scholarly journals Analysis of Fire Accident Factors on Construction Sites Using Web Crawling and Deep Learning Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11694
Author(s):  
Jaehong Kim ◽  
Sangpil Youm ◽  
Yongwei Shan ◽  
Jonghoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Fire Safety ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Web Crawling ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Construction Accidents ◽  
Fire Accidents

Fire safety on construction sites has been rarely studied because fire accidents have a lower occurrence compared to construction’s “Fatal Four”. Despite the lower occurrence, construction fire accidents tend to have a larger severity of impact. This study aims at using news media data and big data analysis techniques to identify patterns and factors related to fire accidents on construction sites. News reports on various construction accidents covered by news media were first collected through web crawling. Then, the authors identified the level of media exposure for various keywords related to construction accidents and analyzed the similarities between them. The results show that the level of media exposure for fire accidents on construction sites is much higher than for fall accidents, which suggests that fire accidents may have a greater impact on the surroundings than other accidents. It was found that the main causes of fire accidents on construction sites are violations of fire safety regulations and the absence of inspections, which could be sufficiently prevented. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring factors related to fire safety on construction sites and their interrelationships as well as providing evidence that the fire type should be emphasized in safety-related regulations and codes on construction sites.

scholarly journals Worker 4.0: The Future of Sensored Construction Sites

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Calvetti ◽  
Pedro Mêda ◽  
Miguel Chichorro Gonçalves ◽  
Hipólito Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Base Point ◽  
The Body ◽  
Embedded Sensors ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Workforce Management ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Workforce Productivity ◽  
Workforce Performance

The digitalization of the construction industry (CI) has the aim—among others—to raise the bar of overall productivity. The craft workforce is very relevant on the overall value-chain. Therefore, a boost in this dimension impacts the entire sector. There is a gap in proper methodologies to measure and model productivity. Construction 4.0 novelties provide new approaches for its evaluation and progress. This communication presents a review of workforce productivity assessment and delivers methods focusing primarily on craft workers motion monitoring. Products and services opportunities from Construction 4.0 in the spectrum of craft workforce management include support by embedded sensors for data collection that allow near real-time monitoring. The work developed led to the systematization of a framework to standardize craft workers’ motion productivity. The craft workforce motion productivity framework, Worker 4.0, tenders nine processes integrated on a flowchart to streamline task processes assessment and mechanization level. It also sets up a two-handed/two-legged chart system to model craft workers’ activities and operations. The contributions to the body of knowledge are substantiated on the framework creation with the ability to model and assess craft workforce performance. This approach is meant to serve as base point for different stakeholders focusing on skills, efficiency, mechanization and productivity improvements.

Barriers to the implementation of COVID-19 safety regulations: insight from Ghanaian construction sites

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrick Simpeh ◽  
Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei ◽  
Christopher Amoah
Keyword(s):  
Health And Safety ◽  
The Body ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
Data Collection Instrument

Purpose The new normal introduced by COVID-19 has ushered in new safety regulations that are required to be implemented by all organisations, including the construction industry. The implementation of the COVID-19 regulations, like any health and safety regulation, is not without hindrances. Consequently, this study aims to explore factors hindering the implementation of COVID-19 safety regulations at construction sites in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative research method using an open-ended questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The set of questionnaires were distributed by means of purposive and snowball sampling methods. The collected data were analysed by means of the thematic analysis technique. Findings It became evident that several factors militate against implementing COVID-19 safety regulations at construction sites. Cost of implementing COVID-19 safety measures, lack of compliance and ignorance were identified as the most hindering factors, whereas superstition, lack of personal protective equipment supply and theft of COVID-19 materials were reported by fewer respondents. Research limitations/implications The set of questionnaires were limited to small construction firms who were operating on site within the Central, Western and Greater Accra regions of Ghana during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings may be applicable to firms outside these regions because most of the small construction firms in the country share similar characteristics. Practical implications The recommendations proffered could help construction organisations devise strategies to overcome the barriers that hamper the implementation of COVID-19 safety regulations on site. Moreover, the findings could inform policymakers on what is required to enforce compliance on site. Originality/value COVID 19 is still new, and as a result, the body of knowledge is at the infancy stage. This article contributes to advancing the body of knowledge in the area of COVID-19 implementation challenges on construction sites.

scholarly journals MANAGERIAL DRIVERS OF CHINESE LABOUR LOYALTY IN INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1109-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weina ZHU ◽  
Ruochen ZENG ◽  
Xiaodong LI ◽  
Yi ZHU ◽  
Zhihui ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
The Body ◽  
Organization Performance ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
International Construction ◽  
Body Of Knowledge

Organization performance is becoming ever more dependent on employee loyalty in the international con­struction projects. However, the improvement of construction labour loyalty on construction sites remains a largely neglected measure for reducing their turnover and improving their productivity. The purpose of this study was to quan­titatively investigate the managerial drivers of labour loyalty, including macro-environment of the project host country, organizational living environment, job system, rewards, and communication, and to explore the significance of satisfac­tion as a mediating variable in the relationship between the managerial drivers and construction labour loyalty. First, hypotheses on the relationships between construction labour loyalty, satisfaction and the five managerial drivers were proposed. Second, structural equation modelling was adopted to test these hypotheses. Finally, the results demonstrated two types of influence paths: (1) macro-environment, job system and communication have significantly direct effects on construction labour loyalty, (2) mediated by satisfaction, organizational living environment and rewards offer posi­tive indirect effects on construction labour loyalty. The first type of path serves as a long-term strategic orientation for improving labour loyalty. The second type of path is a tactic for short-term goals of labour loyalty enhancement. The research results can contribute to the body of knowledge of human resource management and the practice of enhancing labour productivity through improving construction labour loyalty in the context of international construction projects.

