A method of evaluation of relationship between the safety management and overall safety performance in construction industry

Abstract

Safety is crucial in construction industry. From beginning to end, the construction process is complex and characterized by a number of uncertainties and a high fatality rate. But despite its high fatality rate constructions can be a safe occupation when there is an effective safety management and workers and employers are aware of hazards and prevent the probable risks. In this context, the objective of this study is to propose a new methodology that determines the overall safety performance of the construction site by including safety management performance and on-site safety performance assessment to improve construction safety. The study is particularly based on getting data from the construction sites via developed questionnaire and checklist and creating software called SME (safety management Evaluator) working on the basis of fuzzy logic approach that has the capability to evaluate construction contractors’ safety management performance and onsite safety performance and notify the safety management deficiencies. The survey data were collected from a sample size of 30 on-going building type construction firms and the responders of the questionnaire were safety managers. Checklist was applied on-site by author in order to observe the real situation of safety. The study includes factor analysis and correlation of safety management components and descriptive statistics in order to uncover the correlation patterns among the different variables. The purpose of this evaluation is to establish a base point against which construction contractors can be classified by an index of safety developed for the Turkish construction sector. By developing an index of safety, which includes safety management and on- site performance “defectiveness of the safety management and the overall safety performance of a specific construction company regarding the safety index scale for Turkey” is determined.