Developing a model to measure the effectiveness of safety management systems of construction sites

In Singapore, the construction industry had implemented safety management system (SMS) and SMS auditing for about 10 years now, but the improvement in safety standard is not significant. In response to the need to improve the effectiveness of SMS and SMS audit, the aim of the paper is to propose a method to develop and test the tools that auditors may use to assess the effectiveness of a construction firm's SMS. The research methodology adopted in this study consists of 15 steps. Surveys were conducted; safety experts were consulted and invited to express their views, either through interviews or workshops. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Factor Analysis were used to assist in identifying the most crucial factors and attributes affecting safety. The model was developed by means of the multi-attribute value model (MAVT) approach. It was also subject to validation via site audits. Using the model, a Construction Safety Index (CSI) can be calculated. It is concluded that the CSI can act as an objective measure of different sites for management and appraisal purposes.     

Addressing construction worker safety in the design phase: Designing for construction worker safety

Facility designers can positively influence construction site safety by integrating safety considerations into the design process. Although their potential influence on safety has been documented, designers typically lack knowledge of and limit their involvement in construction worker safety. This research effort involved the accumulation of suggestions for improving construction worker safety while in the design phase. Using these design suggestions, a design tool has been developed to assist designers in identifying project-specific safety hazards and to provide best practices to eliminate the hazards. Although use of the design tool is voluntary in the United States, it is one resource which can be used by designers to fulfill their obligations required by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations in UK.     

浅谈建筑施工企业安全文化建设

通过对安全文化的概念和定义,结合建筑施工企业的特点,提出了施工建筑企业安全文化建设的主要内容和步骤。     

盾构竖井深基坑工程风险识别与评估

随着盾构法的广泛应用,迫切需要对盾构竖井深基坑在设计与施工过程中所存在的风险进行合理评估,以指导相关单位采取动态管理和风险管理等措施的实施,从而实现快速、安全施工。结合北京市南水北调配套工程南干渠3盾构竖井深基坑工程,并根据该工程地质特点及周边环境等条件;采用工程分解结构法(WBS)对该工程分解;然后应用故障树法(FTA)对该工程的风险事件和风险因素进行识别;最后利用综合集成评估方法,计算出该工程风险等级,结果为三级,属较高等级;该评估方法可为同类工程参考借鉴。     

浅谈如何加强建筑起重机械的安全管理

本文分析当前建筑起重机械安全管理存在的主要问题,并提出相应加强管理的对策。     

在用电梯安全风险评价的意义和实践

通过对上海市部分在用电梯中的老旧电梯情况分析,应用安全系统工程的原理和方法对在用电梯部件工况、乘客的行为、管理现状进行风险分析和评定,并由此提出合理可行的安全对策,达到电梯使用单位和安全监管部门所需的“安全、预防、节能”目的。     

Towards a better modelling and assessment of construction risk: Insights from a literature review

This paper reviews the literature of construction risk modelling and assessment. It also reviews the real practice of risk assessment. The review resulted in significant results, summarised as follows. There has been a major shift in risk perception from an estimation variance into a project attribute. Although the Probability–Impact risk model is prevailing, substantial efforts are being put to improving it reflecting the increasing complexity of construction projects. The literature lacks a comprehensive assessment approach capable of capturing risk impact on different project objectives. Obtaining a realistic project risk level demands an effective mechanism for aggregating individual risk assessments. The various assessment tools suffer from low take-up; professionals typically rely on their experience. It is concluded that a simple analytical tool that uses risk cost as a common scale and utilises professional experience could be a viable option to facilitate closing the gap between theory and practice of risk assessment.     

Developing a trust inventory for construction contracting

Trust is central to every transaction that demands contributions from the parties involved. In construction, trust has been identified to be the key driver in fostering cooperation. By operationalizing a trust framework that includes system-based, cognition-based and affect-based trust, a trust inventory is proposed. The reliability and stability of the inventory were then validated through the test-retest methodology. The proposed trust inventory can be used to assess trust pattern akin to the assessment of conflict handling style and the measurement of depression through the use of the Rahim’s Organizational Conflict Inventory and the Inventory of Measuring Depression respectively. Supporting view on the appropriateness of the trust framework and the potential uses of the trust inventory were obtained from a confirmatory qualitative study with two senior construction professionals.     

