Conceptual framework for computer-based construction safety control

The construction industry’s endemically poor accident record and accelerating rate increases in workers' compensation insurance are warnings that the industry needs stronger safety control measures. Safety checklists, training methods, safety awards, and other motivational approaches are insufficient. The writers propose developing a computerized safety management information system (MIS) based on the same universal management control principles used to achieve schedule, cost, production, and quality objectives. The safety MIS would furnish project managers and supervisors with the timely and complete information they need to respond to safety and health problems and hazards as they occur. This paper is concerned with the first step in the development of such a control system—the establishment of a conceptual framework consisting of fundamental safety and health, management controlling, and management-information-system concepts. The framework serves as the analytical basis for determining what to measure in the safety control system and how to adapt the control system to the computer.