Contributing Factors in Construction Accidents

Question: Discuss about the Contributing Factors in Construction Accidents. Answer: Introduction: The focus of discussion in the current research is to identify the relation between the project safety and the number of non-conformances and/or the volume of the rework in the construction sites. The research in the evidence based literature review indicates that there is positive relation between these two aspects, there is positive relation between the project safety as well as the non-conformances at the construction site reworks. The current report is a focus on this exhaustive relation and the study is performing to relate these two different aspects. Also recommendations based discussion is provided with proposals to reduce the safety incidents as well as to reduce the amount of rework on construction sites. The relationship between the safety and quality outcomes do have very limited attention in the construction and the engineering management domain. One of the main factor responsible for the development of such scenario is the fact that the contractors and the builders are not interested to reveal the sensitive information related to the reworks and the associated factors that are relating these incidents with the accidents in general. In accordance with the report presented by Love(2015), there is an extensive 31 months analysis of the relation between the incidents and rework and based on the observations it is indicated that the risk profiles for incidents and the NCRs are established with the mathematical analysis. The data indicated as high as mean ratio of incidents to rework NCRS to be 1:7. Also it is indicated that the relation between incidents and the rework NCRS (p0.05). Similar indications are reported in other recent empirical evidence based reports; It is found that ther e two statistically significant relationships; the OSHA recordable rate is positively correlated to rework (r2 =0.968, p-value =0.032); Also the first aid rate is positively correlated to the number of defects (r2 = 0.548, p-value=0.009) (Wanberg, 2013). There is indication that the most compelling reason for the strong positive correlation between rework and injuries is the fact that rework involves demolition, schedule pressure as well as unstable work processes. Mortenson construction works have used computer automated, virtual environment technology at the Peguala Ice Arena at Penn State and in the course of time they catched and fixed the problems early. Typical tools like virtual images of mechanical systems are employed to prevent the mistakes that involve the rework in general. Reworks are increasing the construction schedules and delaying the delivery, Further reworks are contributing to the worker injuries and billions of lost revenue (Moore). The problems of NCRS and reworks can be tackled with multiple dimensions. It is required that there should be sufficient care provided at the outset for the sake of exhaustive preplanning of the projects, Also there is need that there should be sufficient allocation of the resources available for completing the project, projects should be subjected to every measure that actually works on to complete the schedule in time. Also there should be strategic promotion of leadership at the work place as well workers should be encouraged to take pride in their work. Further there should be extensive considerations to be taken to encourage strategies for promoting the safety and quality. Also it is not impossible to totally avoid the scheduled delays. It is required that there should be exhaustive planning and effective contracting process to enhance the quality and safety in the work and thereby there should be means to avoid the delay in the works. There should be steep release of the funds in accordance with the project progression requirements and secondly there is need that there should be fines and penalties for the project delays and this inturn will effect the project progression and scheduling process. Construction business is quite fast and there is need for companies to catch these recent strategies to avert the delays and the progression methodologies to avoid the delays and to keep up the competitive edge in the market(Construction drive). Apart from these basic considerations there is need to enforce recommendation like those of ARCTM, where is there is specific reference made towards the workers training for the job which he is expected to make, enforcement of working conditions which are safe and accident free. Also there is considerable responsibility of the project manager there lies in enforcing better operational conditions in the work place. All of them should be followed with very detailed and specific enforcement at each and every stage of project progression (Abdelhamid,2000).It is also indicated that apart from the basic issues such as workers ignorance and contribution of the apathy of the management towards the workplace safety, there are also issues such as incompetent risk management at the work place as well as improper design of ergonomics at the construction site as well as issues such as deficiencies of the work place being employed in the workplace. All of them do have collective impact on the work place operational integrity and the operational performance (Haslam, 2005).Hwang(2014) indicated that there are several instances of reworks in the construction industry happening because of the lack of systematic planning to avert the same. Hence as per his proposal usage of knowledge based systems to record the ongoing technological progression of the construction works and approaches for elimination of the rework will provide opportunity to enhance the betterment of the organizational performance to avoid reworks in construction. Better design and KMS will contribute in this regard. A comprehensive project management involving design management, communication management, filed management, project scope management, project process management, active rework, project plan management, external environment management etc required for minimizing the project rework in the construction industry (Ye, 2014). Conclusion: The evidence based research findings in relation to the empirical relation between NCRS of reworks and the accident incidents at the site indicate that there is great need to avert the escalation of conditions to the extent of safety incidents as well there is need to avoid loss of revenues to the company in the form of delayed project deliveries as well as in the form of revenue loss due to accidents and related procedural problems and obligations. At the outset there is need to change the traditional construction process monitoring methodologies to more advanced and better technology enabled processes and procedures. Also as indicated in the previous discussion always the project control should be in the hands of able leadership and there should be systematic and strategic interventions from the beginning of the project to avoid delays and expectation mismatch requirements. Also while drafting the contractual obligations there should be sufficient insight and all the terms and the regulations of the project are required to be prepared in detail so that there will be quite a good control of the project progress while preventing the happening of the delays as well as the associated problems of revenue loss from the project. References: Anon., n.d. [Online] Available at: Moore P, Contractors confront the growing costs of rework, Engineering News record, 28/11/2012 Anon., n.d. [Online] Available at: Wanberg J et al, Relationship between Construction Safety and Quality Performance, Journal of Construction Engineering Management, Volume 139, Issue 10, October 2013 Anon., n.d. [Online] Available at: The Dotted Line: How to avoid schedule delays through careful planning, effective contracts, https://www.constructiondive.com/news/the-dotted-line-how-to-avoid-schedule-delays-through-careful-planning-eff/440167/ Abdelhamid, T.S. and Everett, J.G., 2000. Identifying root causes of construction accidents.Journal of construction engineering and management,126(1), pp.52-60. Hwang, B.G., Zhao, X. and Goh, K.J., 2014. Investigating the client-related rework in building projects: The case of Singapore.International Journal of Project Management,32(4), pp.698-708. Haslam, R.A., Hide, S.A., Gibb, A.G., Gyi, D.E., Pavitt, T., Atkinson, S. and Duff, A.R., 2005. Contributing factors in construction accidents.Applied ergonomics,36(4), pp.401-415. Ye, G., Jin, Z., Xia, B. and Skitmore, M., 2014. Analyzing causes for reworks in construction projects in China.Journal of Management in Engineering,31(6), p.04014097. Love, P.E., Teo, P., Carey, B., Sing, C.P. and Ackermann, F., 2015. The symbiotic nature of safety and quality in construction: Incidents and rework non-conformances.Safety science,79, pp.55-62.