`How does safety affect the construction project schedule

RUNNING HEAD : How Does Safety

How Does Safety Affect the Construction Project Schedule

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Construction sites are characterized by the omnipresence of hazards with its necessity for machines and equipment , crowding of workers and outdoor or elevated operations (Rawlinson , 2004 . Compared to any other industry , the construction industry experiences the most number of deaths and injuries amounting to about 1200-1300 deaths and 500 ,000 injuries per year (Hinze , n .d . While only about 7 of industrial workers are employed in construction , 18 of deaths and 15 of

all injuries happen in construction (Hinze , n .d . However , only a few firms consider safety management as part of their objectives because of the usually conflicting nature of safety and schedule , and profitability (Rawlinson , 2004 Hakkinen , 1995

Such concerns may be true only in terms of interim objectives Application of safety management may actually be beneficial for the construction industry in the long run . As a matter of fact , it was found out that the safest managers turned to be the best performers in terms of cost effectiveness and schedule (Levitt and Samelson , 1993 . What is the relation between management safety and construction project schedule ? Hinze (1996 ) sheds light with his distraction theory

Hinze 's Distraction theory (1996 ) correlates jobsite hazards with distraction . Job hazards tend to shift the focus of workers from the task at hand to the source of risk as they try to avoid what perceived injury it may produce . This would not pose a problem if avoidance occurs before or after the tasks . The dilemma is that avoidance happens contemporaneously with the task . The attention that would have been directed on the performance of the job becomes divided to include a simultaneous worrying and avoidance of perceived risks . This brings about lower productivity and further increase in the likelihood of injury , which in turn would cause another cycle of mental distraction and decreased task achievement

It is the summation of task achievements by each worker that determines whether a construction project will or will not be consistent with the construction project schedule . In short , a decline in one worker 's productivity must be balanced by a proportionate increase in the productivity of another worker or a subsequent increase in the productivity of that worker himself . But in this case , since the dilemma arises from environmental hazards , a lack or even a perceived lack of security in ones ' person or life all workers are equally exposed to such distraction at all times . This reduces the probability that the workers ' individual productivity will balance one another to comply with the construction project schedule . That the reduction in productivity only affects one stage of the project is immaterial as a delay at any one point in the schedule jeopardizes the entire schedule , unless such circumstances are foreseen , incorporated and considered in making the schedule (Rowlinson , 2004 . Hence , by applying measures to remove the cause of mental distraction , that is by securing the safety of each worker , the deviation between the...