JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

ISSN 1392-3730 / eISSN 1822-3605

2016 Volume 22(7): 944–953
doi:10.3846/13923730.2014.945949

TIME REDUCTION EFFECT OF THE ENHANCED TACT METHOD

FOR HIGH-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Donghoon LEEa, Dong-Sub KIMb, Gwang-Hee KIMc, Sunkuk KIMa

aDepartmentof Architectural Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
bDepartmentof Building Construction Technology Team, Daelim Industrial CO.,
Ltd., Seoul, Republic of Korea
cDepartment of Architectural Engineering, Kyonggi University, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

Received 23 Oct 2013; accepted 22 May 2014

Abstract. The finish work on high-rise residential buildings is performed simultaneously with mechanical and electrical
construction work, which results in frequent work interference and delay. This significantly hinders efficient schedule
management. Critical Path Method (CPM) is inefficient when applied to high-rise residential building projects in which
work is repeatedly carried out for each floor. Line-of-Balance (LOB) is widely used for its effectiveness in managing
repetitive work. LOB was developed into TACT and eTACT (enhanced-TACT) to combine heterogeneous works con-
tinuously. In particular, the eTACT schedule management method has an advantage in that it is capable of systemati-
cally connecting detailed construction, mechanical and electrical construction projects using a work planning template.
This study evaluates the time reduction effect of the eTACT method for a high-rise residential building. A comparative
analysis of data on 102 cases of non-applied projects and 44 cases of projects using the eTACT method over a period
of 10 years is presented to verify its effectiveness. The result shows that finish work time was reduced by 25% or about
53 days on average.
Keywords: time reduction effect, finish work, TACT, residential building, schedule management.

Introduction
The LOB method is efficient at analyzing repetitive
Most high-rise residential buildings are constructed simi- works (Al Sarraj 1990); however, it is difficult to manage
larly on each floor or in zones which have similar floor works that involve the interaction of several schedules
plans. These works are broken down into smaller works (Arditi et al. 2002) which affects waiting time. In addi-
(Sacks, Goldin 2007; Cho et al. 2013). Finish work is tion, LOB and other existing methods do not reflect the
carried out simultaneous with mechanical and electrical subcontractor’s scheduling management (Choi 2012). For
construction work. Such works are repeated at each floor, efficient scheduling of high-rise residential buildings, re-
resulting in complicated interconnections. Furthermore, source levelling is necessary (Cho et al. 2013). To this
as the repeat count increases, the waiting time due to end, TACT and eTACT methods that combine LOB, val-
work interference will increase (Al-Momani 2000). For ue stream analysis and the new scheduling concept of
this reason, various studies have been conducted with Lean Construction are being studied (Kim et al. 2003;
Critical Path Method (CPM), Line-of-Balance (LOB) and Suh et al. 2003). Lee et al. (2004) well introduced the
other methods (Suhail, Neale 1994; Yamín, Harmelink TACT scheduling method that serves to synchronize the
2001; Arditi, Albulak 1986). Among these methods, the cycle time of repetitive works by zoning the work places
most common is the CPM. The significance of CPM in and maintaining each work with the proper number of
the construction industry is recognized because it is sys- workers, so there is less waiting time for the crews.
tematic and detailed (Kim 2012); however, it is difficult The concept of TACT is to reduce work time by con-
to modify its logic and is inefficient for repetitive works sistently repeating the works of precedence relationship.
(Rahbar, Rowings 1992). CPM is also unsuitable for However, it is difficult to realize time reduction without
high-rise residential buildings since the productivity of details of the TACT method. The eTACT method system-
workers is not taken into consideration (Selinger 1980). atically combines detailed construction and mechanical
In particular, it is not helpful for simplifying progress and electrical construction projects, applying the work
management, which requires significant effort and time. planning template to the existing TACT method. It is ex-

