Construction Safety
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS ON ENGINEER MANUAL 385 EFFECTIVENESS OF REDUCING NUMBER AND SEVERITY
OF MISHAPS
The United States Army Corps of Engineering Manual 385 (EM 385) has become a vital
part of construction operations on all Department of Defense (DOD) construction projects
to create a safer work environment. With tremendous effort on developing and enforcing
the EM 385, the question of whether the EM 385 provides any value for project safety
is critical to the construction industry at large. This study looks for causation
between the EM 385 and mishap reduction by isolating three dependent variables and
a variety of explanatory variables. The data was compiled using both the OSHA Data
Initiative (ODI) and the Federal Spending Database. A structural equation is developed
to conduct multiple regression analysis assuming EM 385 will reduce the number of
mishaps and the severity of mishaps. However, the result shows the effectiveness of
EM 385 on reducing the number and severity of mishaps is not significant.
LEAN TRIZ METHOD TO PREVENT SAFETY RELATED PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
The construction industry needs safer practices due to its complex and fragmented
nature. Therefore, making errors visible is essential to the process of error proofing.
With the Lean concept, it becomes possible to design out errors and develop ways to
prevent errors before they turn into defects. Lean also creates a more productive
and effective process when implementing innovative methods such as TRIZ, a problem
solving, analysis and forecasting tool. Lean TRIZ is a new approach to improve construction
processes while reducing the likelihood of defects. It strongly coincides with the
elimination or possible prevention of errors originating from unsafe actions and conditions.
Considering the high number of accidents in the construction industry, it is of utmost
importance to implement tools and techniques to prevent the probability of such occurrences.
Therefore, this study proposes a new method for error prevention with the implementation
of the Lean TRIZ method to minimize safety-related problems in construction. Then,
real construction problems caused by unsafe practices and conditions are analyzed
with the Lean TRIZ method. The main contribution of the study is to introduce the
Lean TRIZ concept and analyze the feasibility of applying this method to solve safety
problems. In addition, the study provides a guide and encourages construction practitioners
to benefit from the solutions provided by this research in the context of Lean TRIZ
methodology.