method are necessary to address those fundamental issues in the railway field.
Therefore, this study has been conducted to suggest a solution to this practical and challenging problems of managing railway construction schedule. The integrated schedule management system which is used to predict the railway construction time in the planning phase is based on cloud and big data and actual construction time of 66 railway construction project. Besides, each construction project was categorized by characteristics and divided by construction period delay factors. The data and system verification method proceeded in parallel. The reliability of the data was verified through the classified database and by comparing the schedule plan reinterpreted with big data analysis such as the planning schedule of the project under construction, current time schedule planning, delay factors extracted from the database, construction size, region, and project characteristics. As a result, the data extracted through big data analysis were verified as meaningful results that were different from the initial schedule planning of the project and very similar to the current time schedule planning. Secondly, a prototype of an integrated schedule management system using smart technology and adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a basic theory and model in order to study the degree of technology behavioural intention and influence factors based on the degree of awareness of smart technology among railway workers. The reason is that it is a theory that is actively employed as an analysis method that predicts the attitude and behaviour of users by applying new or cutting-edge IT technologies to the industry. First, this study established a research model and hypothesis, verified and adopted hypotheses through empirical analysis through a questionnaire survey. In terms of interpretation based on adopted hypothesis, the introduction of smart technology in the railway industry can be accelerated due to the social atmosphere because social influence is higher than performance effects or benefits. On the other hand, in the case of effort expectancy in a value-based adoption model that has a mediating effect between the acceptance factors of smart technology and the behavioural intention of the integrated schedule management system, the demand for the development of a system that anyone can easily learn, such as the establishment of a manual or education on how to utilize the integrated schedule management system, was confirmed.
The academic implication of this study was to propose a database model that collects and analyses schedule management system data by classification system. In addition, through the model, a cloud-based integrated schedule management system was implemented to provide an opportunity to predict and judge the construction period meaningfully through database data for each factor affecting the construction period delay in the railway construction planning phase. At the same time, it is meaningful that a system capable of more complete big data analysis can be built by increasing the accumulated data over time. In addition to the practical implications of this study can expand the scope of the railway industry other than the schedule management field by introducing a new system that applies smart technology in the railway construction schedule management field. The correlation between work, performance, and improvement according to the application of smart construction technology was analysed for practical implications as the applications of smart construction technology to the railway industry, which is difficult to change due to the nature of the business, compared to relatively conservative and increasing safety requirements in the era when the technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the paradigm of industry are rapidly changing. Besides, this study presented issues and implementation measures that could be applied directly to construction field through analysis of improvements in construction task and performance along with the application of smart technology. In addition, by introducing a new system applying smart construction technology in the field of railroad schedule planning, it is expected that it will be possible to expand the field to other related fields other than the schedule planning field.