An Agent-Based Cellular Automaton Simulation Model To Study Worker Safety Behavior On Construction Sites: The Impacts Of Different Social Influence Rules

The unsafe behavior of the construction workforce is one of the leading causes of accidents in the construction industry. It has been shown that construction laborers perceive the safety behavior of their co-workers and adjust their personal safety attitudes accordingly. Thus, there has been an increasing attention to studying the impacts of the social influence and norms on the safety behavior of construction workers. While existing studies examined the factors that influence the safety behavior of the construction workforce, there is little-to-no research that specifically focused on modeling the role of social influence on the safety behavior of the workers. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by modeling construction sites as a social interaction environment, where the construction workers often adopt the prevailing behavior of their neighbors. More specifically, this paper used agent-based modeling to simulate the safety behavior of the construction workforce based on a two-dimensional, two-state cellular automaton. Four different social influence rules that could impact the safety behavior of construction workers were considered and compared in the developed simulation model. The results showed that modeling the process of conforming to the safety behavior of the neighboring workers could lead to the formation of clusters of construction laborers having identical safety behavior. The paper also identified the most representative social rule that influences the safety behavior of construction workers. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by enabling contractors better understand the safety behavior of their workers and ultimately improve the safety performance in projects

A Balanced Diet for Construction workers to Improve Safety and productivity

The United Nations (UN) under its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers around the world. Although the deadline to achieve the UN SDGs is approaching faster, construction workers around the world are still affecting from a number of factors that highly influence their safety and productivity. Some of these factors are directly linked with the workers' daily food. This paper considers the healthy food and relates it to the productivity and safety performance of construction workers. A qualitative research strategy consisting of a systematic literature review and a semi-structured interview was adopted to accomplish the aims and objectives of this research. A healthy diet from the literature review was identified considering the construction workers' physical activities and energy requirements. The results of face-to-face interviews held with mess managers and construction workers from reputed construction organizations in Oman are reported. The selected workers (50%) consider that their daily food has an impact on their productivity and safety performance. Only 30% of the mess managers reported that they consider health-related factors to make their weekly food menu. 50% of the current food menu of the selected construction organizations in Oman is not balanced for construction workers. The result further reveals that food such as grain, vegetable, fruit, dairy product, lean meat, nuts, seed, fats, oil, and sweets should be part of the daily food to maintain the construction workers in a healthier condition. Construction workers are part of the society, thus any efforts which will improve their well-being need to be done. A healthier worker will not only be more productive but will be useful for the society. As a result of investment in workers’ wellbeing, construction organizations will have the benefits of improved productivity and safety

Social Network Analysis for Improvement of Safety in Construction Industry: An Ego-Centric Approach

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how construction workers rely on each other on-site in terms of safety. The research outlines how safety-oriented social networks of construction workers can be modeled to better understand the safety communication practices on site. In this regard, a social network survey is conducted, and the respondents’ social network data are collected using a Personal Network Research Design (PNRD) approach to study the connection between the individuals and their close contacts. A total of 142 participants were included in the study. The gathered network data were used to establish their peer-to-peer relationships and quantify the influence of social network characteristics and communication patterns on their safety perspective. This social network analysis incorporated various socio-demographic factors like experience, gender, race, frequency, duration of the communication and the consequence of those variables on workers’ attitudes towards construction safety. The findings from this study provide insights on the significance of different social dimensions and their impact on construction safety culture and performance. The results show how individual safety behavior and perception defer based on their social ties and interactions

Penerapan Kesehatan dan Keselamatan Kerja (K3) di Masa Pandemi Covid-19 pada Proyek Pembangunan Gedung OJK KR. 4 Jawa Timur

The success of a construction is influenced by the performance of workers. Worker performance is influenced by the environment to the existing occupational safety and health system. The Covid pandemic has had an impact on changing the structure of the construction sector, one of which is on workers. These changes are not easily implemented by construction workers. There are several factors that cause it is not easy to apply such as understanding, ability and attitude. The purpose of this study is to analyze the application of occupational health and safety (K3) in the construction project of the OJK KR.4 building, East Java, Surabaya. Data obtained from questionnaires distributed to workers. The data obtained were then analyzed for Validity, Reliability, Normality, and Multiple Linear Regression including the F-Test, Coefficient of Determination, and T-Test. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic and OSH behavior had an effect on the implementation of OSH by 74.4% and the remaining 25. 6% influenced by other things. However, the attitude and behavior of K3 became the most dominant among the two variables studied. So that knowing the most influential variables in the implementation of K3 during a pandemic can inform construction organizations and policy makers about aspects to implement preventive measures aimed at protecting construction workers

Perceptions on safety climate: A case study in the Omani construction industry

© 2018 ICE Publishing. All rights reserved. Generally, a mature safety climate and a rich safety culture contribute to achieving a safe workplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the understanding of using safety climate and to make explicit some of the main elements that have a greater impact in the construction industry in Oman. Relevant safety climate factors from literature have been identified using specific search criteria, which resulted in 62 factors spanning over a period of 37 years from 1980 to 2017. The results of face-to-face interviews with construction professionals from chosen construction companies in Oman that show a high level of safety performance are also presented. The result shows that management commitment; alignment and integration of safety as a value; accountability across the board; supervisory management; empowerment and involvement of workers; improvement of communication; and training and education are some of the main elements that significantly affect safety climate in Oman. The common safety climate factors reported in this research are based on the views of selected interviewees working in the construction industry in Oman. It is suggested that these factors may be validated further considering views of other members of the construction team, before being used for safety climate assessment

