Equipment Interventions to Improve Construction Industry Safety and Health: A Review of Case Studies

Abstract Making-do has been pointed out as an important category of waste in the construction industry. It refers to a situation in which a task starts or continues without having available all the inputs required for its completion, such as materials, machinery, tools, personnel, external conditions, and information. By contrast, the literature points out that improvisation is a ubiquitous human practice even in highly structured business organizations, and plays an important role when rules and methods fail. The aim of this paper is to provide some insights on the nature of making-do as a type of waste, based on two exploratory case studies carried out on construction sites. The main contributions of this research work are concerned with the identification of different categories of making-do and its main causes. This paper also discusses some strategies for reducing making-do on construction sites.

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4. Safety and health in the construction industry

Supervision of Concrete Construction 1 ◽

10.1201/9781482275629-8 ◽

1986 ◽

pp. 33-40

Keyword(s):

Construction Industry ◽

Safety And Health

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DfMA: Towards an Integrated Strategy for a More Productive and Sustainable Construction Industry in Australia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13169219 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 9219

Author(s):

Craig Langston ◽

Weiwei Zhang

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Construction Industry ◽

Worker Safety ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Design For Manufacture ◽

High Rise ◽

Interdisciplinary Design ◽

Business Politics ◽

Building Information ◽

Manufacturing Assembly

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) is an important part of the future of the construction industry due to the promise of speed of project delivery, quality control, worker safety, and waste minimization onsite via the purposeful design for manufacture and assembly offsite. However, the adoption of DfMA in Australia has been slow. This paper investigates the barriers prohibiting widespread uptake and how digital construction will be a catalyst for improving use on commercial-scale projects. A total of six leading experts were interviewed to elicit their opinions, and seven recent case studies of high-rise modular apartment and hotel buildings constructed by Hickory were cross-referenced as evidence of DfMA capability. The experts suggested that the reasons for slow adoption in Australia were community mindset, government regulations and incentives, planning and building codes, unionization and business politics, finance, and supply chain management. The case studies suggest that compatible building type and transportation distance are also factors. These barriers can be addressed by the clever integration of building information modelling tools with lean construction processes as part of a proposed strategy leading to smarter (more productive) and better (more sustainable) outcomes predicated on growth in digital construction practices. The paper concludes with a proposed framework for change that conceptualizes the ‘ecosystem’ needed to support widespread DfMA in the Australian context, including the paradigm shift from building to manufacturing/assembly, the displacement of workers from onsite to offsite activity, and the expansion of interdisciplinary design and construct collaboration.

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Advancing Safety in Construction: An Organizational, Systemic, and Cultural Approach

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120905301612 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 53 (16) ◽

pp. 994-997

Author(s):

Maria Brunette ◽

Carlos Evia ◽

Peter Hoonakker ◽

Brian Kleiner ◽

Elizabeth Haro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Construction Industry ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Field Research ◽

Workforce Training ◽

Cultural Issues ◽

Aging Workforce ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Cultural Approach ◽

Safety And Health ◽

Cultural Strategies

This panel will focus on addressing the current challenges of the construction industry within the context of Macroergonomics field research. Organizational, systemic and cultural strategies to overcome these challenges will be described. A brief introduction focusing on the unique characteristics of the construction industry and how they relate to the macroergonomics approach will be provided followed by a comprehensive overview of the breadth of the problem. Panelists will highlight successful projects or approaches related to cultural issues, immigrant and aging workforce, training effectiveness and safety culture that have a great potential to enhance safety and health in the construction industry.

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Employers’ Behavioural Safety Compliance Factors toward Occupational, Safety and Health Improvement in the Construction Industry

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences ◽

10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.03.081 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 36 ◽

pp. 742-751 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Sulastre Mat Zin ◽

Faridah Ismail

Keyword(s):

Construction Industry ◽

Occupational Safety ◽

Occupational Safety And Health ◽

Health Improvement ◽

Safety And Health ◽

Safety Compliance

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Rethinking Waste Through Design

Research Anthology on Environmental and Societal Well-Being Considerations in Buildings and Architecture ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-9032-4.ch021 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 449-459

Author(s):

Caroline O'Donnell ◽

Dillon Pranger

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Construction Industry ◽

Recycled Materials ◽

Sustainable Practices ◽

The Us ◽

Materials Used ◽

Made In

This chapter will study the proliferation of architectural follies that use recycled or recyclable materials in a move to promote better practices in waste and recycling. Given the slow uptake of this impetus in the architectural world proper, the text will investigate the obstacles in engaging in materially sustainable practices in the construction industry as well as case studies for rethinking currently problematic materials. However, while some improvements have been made in the construction industry's use of recycled materials, the industry often dismisses the afterlife of materials used throughout the process. What are the motivations of the industry and how can we incentivize circular thinking in an industry that produces hundreds of millions of tons of waste per year in the US?

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Rethinking Stormwater: Analysis Using the Hydrosocial Cycle

Water ◽

10.3390/w12051273 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 1273 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Matthew Wilfong ◽

Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Case Studies ◽

Stormwater Management ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

The United States ◽

Safety And Health ◽

Equitable Outcomes ◽

And Control ◽

Control Management ◽

Key Questions

Water management and governance continues to rely on the scientific and engineering principles of the hydrologic cycle for decision-making on policies and infrastructure choices. This over-reliance on hydrologic-based, technocratic, command-and-control management and governance tends to discount and overlook the political, social, cultural, and economic factors that shape water-society relationships. This paper utilizes an alternative framework, the hydrosocial cycle, to analyze how water and society shape each other over time. In this paper, the hydrosocial framework is applied to stormwater management in the United States. Two hydrosocial case studies centered on rain and stormwater are investigated to highlight how stormwater management can benefit from a hydrosocial approach. The insights and implications from these case studies are then applied to stormwater management by formulating key questions that arise under the hydrosocial framework. These key questions are significant to progressing stormwater management to more sustainable, resilient, and equitable outcomes for environmental and public safety and health. This paper frames a conversation for incorporating the hydrosocial framework into stormwater management and demonstrates the need for an interdisciplinary approach to water management and governance issues.

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