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.     

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。     

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.     

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。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Development of a site-specific Ecological Risk Assessment for contaminated sites: part II. A multi-criteria based system for the selection of bioavailability assessment tools

A comparison procedure based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and expert judgment was developed in order to allow the comparison of bioavailability tests to implement the chemical Line of Evidence (LoE) within a TRIAD based site-specific Ecological Risk Assessment framework including three tires of investigation. The proposed methodology was included in the Module 1 of the Decision Support System DSS-ERAMANIA and the obtained rank supported the selection of a suitable set of available tests to be applied to the case study. A simplified application of the proposed procedure is described and results obtained by the system software are discussed.     

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.     

供水管网水质健康风险评价模型及实例

对供水管网系统存在的水质健康风险进行分析,提出了"区域内单化学污染物的健康风险"、"区域叠加风险"和"系统综合风险"这三个评价指标及其计算方法,并在此基础上建立了供水管网水质健康风险评价模型,包括区域划分、数据收集及分析、危害判定、暴露评价、剂量-响应评估、风险表征及风险管理.应用该模型进行实例研究的结果表明,它将供水管网系统的水质与公众的健康风险联系起来,对供水管网系统的健康风险管理有一定的指导意义.     

Making a risk-based bid decision for overseas construction projects

The globalization of international construction markets provides tremendous opportunities for contractors to expand into new foreign markets. However, entry decisions for international construction markets are very risky and more difficult than those for domestic markets, due to the wide variety of uncertainties and complexities associated with the international construction domain. This paper focuses on developing and testing a ‘risk-based go/no-go decision-making model’ for contractors who wish to expand into international construc5 tion markets. The go/no-go decision model applies the cross-impact analysis (CIA) method to assess the various uncertainties associated with international construction. This research draws significant findings regarding the benefits of this go/no-go decision model from experimental studies involving 56 participants.     

A group decision support system for implementing value management methodology in construction briefing

This paper describes a group decision support system (GDSS) developed in response to the need of a computer supported collaborative work environment for implementing the value management (VM) methodology in construction briefing. The GDSS is based on the VM methodology that allows a client to define and represent his or her requirements with functions and functional performance, to bring forward ideas to achieve the functions, and finally to evaluate and highlight the ideas against the functional performance for further development in design. The conceptual framework, design, implementation, use of the GDSS are addressed and described in that order. The system is complementally evaluated through a field study and an experimental study. It is concluded that the GDSS can effectively facilitate the implementation of VM in construction briefing. In addition, the GDSS has big potential to improve the performance of VM studies in terms of the enhanced participation and interaction, the shortened time for tasks, and the improved satisfaction with VM workshops. Research limitations and knowledge contribution of this study are also discussed.     

高层建筑雷击风险评估体系设计

针对雷击风险评估工作的现状,注重用户参与雷击风险评估的理念,本着科学实用、简单明确的原则,设计了高层建筑雷击风险评估体系,为建筑物的雷击风险管理提供科学依据,为高层建筑的防雷保护提供设计指南.