scholarly journals Framework for improving workflow stability: deployment of optimized capacity buffers in a synchronized construction production

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 995-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Arashpour ◽  
Ron Wakefield ◽  
Nick Blismas ◽  
E.W.M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Production Control ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Service Level ◽  
The Body ◽  
Optimal Size ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Simulation Experiments ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Pull Systems

Construction sites are dynamic environments due to the influence of variables such as changes in design and processes, unsteady demand, and unavailability of trades. These variables adversely affect productivity and can cause an unstable workflow in the network of trade contractors. Previous research on workflow stability in the construction and manufacturing domains has shown the effectiveness of ‘pull’ production or ‘rate driven’ construction. Pull systems authorize the start of construction when a job is completed and leaves the trade contractor network. However, the problem with pull systems is that completion dates are not explicitly considered and therefore additional mechanisms are required to ensure the due date integrity. On this basis, the aim of this investigation is to improve the coordination between output and demand using optimal-sized capacity buffers. Towards this aim, production data of two Australian construction companies were collected and analyzed. Capacity and cost optimizations were conducted to find the optimum buffer that strikes the balance between late completion costs and lost revenue opportunity. Following this, simulation experiments were designed and run to analyze different ‘what-if’ production scenarios. The findings show that capacity buffers enable builders to ensure a desired service level. Size of the capacity buffer is more sensitive to the level of variability in contractor processes than other production variables. This work contributes to the body-of-knowledge by improving production control in construction and deployment of capacity buffers to achieve a stable workflow. In addition, construction companies can use the easy-to-use framework tested in this study to compute the optimal size for capacity buffers that maximizes profit and prevents late completions.

scholarly journals Causes of Accident at Construction Sites in Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1933-1951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakil Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Management Consultant ◽  
Importance Index ◽  
Construction Safety Management ◽  
Construction Accidents

Abstract Bangladeshi construction industry suffers more safety issues than other developing countries in the world. Among many of these, accidents at the construction site go far beyond and shape a horrific figure of death every year. The aims of this study are to identify and prioritize the causes of accidents. This study also analyses and discusses causes of accident at the construction site in Bangladesh. A widespread literature review and open discussion took place to identify the causes and design the questionnaire. The questionnaire-based survey was used to elicit the attitude of four stakeholders such as workers, owners, consultants and contractors towards the causes of accident. Mean and relative importance index (RII) were used to determine the rank of causes, and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23 was used to perform the data validation test. This study identifies 77 causes under 14 major groups and ranked them based on the mean and RII. The top five major groups of causes are management-, consultant-, technology-, labour- and contractor-related causes. The top five causes are unawareness of safety-related issue, lack of personal protective equipment, lack of safety eliminating/avoiding design, unfit equipment, lack of knowledge and training on equipment. This study will help the project participants and authorities to know and understand the various characteristics and linkage of causes of construction accidents to improve the construction safety management. It contributes to the body of knowledge, as it reveals for the first time the causes of acci dents in the Bangladeshi construction industry.

Media

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Munnik
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Central Focus

Muslims are a subsidiary concern for religion reporting in Scotland’s news media. If journalists must cover religion, issues pertaining to Christian sectarianism still occupy a central focus, although, as more Scots identify with no religion, news reports take on a memorialising tone, marking religion’s decline. Sometimes these storylines merge, as was the case with the biggest religion story in the news during my research about Muslims and the news media in Scotland: the revelation of the sexual abuse of several priests by Cardinal Keith O’Brien (Deveney, 2013). The dominant Scottish story overall was the preparation for the referendum on independence. Muslims played a humble part in coverage of the second story and no part at all in the first.

A Stellenbosch University #FeesMustFall Herstory: Reflections of a So-Called "Radical Black Intersectional Feminist"

Politeia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashanti Kunene
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Patriarchal Narratives

#FeesMustFall was a movement whose maxim was, “This revolution will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit.” This article is a self-reflection on my participation as a so-called radical black intersectional feminist in the #FeesMustFall movement at Stellenbosch University. It is also an attempt to provide evidence of the double erasures taking place in the mainstream patriarchal narratives about the #FeesMustFall movement. My story bears witness to the fact that queer black womxn were the backbone of the movement and that #FeesMustFall did indeed occur at Stellenbosch University. These constitute the double erasures taking place in terms of what is and can be known about the #FeesMustFall movement. My reflections serve to make a much-needed contribution to the body of knowledge produced about the #FeesMustFall movement.

Applying Systems Thinking via Systemigrams(TM) for Defining the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) Project

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Squires ◽  
Art Pyster ◽  
Brian Sauser ◽  
David Olwell ◽  
Stephanie Enck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Knowledge

Thinking about offender social reintegration: A case study of one NGO programme in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282096742
Author(s):  
Emmison Muleya
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
The Body ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Social Reintegration ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Former Offenders ◽  
Offender Reintegration

Successful social reintegration is critical if we are to reduce recidivism and crime in general. This voice of people article presents a background case for why effective offender reintegration services are key in South Africa, and the Eastern Cape in particular, through an example of the Offender Reintegration programme rendered by the National Institute of Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO). Apart from the paucity of literature on offender reintegration, very few voices from people working directly with these former offenders are ever heard. Therefore, this article seeks to address this gap by contributing to the body of knowledge on offender social reintegration.

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