Corresponding author: Sunkuk Kim

E-mail: kimskuk@[Link]
944 Copyright © 2016 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press
[Link]/tcem
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2016, 22(7): 944–953 945

pected that this process will closely connect heterogene- Apartment Construction Simulation Game (LEAPCON),
ous works, reducing the wait time. a computer simulation method to improve the work in
This study evaluates the time reduction effect of the progress based on the LOB method and the lean model.
eTACT method. To do so, the enhanced-TACT (eTACT) However, LOB method has limitations on the ex-
method was applied to high-rise residential buildings, and pression of specific interfaces among work trades per-
the data on construction time were collected. The eTACT formed in a certain space or floor as shown in Figure 1.
method can be applied to a wide range of finished works For example, finish works, such as masonry, plastering,
with different sequences and methods, yet the study scope waterproofing and painting works, have different char-
is limited to residential buildings. The study is conducted acteristics in variety, quantity, working circulation and
in three different steps. First, the scheduling methods of productivity of their subdivided activities. And some fin-
repetitive works are examined, the concept of eTACT ish works are interruptively conducted with mechanical
scheduling method is established and the procedure for and electrical works at the same space. The more work
applying the method is identified. Second, the eTACT trades are involved, the more interruptions among subdi-
method is applied to large residential buildings for a pe- vided activities may occur. In this case, LOB method has
riod of 10 years. Third, the data of work duration on high- limitation on the expression of critical activities that can
rise residential buildings applied with the eTACT method happen among subdivided activities. Figure 1 (1) shows
and those not applying the method within the same firm the example of interfaces among work trades, and Fig-
are compared to verify the time reduction effect. ure 1 (2) illustrates the details of interfaces among subdi-
vided activities that shows critical path. The eTACT can
1. Preliminary study make up for limitations of the LOB method with work
1.1. Line of Balance (LOB) planning templates introduced in Chapter 2.

LOB maintains the productivity of each crew for repeti-

tive work, and the productivity is expressed as a gradient 1.2. eTACT scheduling method
of a line to mark the progress of each repetitive work. In most of the cases, at least two work trades are car-
This method allows efficient schedule management by ried out simultaneous to the finish work for a high-rise
schematizing the overall work (Arditi, Albulak 1986; Ar- apartment building. Around 45% of the finish work time
diti, Psarros 1987). Numerous studies have been conduct- turned out to be non-work time caused by work inter-
ed for efficient management of LOB. Arditi et al. (2002) ference (Kim et al. 2003). To resolve this problem, the
incorporated the concept of a learning curve effect with TACT schedule management method was adopted. The
the existing LOB method to suggest a plan to reflect the TACT scheduling method divides the work zone (Cho
time reduction effect of improved productivity. Authors et al. 2013) based on the LOB, and the work time is uni-
analyzed several repetitive works and removed all unnec- fied, continuing the precedence relationship (Yoon, Suh
essary manpower and materials input based on the learn- 2005).
ing effect in the paper, arguing that productivity improve- The TACT method defines each work in detail and
ment and time reduction effects are realized. Soini et al. plans and manages the defined work so that those with
(2004) used DYNAProject™, a resource-based LOB op- a precedence relationship are consistently linked, which
erating software that enables application of LOB method will make the work more effective and will shorten the
to general construction, in order to improve quality of waiting time between projects to reduce the overall con-
the schedule, minimize risks and reduce overall construc- struction time (Kim et al. 2003).
tion cost. Sacks and Goldin (2007) proposed the Lean

