Abstract
Improvement of safety and productivity are major concerns throughout the construction industry. There is a dearth of efforts that document the need for simultaneous achievement of safety and productivity on construction sites. The objective of this research is to investigate productivity and safety simultaneously on construction projects by conducting a survey. In total, 1,800 hard-copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was 81%, resulting in 1,454 valid questionnaires for analysis. Safety and productivity were investigated on 25 construction projects by means of statistical analysis. The results indicated that eleven of the fifteen significant findings pertained to safety and the rest to productivity. The results confirmed that it is possible to improve productivity and safety simultaneously on construction projects. All measures were found to be correlated with both safety and productivity. The findings of this research provide practical knowledge to project managers and safety practitioners on construction projects to achieve safety and productivity simultaneously. The methodology of research might be useful for research at other construction projects in other regions and cultures.
Highlights
The construction industry is considered as a dangerous industry due to the characteristics of decentralization and mobility (Fang et al 2006) since employees are separated on construction projects, and they readily move among companies
The analysis examined the relationship of 31 variables with both productivity and safety
The mean score on the factor (Q.1) “there shall be an increase in productivity if more skilled labour is employed” (m = 3.96) was significantly greater at the p < 0.001 level than the mean score on “there shall be an improvement in safety if more skilled labour is employed” (m = 3.86)
Summary
The construction industry is considered as a dangerous industry due to the characteristics of decentralization and mobility (Fang et al 2006) since employees are separated on construction projects, and they readily move among companies. They make on-site decisions about the safe behaviours they deem important. Investigators reported that construction is generally risky because of outdoor operations (Shikdar, Sawaqed 2003; Choudhry, Fang 2008), work at heights (Choudhry, Fang 2008), complicated on-site plants and equipment operations (Shikdar, Sawaqed 2003; Choudhry, Fang 2008), and workers’ careless attitudes and behaviours towards safety (Choudhry, Fang 2008; Choudhry 2014)
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