An Activity-Based Costing Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Management Costs in Modular Building Installation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Modular building installation concentrates lifting, landing, stabilization, and connection hazards into short, repeated cycles, whereas Korean occupational safety and health management cost (OSHMC) is controlled through statutory resource categories. This study develops an activity-based costing (ABC) framework, defined as a linked classification and calculation structure that connects eligible resources to installation work packages, safety activities, causal drivers, owners, due points, and evidence. Legislation and official guidance were reviewed for eligibility and responsibility rules; modular-safety literature was examined for work transitions, hazards, and controls; and ABC and construction-management studies informed allocation causality and accountability. The findings were mapped to the site-installation process and synthesized into five work packages, eight resource pools, and fourteen safety activities. The allocation equations were then checked with a normalized reference case in which a synthetic eligible-cost total was scaled to 100.0; the values are dimensionless test inputs, not observed expenditures or recommended spending ratios. Internal framework verification showed cost conservation across resource, activity, and work-package views (100.0 = 100.0 = 100.0; error 0.0), complete owner, due-point, and evidence fields for all activities (14/14), and selective responses in four controlled driver scenarios, with unaffected activity cost remaining 0.0 in every scenario. A worked traceability chain further links one eligible temporary safety facility to its resource pool, activity, driver, work package, owner, and supporting evidence. The framework thus demonstrates internally consistent, selective, and traceable allocation under stated assumptions. Field records are required to calibrate activity rates and evaluate administrative effort, cost performance, and safety outcomes.
Source: Architectural research
Author: Jeong-Hoon Lee
Institution: Gyeongsang National University
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7211946606