It is reported that Korean domestic construction market will not increase over the next twenty years or so, due to the fact that Korean economy has already been matured and the domestic construction market is also saturated. Under these circumstances, record-breaking expansion of overseas construction market by Korean firms provides new opportunities for the Korean construction industry. Nevertheless, overseas construction by Korean firms is largely focused on industrial plant construction, is limited in geographical expansion, and has potential problems in profitability. In order to boost the overseas construction, it is recommended to advance and balance the architectural and civil projects as well as engineering projects. Recent strategy and policies developed by Korean government is encouraging in a timely manner in order to enhance the capabilities of Korean architectural design firms. In this context, this paper proposes a direction of using information systems for Korean architectural design firms in order to achieve competitive advantages in the international market.
Design management is not generally defined with common understanding, as it is a very subjective issue. However, from an industry perspective, a competent design firm should have outstanding capabilities in design itself as well as in systematic management. However, it is found that Korean architectural design firms have not utilized systematic approaches in managing their design projects. This fact is also supported by looking into the information systems of the architectural design companies. Good examples include the progress management system for developing design documents. It could be good enough if a system keeps track of time-sheets of man-hours involved in specific projects. The data can provide with meaningful information for managing design schedule, cost, payment, and productivity. Despite of this importance, most companies do not utilize this simple system in the form of company-wide applications. It is mainly due to the domestic culture in architectural design industry. Fortunately, more architects have started to point out the significance of this type of systems for international projects.
Lessons learned from top international companies indicate that the basic information systems mentioned above would be a commodity soon. In order to have competitive advantages in the international market, Korean firms need to have advanced systems based on these commodities. Those may include practical BIM, integrated system encompassing many different construction business functions (e.g. cost, schedule, and others) throughout the entire project life cycle. Further, information systems for planning processes are critical. Technical and managerial capabilities in planning at the early stage of a project are very important area for information systems. All the systems should be strategic based on each company’s corporate strategy in order to have the most benefits from the design information systems.