Fig. 1. Interfaces among work trades

946 D. Lee et al. Time reduction effect of the enhanced TACT method for high-rise residential buildings

Fig. 3. Concept of controlling TACT units

subcontractors as shown in Figure 2 while waiting time

often happens in the LOB method. TACT and eTACT
Fig. 2. Waiting time between work trades
serve to synchronize the cycle time of repetitive works
by allocating uniform workload. The eTACT method de-
scribes critical paths with activities subdivided half-daily
Figure 2 shows the concept of adjusting the time of on work planning templates while the LOB and TACT
the prior TACT unit and the post TACT unit, so that the methods control are difficult to describe a critical path
same duration of both TACTs can be seen. Six days are and control activities daily.
set for the TACT unit, and the work time of the activity In the case of TACT unit 1 (T1) shown in Figure 3,
included in the TACT unit is adjusted so that all TACT the work time of A1–5 is reduced, and in the case of
units are scheduled for works that last 6 days. This con- TACT unit 2 (T2), the work times of B1–2 and B1–3
cept ensures work continuity and becomes the basis for are increased to 6 days. Based on the work efficiency,
progress management. the manpower input will be controlled (Kim et al. 2011).
As shown in Table 1 below, the LOB, TACT and Adjusting the manpower input is necessary for a specific
eTACT scheduling methods have some difference in crew to perform the work without interruption.
terms of scheduling target, activity control, work load of However, the TACT method lacks details to control
each activity, waiting time between work trades, coopera- the detailed work, making it difficult to apply to high-
tion among relevant subcontractors, description of criti- rise residential building projects. Until the early 2000s,
cal path and scheduling technique. TACT was devised large construction firms tried to adopt the TACT method,
to make up for limitations of LOB (Lee et al. 2004), but little progress had been made. Moreover, the TACT
and eTACT is proposed for more efficient management of method overlooked the low probability that a worker who
TACT in this paper. Basically, LOB, TACT and eTACT finished a given activity and is off site for a certain period
are conducted by the linear scheduling technique, but of time will come back for the next activity (Kim et al.
eTACT is supplemented with work planning template. 2011). In other words, a worker outside the site may not
TACT and eTACT are suggested to eliminate waiting come back on time or such a worker may be replaced
time between work trades under close cooperation among with another worker, reducing the work efficiency. It is

Table 1. Comparison of LOB, TACT and eTACT

Description LOB TACT eTACT
– Repetitive works for each – Repetitive works for each – Repetitive works for each work trade
work trade work trade – Close consideration among subdivided
Scheduling target
– Less consideration between – Close consideration among activities of each work trade
work trades work trades
– Divided by floor under – Divided by floor under same – Divided by floor under same time
different time span of each time span of each work trade span of each work trade
Activity
work trade – Controlled daily – Subdivided to detail activities and
control
– Controlled daily controlled half-daily on work
planning templates
Workload Variable Uniform Uniform
Waiting time often happens No or less waiting time happens No or less waiting time happens
Waiting time
between work trades between work trades between work trades
Cooperation among General cooperation needs Close cooperation needs among Close cooperation needs among
subcontractors among subcontractors subcontractors. subcontractors
Difficult to describe Difficult to describe Described on work planning
Critical path
templates
Scheduling Linear scheduling method Linear scheduling method Linear scheduling method + work
technique planning template
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2016, 22(7): 944–953 947

using a thorough plan on detailed works. The eTACT

method uses a work planning template for detailed work
plans.

2. eTACT: Work planning template

The “work planning template” of eTACT should be pre-
pared by analyzing in detail the work interference that
may be generated during the actual work on site and
considering the precedence relationship with heterogene-
ous works. The eTACT scheduling method is applied to
represent the works within the eTACT unit in detail. In
other words, by 0.5 day/activity, the work planning tem-
plate classifies activities subdivided in the eTACT unit,
including mechanical work and electricity/communica-
tions construction work, and the critical path are analyzed
Fig. 4. Continuity of work between eTACT units
by the respective work experts. Then, the precedence re-
lationship with the heterogeneous work is analyzed after
an important managerial delay factor (Kazaz et al. 2012). discussion with other work experts. In addition, the criti-
Thus, the work time is adjusted to consider the efficien- cal work trades are selected from all the simultaneously
cy of unit work for the TACT application. Also, detailed performed works, and interference, including spatial re-
work should be scheduled so that workers do not leave strictions that may be generated when the work is carried
the site but continue the given work. out in a limited space, is analyzed (Kim et al. 2011).
To do so, the work planning template is adopted. As shown in Figure 5, the work planning template
The eTACT method secures the continuity of activities arranges the critical works in order. These critical works
to reduce the waiting time caused by the difference in impact the post work in the eTACT unit cycle, so in-
work pace. In addition, continuous work will reduce the tensive management is required. Also, the works are
risk that is likely when securing the required manpower. classified into three different fields – construction work,
When this concept is applied to the repetitive unit, the mechanical work and electricity/communications con-
continuity of work can be achieved by applying the same struction work – to represent the precedence relationship
work time per repetitive 6 day unit, as shown in Fig- within the same construction work. This makes it possi-
ure 4. ble to identify the relation with the heterogeneous works.
A single eTACT unit that covers 6 days is composed Furthermore, the spatial interference that may be gener-
of around 10~20 finish, mechanical and electrical works. ated due to progress in the work can be identified.
In addition, there is no float time in between the eTACT Among the case projects, the work planning tem-
units, so when the synchronized work is delayed, it will plate prepared in accordance with a 6 day eTACT sched-
greatly impact the overall work time. Thus, there is a pos- ule is shown in Figure 5. As demonstrated in the work
sibility of restrictions on space and time due to simultane- planning template, ceiling work is completed within 6
ous works being performed by several subcontractors as days, from level check to cleaning, with the work conti-
well as work interference. These problems can be solved nuity secured.

