Developing a generic safety performance evaluation prototype for construction projects in Malaysia

Abstract

Despite recent efforts that have been made to improve construction safety, this industry yet considered unsafe (hazardous) due to high number of recorded accident. Based on the statistics released by Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) in Malaysia, between 2009 to 2015 the highest rate of fatality is for construction sector. To avoid accidents in construction projects there is a need to implement proper safety and health program and ensure that safe working practice is in place. Moreover, safety performance must be monitored and evaluated. This research addresses the interactions among safety factors during evaluation process which have not been considered before. Moreover, majority of the measurement techniques disregards the (pivotal) role of parties such as owner, designer and subcontractors who have consequential affecting the construction safety and health. This research aims to develops a Generic Safety Performance Evaluation Prototype (GSPEP) for construction projects in Malaysia. The first objective is to identify and verify, the significant safety performance factors and sub-factors that affect the construction projects in Malaysia. The second objective is to obtain the interactions between safety performance factors through Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method while the decision model is developed. The results indicate that “Safety Commitment” is the most influential safety factor while, “Management Implementations” has the highest total effect rate. In the third objective, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is employed to derive weightage of factors and sub factors of new safety framework. The GSPEP is developed in objective 4, which comprises 11 factors, 53 sub factors and 125 indicators that carry weightage according to their effectiveness in preventing of the occurring of construction accidents. The score of a project safety would be calculated according to evaluation of indicators in complying to safety standards. As the last objective, the GSPEP is then implemented in real case studies and evaluated through the judgments of two groups of construction safety experts and academic researchers to determine its applicability and validity level in evaluating safety and health performance of construction projects in Malaysia. The experts in both groups recognized the performance and effectiveness of the GSPEP as a new method for safety evaluation. The GSPEP evaluate the safety level of a construction project and its weaknesses within the construction organization. The GSPEP also be able to facilitate the awareness in improving safety culture on construction projects, since it involves the cooperation of all personnel from top management to ordinary workers. This research on GSPEP is a comprehensive decision maker that can be employed as a new system to benchmark the safety and health performance level of construction companies in Malaysia.