Critical Success Factors for Safety Training in the Construction Industry

Construction is a hazardous industry. The project-based nature and fragmentation in the industry lead to change and uncertainty requiring special expertise. To handle those, construction firms must develop strategies and action plans along with the experience gained from lessons learned. Among the risks, safety risks are of critical importance leading to accidents. Hence, firms need to strengthen their safety programs, review their strategies for safety management, and develop effective safety training sessions to protect their workers. This study focuses on the success factors promoting safety performance. In this respect, a questionnaire was designed and administered to the Engineering News-Record (ENR) 2020 Top 400 Contractors. The questionnaire data was utilized in conducting a factor analysis to group and name the factors considering the total variance. The analysis of the factors resulted in six-factor groups; namely, project and firm-related factors, demographic factors, practical factors, motivational factors, organizational factors, and human-related factors. Project and firm-related factors were found to be the most essential factor group in terms of promoting the effectiveness of safety training. The results of this study are expected to guide industry practitioners in terms of reviewing and revising their safety training programs

Enhancing the construction safety training by using virtual environment : V-SAFE

Construction is one of the most high-risk industries in the world. The safety records of the construction sector report that, construction workers are approximately over three times more likely to be exposed to serious accidents comparing to other industries. In addition to these injuries and fatalities, work-related accidents also cause financial damage, conflictual cases and pecuniary penalties for the construction companies. Therefore, the significance of the safety management process has been increasing in the construction industry. However, since the majority of the construction activities are complex and require collaboration between the workers, the provision of the safety has become one of the challenging tasks. So, the behavior-based skills of the workers play a crucial role in the safety management. Traditional safety training methods have been merely focusing on information-based techniques such as lectures, videos, written materials, etc. On the other hand, previous research has indicated that adequate safety training should also involve behavioral modeling and hands-on training, together with traditional learning methods. Due to the nature of the construction projects, hands-on training in the construction field is not practicable. In this sense, using virtual environments is an effective method that enables a safe environment for the users without being exposed to adverse effects of the failed tasks. Thus, virtual environments allow visual simulation that is helpful for the improvement of the trainees’ behavior-based skills. Therefore, virtual environments provide an important opportunity to advance the level of safety training. The main aim of the study is to describe the developed virtual safety training environment called V-SAFE (Virtual Safety Analysis For Engineering applications), which involves methods to simulate, and visualize construction operation scenarios. V-SAFE is based on the Unreal game engine for the visualization of the environment, and USARSim is used for the high-fidelity simulation of the robot behavior and environment mapping. V-SAFE is projected to establish a base to identify construction-specific safety risks and to improve the behavior-based skills of the construction project participants. In brief, V-SAFE has high potential to improve the risk recognition capability, and situational awareness of the construction managers, workers, safety managers, field engineers. So, V-SAFE could be beneficial for the construction organizations aim to advance the effectiveness of the safety training.Non UBCUnreviewedFacultyOthe

A Bibliometric Analysis of Digital Technologies Use in Construction Health and Safety

Purpose: Construction is a risky industry. Therefore, organizations are seeking ways towards improving their safety performance. Among these, the integration of technology into health and safety leads to enhanced safety performance. Considering the benefits observed in using technology in safety, this study aims to explore digital technologies’ use and potential benefits in construction health and safety. Design/Methodology/Approach: An extensive bibliometrics analysis was conducted to reveal which technologies are at the forefront of others and how these technologies are used in safety operations. The study used two different databases, Web of Science and Scopus, to scan the literature in a systemic way. Findings: The systemic analysis of several studies showed that the digital technologies use in construction are still a niche theme and need more assessment. The study provided that sensors and wireless technology are of utmost importance in terms of construction safety. Moreover, the study revealed that artificial intelligence, machine learning, building information modeling, sensors, and wireless technologies are trending technologies compared to unmanned aerial vehicles, serious games, and the internet of things. On the other hand, the study provided that the technologies are even more effective with integrated use like in the case of building information modeling and sensors or unmanned aerial vehicles. It was observed the use of these technologies varies with respect to studies conducted in different countries. The study further revealed that the studies conducted on this topic are mostly published in some selected journals and international collaboration efforts in terms of researching the topic have been observed. Originality/Value: This study provides an extensive analysis of Web of Science and Scopus databases and an in-depth review of the use of digital technologies in construction safety. The review consists of the most recent studies showing the benefits of using such technologies and showing the usage on a systemic level from which both scientists and practitioners can benefit to devise new strategies in technology usage