Fig. 5. An example of work planning templates

948 D. Lee et al. Time reduction effect of the enhanced TACT method for high-rise residential buildings

Fig. 6. Work planning template adjusted by crews

Fig. 8. Setting up the relationship between eTACT units
Figure 6 shows the process of setting the pace and
time of the given work by adjusting the manpower in- chanical team performs the plumbing and other works
put for preparation of the work planning template of the for 2.5 days (A1), and the sprinkler team is dispatched
ceiling work. When the ceiling work is in progress, the after the plumbing work is completed to carry out a hy-
mechanical work and the construction work will be per- draulic test and connect the sprinkler heads (B). Finally,
formed in combination. As an initial schedule, the con- the general mechanical team performs the finish work for
struction work is expected to last for 7.5 days, and the 0.5 days (A2). For continuous works of two teams, the
mechanical work has 4 days of waiting time in accord- sprinkler work is scheduled to be performed alternately
ance with the construction work plan. To ensure work in two zones. In other words, six days are required for
continuity, the manpower input for the construction work eTACT unit management, and the detailed works are di-
is increased to reduce the work time to 6 days, and the vided into zones according to the work load, scheduled
manpower input for the mechanical work is adjusted to for two or three days.
from two crews to one to reduce man-hours of waiting. When preparing the work planning template, the
When preparing the work planning template, the manpower input is adjusted based on the productivity.
precedence relationship should be considered along with Table 2 shows the productivity estimated based on data
the work continuity. As shown in Figure 7, the critical for a large global construction firm in Korea for the past
pass of the detailed construction and mechanical and 10 years. The data in Table 2 are used for preparing the
electrical works should be managed separately (①). work planning template of the project with the eTACT
Furthermore, the order should be marked to clearly method. Based on the work team and daily work load,
represent the precedence relationship of each work (④, the input crews can be adjusted to control the work time.
⑤). For instance, in the case of electrical work, “E2” (②,
③) should be performed after the “A1–2” activity is com- 3. Methodology
pleted and should be completed before “A1–4” so that the
3.1. Statistical methods
given construction work is not delayed.
The mechanical work within the eTACT unit is per- For verification of the time reduction effect of the eTACT
formed by two teams, as shown in Figure 8. The me- method, the actual data of 44 residential buildings con-

Table 2. Productivity rate of finish works

Daily
Work Crew Unit
Productivity
Masonry Skilled labour: 1 Brick 2,000/man
Lightweight Skilled labour: 1
M2 30/crew
panel Common labour: 2
Lightweight AE
Skilled labour: 5 M3 70/crew
concrete work
Concrete worker: 4
Floor plastering M2 1,500/crew
Plastering worker: 5
Wall plastering Skilled worker: 1 M2 30/ man
Skilled worker: 1
Wall tiling M2 20/crew
Common labour: 1
Floor tiling Skilled worker: 1 M2 20/man
Skilled worker: 1
Ceiling M2 120/crew
Fig. 7. Setting up the precedence relationship Common labour: 1
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2016, 22(7): 944–953 949