基于有限元分析的桥梁建设阶段风险概率分析

为了开发一个设计、工程和施工管理信息共享系统,使项目参与者能借助三维设计信息,有效地分享建筑生命周期内的信息,在韩国启动了一个"虚拟建造"研究项目。作为虚拟施工过程模拟的一个部分,针对悬索桥的施工阶段,进行了大量的风险评估。主要研究目的:通过主钢缆失效的极限状态,评估悬索桥的风险和建设过程中竖向控制处于极限状态的风险。当众多研究者着力研究已建桥梁安全性的时候,往往忽略了桥梁建设过程中的不确定性因素。因此,基于对一个示范梁建设过程的有限元分析结果,考虑了输入的随机变量的变化。分析结果与一般的安全指数及建设过程中控制变形的容许误差进行了对比。     

基于层次分析法的电梯安全状态风险评估

针对电梯运行状态的安全性,采用层次分析法,以安全部件为评估准则,建立电梯系统的安全状态风险评估模型,构造比较矩阵,计算优先权重,最终得出电梯安全状态风险状况,这有利于加强电梯风险的防范。     

A comparative study on adopting human resource practices for safety management on construction projects in the United States and Singapore

Good project management outcomes include completing projects to an acceptable level of quality, within budget and on time. As construction accidents may cause project delays, safety management plays an important role in a project's timely completion. This study aims to undertake a comparative study of HR practices adopted for safety management on construction projects in the United States (US) and Singapore and to investigate the relationship between HR practices and construction safety management outcomes (severity and frequency of accidents). The research method included exploratory interviews and industry surveys of contractors in the US and Singapore by email and post. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Compared to Singapore contractors, the results show that US contractors' project management practices place significantly more emphasis on highlighting organizational safety values to new workers and taking working experience into account during the selection process. On the other hand, Singapore contractors place more emphasis on providing appropriate rest areas for workers. Many HR practices are significantly correlated with safety management outcomes. These include: taking age into consideration during selection process and giving feedback to workers about their unsafe behaviour. It is recommended that project managers adopt relevant HR practices that lead to more effective safety management on construction projects.     

Assessment of construction processes and innovations through simulation

The objectives of this research are to represent construction activities accurately, and to provide a means for assessing the impacts from using innovations. The research approach is the detailed characterization of construction processes, and the development of system and material specific dynamic process simulation models. The ongoing research program is developing a set of specific models, based on extensive empirical data, to enable the accurate modelling of all of the construction processes for a complete facility construction project. A specific process model, glass/metal curtainwall erection, demonstrates the approach, with an analysis of the impacts from a related innovation.     

Study on safety control for Wuhan metro construction in complex environments

Open cut method is adopted in the foundation pit construction of Wuhan Metro Line 2 (WML2) XunLiMen Station which is under the bridge of the (existent) operating light rail. The foundation pit is only 1.25 m away from the nearest pier of Wuhan Light Rail Line 1 (WLRL1).Safety control of this project focuses on how foundation pit construction affects the safety of light rail bridge and its operation. In this paper, finite difference software FLAC3D for geotechnical engineering is applied to simulating the process of the foundation pit excavation and to analyze the impact of the isolation pile construction, the underground diaphragm wall construction and the foundation pit dewatering and excavation on the bridge piers of WLRL1, while the finite element software ANSYS is used to simulate the numerical model of WLRL1. Moreover, the study of the impact of the construction scheme of WML 2 on the operation of WLRL1 is also presented in the paper. Finally, on the basis of the simulation results, (the) control standards for the operation safety of WLRL1 and (the) advices for the safety control of the foundation pit construction, which proved to be successful, are proposed.     

Factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes in construction projects: Case study from China

Risk-based decision making (RBDM) is critical in successful construction project management, in which decision makers’ attitudes towards risks play an important role. Most previous studies in construction project risk management have been focusing on the factors contributing to the success of risk management, but little attention was given to factors significantly affecting decision makers’ risk attitudes in construction projects. To improve RBDM, we investigate the critical factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes in construction projects in China in this research. Literatures reviews, interviews and questionnaires are used for the identification of factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes. Statistical methods of ranking analysis and factor analysis are also implemented for verification and further analysis. The results show that the most important three factors are: “consequences of decision making”, “engineering experience”, and “completeness of project information”. Results from factor analysis on the identified critical factors reveal that they can be grouped into four categories, namely: (1) knowledge and experience; (2) contractors’ character; (3) personal perception; and (4) economic environment. The significance of this research is that the findings do not only provide decision making support for contractors by deepening their understandings of the factors that affect their risk attitudes, but also serve as a useful reference for further studies under this topic.     

Improving the risk quantification under behavioural tendencies: A tale of construction projects

Complex construction projects are risky owing to several features and factors. Their management involves risk assessment which is subjected to various behavioural tendencies and the existing body of knowledge lacks appropriate methods to quantify these effects. The prevalent standard model of Expected Utility Theory does not differentiate between threat and opportunity, resulting into an identical estimation for both facets of risk. This limitation was addressed by Prospect Theory which better captures risk preferences. However, construction industry still relies upon conventional methods of risk assessment. The current study introduces a weighting function to better quantify the cognitive errors in construction risk assessment by adjusting the over- and under-estimation. In doing so, detailed scenario-based, semi-structured interviews are conducted engaging senior professionals. It is found that, typically, opportunities are underestimated by 7.5% and threats are overestimated by 8%. Integrating these findings into risk response strategies results into a realistic and effective resource allocation.     

厦门地铁车站的施工风险评估

地铁具有建设周期长、施工难度大、工程环境复杂、事故易发等特点,近些年,地铁施工风险管理受到重视,也取得了一些经验和成果。本文首先对厦门地铁车站的建设特点进行总结,并对可能发生的事故类型和形成原因进行统计分析。以正在施工的高殿站点为例,通过WBS逐级分解得到的主要工序的失效状态,建立了风险识别指标体系,再基于层次分析法和模糊评价原理建立三级模糊综合评判计算模型,并对该车站基坑施工风险进行评估,计算结果表明该方法合理有效,可为工程分级控制提供参考。     

桥面吊机与安全平台配合的施工技术

（续接2005年第5期）7．1．1南浦桥施工程序 （1）南浦桥浦东侧施工程序如下：     

Developing a knowledge map for construction scheduling using a novel approach

A knowledge map is a vital tool for better knowledge management and learning. While application of knowledge maps in the construction domain remains in the initial stages of development, the construction industry is experience-oriented and therefore suited to knowledge maps. This study presents a novel approach for developing a knowledge map for construction scheduling. According to framework-based classification, this study utilizes a science-specific search engine to search for literature on construction scheduling knowledge. Search results are then used to develop a file cabinet knowledge map consisting of a contour map, and several trend and density charts. This map representation compensates for the lack of various meanings in a single knowledge map. For novices interested in learning construction scheduling knowledge, results of this study provide constructive information to know the key issues and research trends in the construction domain. In summary, this study presents a suitable procedure for extracting knowledge from public knowledge sources for development of a knowledge map. The proposed approach can be used for rapid generation of knowledge maps.     

Developing a theory of construction problem solving

Construction problem solving characterizes much of construction management practice and thus is an important research domain. Nonetheless, research in construction problem solving has not yet crossed the threshold into a mature discipline as there is no universally accepted theory for construction problem solving research. In exploring the possibility of establishing such a theory, this paper reviews existing research works in two important research categories: cognitive science and decision support systems. A strategy for building a theory for construction problem solving, focusing on the existing models and techniques developed in the two research categories, is proposed. Future research needs and opportunities are identified.