Love, P E D; Teo, P; Morrison, J and Grove, M (2016) Quality and safety in construction: Creating a no-harm environment. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(8): 5016006, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
There have been limited studies that have examined the relationship between quality and safety performance. In addressing this issue, this paper examines a project-lifecycle safety, quality, and environment (SQE) strategy, which was supported by a behavioral and accountability initiative, and its effect on reducing the number of safety incidents in an AU$375 million program alliance that delivered 129 water infrastructure projects over a 5-year period. While the SQE program proved to be effective, the alliance also recognized that rework had become an issue and thus developed a rework prevention program as part of their continuous improvement process. Thus, this paper describes the nature of these programs and provides statistical analysis to demonstrate their combined effectiveness in reducing safety incidents. It is suggested that the alliance's approach and experiences in simultaneously addressing quality and safety provide learning opportunities for those organizations that are seeking to ameliorate the performance of the projects that they are charged with delivering.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contracting; incidents; program alliance rework; quality; risk management process; safety |
| Index terms: | accountability, lifecycle, safety performance, risk management, rework, effectiveness, infrastructure project, program, prevention, continuous improvement, statistical analysis, strategy |
| Subjects: | project delivery, management, financial risk, performance management, operations management, data science, occupational health and safety management, infrastructure and transport systems, liability law, risk assessment, performance measurement, software systems |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Health and Safety, Digital Applications, Business Strategy, Legal Issues, Research Practice, Quality Management, Project Management, Cost Management, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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