ducted by a local construction firm were collected over Table 3. Finish work of a housing unit in this study
the past 10 years. In addition, 102 cases that did not apply
Floor Wall Ceiling
the eTACT method for the same period were examined to
conduct the ANOVA test of construction duration. Eve- Ondol heating
Living Wall Gypsum board
system + Wood
ry project of two groups was independently conducted, room
flooring
paper + paper
and construction duration of the project is a quantitative
Ondol heating Wall Gypsum board
variable. The difference of construction duration between Bedroom
system + Vinyl sheet paper + paper
two groups is examined by one-way ANOVA test due to
Ondol heating
the existence of single independent variable for compari- Unit plastic
Bathroom system + Ceramic Wall tile
son. The Levene’s test and t-test between two groups are ceiling
tile
conducted to examine the distribution of collected data,
Ondol heating
which is used for a clue of solving the productivity issue. Wall Gypsum board
Kitchen system + Wood
paper + paper
flooring
3.2. Variable control of ANOVA test
For more accurate verification of the time reduction ef-
fect of the eTACT method against non-application of the
during the finish work, and no such case occurred
method, other variables that may affect time reduction,
in this study.
including ease of supplying workers, managing the abil-
The productivity of finish work is mainly affected
ity of firms, work duration and details, and other external
by the evolution of material, equipment, technology and
delay factors are excluded. First, the same conditions ap-
management. Among the factors, material, equipment and
ply for supplying workers and for project management in
technology evolved over the past 10 years are considered
order to minimize the effect on work time. In addition,
to be equally applied to two groups of collected data,
the duration change caused by development of construc-
which may not affect the productivity of finish work.
tion technologies for the projects performed in the same
However, management technique has been evolved from
period is controlled. Since the work time differs accord-
the LOB to the eTACT method, which may affect the
ing to the construction type, projects with the same finish
productivity.
work are the study subjects. Finally, works under special
To prove the assumption, the distribution of yearly
conditions, such as suspension of the given work and de-
collected data is surveyed as shown in Figure 9. The fig-
sign changes, are excluded from the comparison analysis.
ure shows comparatively consistent distribution although
The description of each variable control is as follows:
the numeric difference between two groups happens. And
1) Worker supply: It is not difficult to supply workers
statistically, the equality of variances can be confirmed by
in Korea, since labors are abundant in urban areas.
the Levene’s test result of two groups that shows 0.116
Thus, the case study is carried out on projects im-
of F value and 0.734 of P value which means the distri-
plemented in urban areas with population of at least
bution of collected data statistically acceptable as shown
1 million persons;
in Table 4.
2) Unification of managing ability: The managing abil-
ity and system differ by firm, and this may impact
the work time. Therefore, the eTACT method is ap-
plied to a large construction firm that constantly im-
plements numerous housing projects, and cases of
the same firm not employing eTACT are used for
comparison;
3) Restriction of the duration of project implementa-
tion: The cases applying the eTACT method are
executed in 2002~2011, and the non-eTACT cases
are examined from projects implemented within the
same range of years;
4) Restriction of the construction details: If the fin-
ish work type differs, it may lead to different work
times. Our study is restricted to residential buildings
built with the same finishing materials, as shown in
Table 3;
5) Restrictions on external delay factors: External delay
factors, including suspension of the given work and
design changes, may distort the result. Thus, projects
with these delay factors are excluded from the case
study. Delay caused by external factors is not likely Fig. 9. Distribution of yearly collected data
950 D. Lee et al. Time reduction effect of the enhanced TACT method for high-rise residential buildings

Table 4. Levene’s test result of two groups Table 6. Correlation of workload and duration

Statistics Levene’s test Workload Duration

Classification Std. Workload Pearson Correlation 1 –0.094
N Mean F Sig.
Deviation Sig. (2-tailed) 0.258
eTACT 44 2007.11 2.452 N 146 146
0.116 0.734
Non-eTACT 102 2006.88 2.565 Duration Pearson Correlation –0.094 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.258
N 146 146
4. Finish work time of the top floor
To compare the construction time of collected data,
Table 6 shows the correlation of workload, herein
Figure 10 is presented. Finish work in the Figure 10
finish work area of the top floor, and duration. The cor-
includes all works such as floor, wall, and ceiling finish
relation of two groups is –0.94, which means that the
works after structural work. The finish work time (a)
workload doesn’t affect the duration of the work. As a
influencing on the total project duration (c) is the duration
result, it is assumed that the enhanced scheduling method
for completing the finish work of the top floor right after
like eTACT only affects the time reduction of the top
structural work as shown in the Case 1 of Figure 10.
floor finish work.
Although, as shown in the Case 2 of Figure 10, the total
finish work time (b’) increases according to the increase
5. Analysis of the time reduction effect
of the number of floors, the finish work time (a) for the
top floor only influences on the total project duration (c’) Table 7 tabulates the descriptive statistics for both the
as the same as Case 1. In other words, the increase of eTACT and non-eTACT data. The duration for the group
structural work time only affects the total project duration applying the TACT method is relatively lower than the
(c’). Therefore, if the total construction time needs to be one for the group not applying the eTACT method. The
shorter under the fixed time condition of structural work, data show the number of floors in a building, the total
finish work time of the top floor should be reduced with floor area and the top floor finish work duration. Table 3
management efficiency. shows the cases applying the eTACT method, and the
In general, the increase of workload, herein building top floor work duration ranges from 130 days to 185
floor area for finish work, may affect the increase of work days. As mentioned previously, all data are from the
time, which is acceptable in case of arranging same work same firm, and the location, finishing type and so forth
crews for the work trades that have different workloads. are controlled. The top floor work duration of the study
However, in case of arranging more work crews for big- subjects ranges from 170 days to 262 days.
ger workloads of work trades, the workloads may not The difference in the duration of finish work between
affect the durations of finish works, which is confirmed group 1, which applied the eTACT method, and group 2,
from the analysis of the data collected over the past 10 which did not apply the eTACT method are examined. It
years. Table 5 shows the statistics of workloads and du- is notable that the sample means for the two groups were
rations of collected data. not numerically identical, as shown in Table 5. However,
it is difficult to conclude that this difference is meaning-
Table 5. Statistics of workload and duration ful. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test determines
Mean Std. Deviation N whether the numerical difference between two sample
means is statistically significant (Walpole et al. 1993).
Workload (m2) 393.3389 122.84917 146
Therefore, evidence exists of the differences between the
Duration (day) 191.7671 34.63744 146