Safety Risk Management of LEED Building Construction : A BIM based Approach

Green buildings have been gaining popularity in the construction industry due to their low impact on the environment. Green buildings are aimed at creating energy-efficient, healthy, and environment-friendly buildings. However, OSHA records show that about 48% more accidents occur in green building construction as compared to traditional construction methods. Compromising the workers\u27 health and safety questions the true sustainability of the building. Green buildings have been a popular strategy in institutional sustainability agendas. Globally, LEED is the most popular green buildings rating system. Statistics show that an increasing number of construction projects intend to obtain the LEED certification in the next decade. However, elevated worker health and safety risks have been gradually becoming a concern while pursuing LEED credits. However, there exists a limited study comparing the safety hazards occurring in conventional construction practices and green construction practices.This research explores the major safety risks associated with LEED-certified building construction. Failure Mode Effect, Analysis (FMEA) is used to determine the safety risk associated with each LEED credit. LEED credits were ranked based on safety performance. Safety score and incremental cost of LEED credits were used to identify the optimal credit combination for LEED gold certification that reduces the safety risk and minimizes the cost. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) was used to analyze the impact of project factors on safety risk. This analysis identified how the risk level of LEED credits changes based on project parameters. Safety risks identified from FMEA and BBN were used to develop Building Information Modelling (BIM)-based solutions to improve worker safety. The outcomes of this research will address the challenges of LEED construction and inform the construction industry in enhancing the health and safety of construction workers with state-of-the-art technolog

Factors that determine construction health and safety agent collaboration on construction projects: A Delphi study

The construction industry (CI) continues to be the cause of injuries and illnesses to many workers worldwide. Collaboration between the construction health and safety agent (CHSA) and other built environment professionals may improve the impact of the CHSA on health and safety (H&S) performance. However, no study has identified the factors that determine CHSA collaboration on construction sites. A three rounds Delphi study was conducted to identify the factors that determine CHSA collaboration. A panel of 14 experts serving the CI were selected from four continents and were asked to identify additional factors and validate the factors identified from literature. Microsoft Excel 2016 was used to analyse the data; group medians were calculated to reach consensus, and open question responses were summarised qualitatively. The experts confirmed the existence of the factors identified in the literature. The factors that determine CHSA collaboration on construction projects include mutuality, trust, enabling environment, personal characteristics, common purpose, institutional support, and project context. Drawing from the findings, the study suggests that these seven factors can influence CHSA collaboration. The study is limited to 14 experts and more experts could have provided more information. The factors that determine CHSA collaboration identified in this study may not be exhaustive and another study may provide different factors. Further research could adopt other research methods such as the quantitative method, in order to determine the impact of these factors on CHSA collaboration. Factors that determine CHSA collaboration on construction projects should be identified, implemented, and monitored, in order to increase the influence of CHSA on H&S performance

The Digital Transformation of Construction Worksite Safety How much added value would AI bring for workers and work-environment safety?

The aim of this paper is to look into the digital transformation of the construction worksite, more specifically to the impacts of Artificial Intelligence for workers and work-environment safety. The scope converges on the more tangible consequences of safety rather than health and focuses on the impact on safety roles and performance as well as implications for jobs and collaborative dynamics between construction organizations. The thesis pushes forward the current state of safety performance and collaborative relationships both in theory as much as in practice and stresses the shift of performance measurements and success factors for the former as well as the roles and goals for the latter. The study adopts the abduction method and is theory rich as a result of the novelty of the field and lack of adequately rich interview participants for the empirical section. Still, the abductive reasoning method enables rich interpretations of the interview acquired qualitative data to be derived in the discussion. The study sought out to verify and answer several questions and statements to which a majority were successfully explored while others require further exploration

Framework for Measuring Construction Project Performance using Energy

Over the years, the performance of construction projects has been a main source of concern given the percentage of a project cost associated with poor project performance. As a result of the growing clamor to improve the output of the built industry, comprehensive studies have been conducted to examine the factors that affect construction productivity, cost, schedule, safety and quality. However, little has been done to quantify the cumulative effect of project characteristics on the construction workforce. This study adopts the physical property of energy as a means to understand and quantify impacts to worker performance. To conduct the study, energy and its derivatives (power and pressure) were first translated from their physical sense to the context of work operations on a construction site. Once defined for construction operations, the research included conducting a survey of construction workers across 3 construction projects in the Pacific Northwest to quantify the workforce's perspective of construction energy and how work-related energy components impact construction workers. Specifically, the survey measured the impact of 55 components that were identified through an extensive literature search as possible constituents of energy. Craft workers, foremen, superintendents, project engineers, project managers, safety professionals, and owner representatives provided detailed insight into the energy components affecting their safety and quality of their daily output. The survey was followed by a severity analysis to determine the key components that play a major role in determining construction project performance. Analysis of the feedback from participants shows that while each work level rated the components differently, attitude of worker to safety and the use of poor quality materials were rated as the most impactful factors to safety and quality of work on a project level, respectively. Using these components, a project management framework for forecasting and evaluating safety and quality performance on a construction project utilizing energy principles as its foundation was developed and proposed. The framework may be used to plan the construction operations for optimal safety and quality