Strategies for Design-Build in Korea Using System Dynamics Modeling

Abstract

Increasingly adopted by both public and private organizations, design-build (DB) has become a favored construction project delivery system, outperforming other systems in terms of cost, schedule, and quality. However, DB has been especially criticized by the public sector for practicing subjective evaluation, for requiring excessive resources, and for providing only limited accessibility to small and medium-sized contractors. In Korea, similar critiques have been raised, as these qualities have prevented public owners from benefiting from the potential advantages of DB. In order to address these challenging issues, the present research systematically analyzes the characteristics of the DB delivery system in Korea. Based on industry surveys and an extensive literature review, a qualitative system dynamics model is developed and used to propose and test hypothetical DB policy alternatives which are expected to enhance DB performance. Furthermore, after the appropriate customization processes, these research findings can also be applied to the industry settings of different countries.