Fig. 10. Finish work time of the top floor

Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2016, 22(7): 944–953 951

Table 7. Descriptive statistics of collected data

Std. Std. 95% Confidence Interval for Mean

N Mean Min. Max.
Deviation Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
eTACT 44 153.06 20.541 3.096 146.8229 159.3135 130.0 185.0
Non-eTACT 102 208.31 24.450 2.420 203.5112 213.1162 170.0 262.0
Total 146 191.66 34.475 2.853 186.0251 197.3037 130.0 262.0

population means. The hypotheses for this ANOVA prob- 6. Findings and results
lem are as follows: The F test results are shown in Table 8. The variance of
H0 : μT = μN; (1) the data to determine the difference between two group
means can be analyzed by an F test, which provides the
H1 : μT ≠ μN, (2)
p-value. Based on the p-value, the hypotheses above are
here, μT is the mean of the work time of the residential tested. Through the F test, if the between-group variabil-
buildings to which the eTACT method was applied, ity is larger than the within-group variability, H0 could be
and μN is that of the residential buildings to which the rejected, i.e., it could be concluded that the means of the
eTACT method was not applied. To confirm the outliers two groups are statistically different (Walpole et al. 1993).
of the two samples, a box plot was adopted as shown in The study applied the eTACT method to residential
Figure 11. There were no outliers found in the eTACT buildings to verify the time reduction effect. The top floor
applied cases or the non-applied cases. finish work duration applied with the eTACT method for
10 years was 153 days on average and 206.2 days for
the non-applied cases. Moreover, the F-Test result of the
case data shows that the mean values of the two groups
are significant at the 95% confidence interval level.
The difference in work time was caused by the delay

Table 8. Statistical results of eTACT and non-eTACT data

Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between
93819.799 1 93819.799 172.048 0.000
Groups
Within
78524.756 144 545.311
Groups
Fig. 11. Box plot for differences Total 172344.555 145

