Safety management guidelines for precast concrete production plants using importance-performance analysis

In recent years, offsite construction has attracted increasing attention, which has led to the broader use of precast concrete (PC) construction methods. Accordingly, the need for safety management in PC production plants is increasing. However, despite the potentially hazardous tasks performed in PC production plants, such as the handling and transportation of heavy materials, well-established safety management guidelines are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to propose a safety management guideline tailored to PC production plants. To this end, this study examined the existing safety manuals and extracted safety management items that need to be monitored to manage safety risks in PC production plants. In addition, this study investigated critical safety management items by administering a questionnaire-based survey to plant workers and managers on the perceived importance and management performance of the items in the guideline by using the importance-performance analysis method. The results indicated that safety management is relatively weakly implemented compared with workers' perceived importance of safety management. In addition, the results indicated that the focus should be on work- or worker-related safety management items, such as the continuous monitoring of workers' access to hazardous areas and the proximity between workers and dynamic risk factors, such as the loading of materials and equipment operation. The results of this study contribute to the development of a more systematic and detailed guideline for the safety management of PC production plants to continuously manage safety risks and prevent safety accidents.