Abdelhamid, T S and Everett, J G (1999) Physiological demands of concrete slab placing and finishing work. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 125(1), pp. 47-52. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Construction craft work is physically demanding. As a result, many craft workers become excessively fatigued, which may lead to decreased productivity and motivation, inattentiveness, poor judgment, poor quality work, job dissatisfaction, accidents, and injuries. This paper investigates the feasibility of measuring in situ physical demands of concrete slab placing and finishing work and how this physical demand may be used to characterize both work intensity and whether the demands are physically fatiguing to the workers. Physiological measures of energy expenditure, including oxygen consumption and heart rate data, were collected for an eight-member concrete slab placing and finishing crew performing actual construction work. The results reveal that most of the crew members who were performing manual work experienced heavy physical demands and more potential for physical fatigue compared with those operating construction machinery and equipment. These workers routinely exceed one or more published guidelines for acceptable levels of energy expenditure, oxygen consumption, and heart rate. The methods described in this paper have wide application in identifying excessively demanding construction tasks so the work can be modified and productivity improved.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | consumption, injury, fatigue, motivation, placing, in-situ, construction work, heart, energy-expenditure, judgment, productivity |
| Subjects: | health conditions and diseases, building construction, concrete and cementitious materials, management, medical science and clinical practice, energy systems, psychology, operations management, consumer economics, dispute resolution |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Construction Materials, Project Management, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Sustainability, Stakeholder Management, Human Resources, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here