Fig. 12. An example of the eTACT scheduling method

952 D. Lee et al. Time reduction effect of the enhanced TACT method for high-rise residential buildings

Fig. 13. An example of the linear scheduling method

in executing the works in progress, as previously stated The eTACT method is applied to unify works per
(Fig. 2), and this can be identified in the progress schedule eTACT unit to perform the works continuously and to
of the case. Figure 12 shows the progress schedule of minimize the float. The method involves preparing a work
the eTACT-applied case with a short work time, and all planning template to control the activity time. Furthermore,
finish works were performed without waiting or delay. the eTACT scheduling method is applied to show the
The work time of this project data was 130 days. work within the eTACT unit in detail, in other words
Figure 13 shows a case without eTACT and with to prepare activities in 0.5 day increments. The works
a relatively short work time. It is one of the progress within the eTACT unit are composed of construction and
schedule of finish works in non-eTACT data. All finish mechanical and electrical communication construction
works were performed in order without delay, and the works, and the precedence relationship of the same work
top floor work duration was 180 days. The work time is and the critical path are analyzed by work experts. Then,
longer than that with the eTACT method because there the precedence relationship with the heterogeneous work
is a waiting time caused by the pace difference of the is analyzed upon discussion with other work experts.
works in progress, as shown in Figure 13 (c) and (d). In addition, critical work trades are selected from all
In addition, Figure 13 (a) is the air entrained concrete the simultaneously performed works, and interferences,
pouring work, which delayed the post floor plastering including the spatial restriction that may be generated
work, Figure 13 (b), for about 15~20 days due to the when the work is carried out in the limited space, are
change in the pace of work. These waiting time and work reflected. Based on this, the final work planning template
delays are commonly found in cases not applying eTACT. for work continuity is prepared to commence the work.
This seems to be caused by the mean difference of the The study verified the time reduction effect of the
two samples. eTACT method. The mean finish work duration was 153
Finally, the productivity data used for eTACT in this days for the case with eTACT and 206.2 days without,
study are based on the experiences of the given firm, and for a difference of 53 days. Time to completion with the
they were not verified, which may result in slight errors. eTACT method decreased by around 25% when compared
However, such errors may be commonly found in all to conventional LOB. Also, five variables including the
samples and should not affect the finish work duration. region, work type, worker supply, management ability
Furthermore, it was assumed that there is no productivity and application time of the given cases were controlled
difference between eTACT cases and non-eTACT cases, to conduct the F-test. As a result, there was a significant
so the effects of using the eTACT method should be mean difference in the two groups at the 95% confidence
studied in the future. interval level. Based on the result, the progress schedules
of the cases were analyzed, and it was discovered that
Conclusions the difference in work time is caused by the delay and
Scheduling the finish work of high-rise residential build- waiting time of the (prior/post) works in progress. When
ing projects significantly affects the overall work time. this method is applied to high-rise residential buildings,
The study examined the scheduling methods applied to the impacts of work delay and waiting time will increase,
high-rise residential building projects, defined the con- improving the time reduction effect. As follow-up studies,
cept of eTACT and applied it to the case projects. the productivity of unit works with the eTACT method
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2016, 22(7): 944–953 953

should be analyzed, which is expected to improve the Kim, Y. J.; Han, J. Y.; Shin, D. W.; Kim, K. R.; Kim, C. D.;
time reduction effect of eTACT. Seo, S. W. 2003. A Tact Planning and Scheduling Process
Model for reduction of finishing work duration in building
construction projects, Journal of the Architectural Institute
Acknowledgements of Korea 19(1): 161–168.
This work was supported by the National Research Foun- Kim, S. K.; Son, K. Y.; Joo, J. K.; Lee, D. H.; Lee, S. H. 2011.
An enhanced TACT technique for finish work of high-rise
dation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea gov- residential buildings, Journal of Korea Institute of Build-
ernment (MSIP) (No. 2013R1A2A2A01068297). ing Construction 11(4): 396–406.
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Donghoon LEE. He is a PhD candidate of the Department of Architectural Engineering at Kyung Hee University. He received
the professional engineer’s license of building construction in 2012. His research interests include the construction engineering and
management, particularly the cost and time management of buildings, the production technology of free-form concrete segments
and the crane management with support design.
Dong-Sub KIM. He is a leader of building construction technology team at Daelim Industrial Co., Ltd. He has served as a field
engineer and a cost and schedule engineer since 1995. He received the professional engineer’s license of building construction
in 2004. His research interests include the cost and time management, particularly the practical application of TACT scheduling
method in site.
Gwang-Hee KIM. He is the associate professor of the Department of Plant & Architectural Engineering at Kyonggi University. He
was a vice president of the Korea Institute of Building Construction. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Building
Construction and Planning Research. His research interests are in the areas of cost estimating, data mining, building information
modelling, green construction, and construction information technology.
Sunkuk KIM. He is a leader of the innovative construction technology and management system. Currently, he has served as a
vice director of the Centre for Sustainable Healthy Buildings and a vice president of Korean Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat (K-CTBUH). His research interests include the construction engineering and management issues, particularly the develop-
ment of innovative practical construction technologies such as the Green Frame, a sustainable environment-friendly structure, and
the production technology of free-form concrete segments.