Ivan W. H. Fung

Non-structural fuzzy decision support system for evaluation of construction safety management system

Abstract Because of the poor safety records, there have been a number of safety improvement measures developed in the construction industry of Hong Kong. However, not all of these programs are cost, time and resources effective. If the degree of effectiveness of these programs can be compared and analyzed, it helps management focus their effort and better deploy resources. This study tries to evaluate the safety management systems and prioritize these measures with the consideration of various decision criteria. The Non-structural fuzzy decision support system (NSFDSS) is applied to facilitate the decision making process for these multi-objective problems. Modified NSFDSS is presented that is suitable for the appraisal of complex construction problems, which allows assessment based on a pair-wise comparison of alternatives using semantic operators, even under the condition that insufficient precise information is available.

Study of attitude changes in people after the implementation of a new safety management system: the supervision plan

The construction industry of Hong Kong has a very poor site safety record. The overall accident rate has gone down a little during the last few years, but the number of fatalities has risen dramatically. In the past, the Hong Kong Government adopted a laissez-faire approach in managing construction safety, hoping that market forces would regulate the safety performance. However, the approach has proved to be ineffective. Since 1986, the Government has taken a proactive approach in combating construction site safety, and has introduced a series of safety programmes, which consist of encouraged and mandatory schemes aiming at nourishing a proper safety culture in the construction industry. Recently, the Government decided to criminalize site accident cases by introducing a so-called ‘Supervision Plan’, aiming at changing the safety attitude and culture of construction practitioners. This paper applies an attitude-changing model, ‘reinforcement theory’, to predict the changing attitude of people in the construction industry. The results show that the attitude of construction practitioners in Hong Kong will change to be more positive when they receive more messages to confirm that people really are put into jail for negligence under the Supervision Plan.

Enhancement of classroom facilities of primary schools and its impact on learning behaviors of students

– The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the enhanced school facilities and the impacts of this enhancement on the learning behaviors of students, – A pre‐ and post‐occupancy evaluation questionnaire was administered in 2003‐2004 to 750 primary students who had studied in both the old schoolhouses and the new Millennium Schoolhouses., – The results revealed that all of the FM components except teaching tools were improved in the millennium schools, while most of the learning behaviour (LB) components showed no changes. However, an interesting finding was that most of the improved FM components correlated to the enhanced LB of the students in the millennium schools., – There was only a three to four months period between the pre‐ and post‐occupancy evaluation in the study. To ensure the effectiveness of upgraded FM in millennium primary schools and to understand the long‐term impacts on the learning outcomes of students, a longitudinal post‐occupancy evaluation study in these three millennium schools is recommended., – It is suggested that a longitudinal POE study be conducted in these three millennium schools in order to understand the long‐term impact of facilities management in millennium primary schools, especially the impact on the academic performance of students., – Architects and facilities managers should further discuss with teachers about how to encourage students in classrooms to be self‐disciplined, redesign the layout, and reconsider the teaching tools that todays primary students need.

Comparison of Using Mixed-Integer Programming and Genetic Algorithms for Construction Site Facility Layout Planning

The use of modular construction has gained wide acceptance in the industry. For a specific construction facility layout problem such as site precast standardized modular units, it requires the establishment of an on-site precast yard. Arranging the precast facilities within a construction site presents real challenge to site management. This complex task is further augmented with the involvement of several resources and different transport costs. A genetic algorithm (GA) model was developed for the search of a near-optimal layout solution. Another approach using mixed-integer programming (MIP) has been developed to generate optimal facility layout. These two approaches are applied to solve with an example in this paper to demonstrate that the solution quality of MIP outperforms that of GA. Further, another scenario with additional location constraints can also be solved readily by MIP, which, however, if modeled by GA, the solution process would be complicated. The study has highlighted that MIP can perform better than GA in site facility layout problems in which the site facilities and locations can be represented by a set of integer variables.

Controlling construction waste by implementing governmental ordinances in Hong Kong

Purpose – Owing to limited space, reducing the waste going to landfills has become a pressing issue in Hong Kong. As most of the solid waste was generated from construction activity, the Hong Kong Government has instituted a number of measures aimed at reducing waste from this source. However, it appears that the application of these measures has been of limited effectiveness. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of implementing regulatory measures for reducing construction waste in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – The data used for the analysis are from a survey to construction professionals in the local industry by means of questionnaire, interview discussions and case studies. The survey examined the commitments and responsibilities imposed on project participants for implementing seven major regulatory waste management controlling measures: legislative controls; controlling public filling facilities; controlling landfill areas; providing on‐site sorting facilitie...

Relationship between construction safety signs and symbols recognition and characteristics of construction personnel

This study investigates the relationship between the characteristics of construction personnel and their degree of recognition of safety signs and symbols. The safety signs and symbols are split into categories of mandatory action signs, prohibition signs and warning symbols. Thirty safety signs and symbols printed in colour and in Chinese were distributed to 560 construction personnel working in eight different construction sites in Hong Kong. The results drawn from 388 respondents indicate that substantial problems exist in comprehending the signs and symbols that are posted in construction sites. The percentages of construction personnel who correctly identified mandatory action signs, prohibition signs and warning symbols are 90%, 61% and 55% respectively. Drinking habits, involvement in on‐site safety promotion activities and their job positions play a determinant role in their ability of comprehending these construction safety symbols. These findings provide meaningful implications to the industry in the design, selection and positioning of safety symbols on site.

A Study of Knowledge, Awareness, Practice and Recommendations Among Hong Kong Construction Workers on Using Personal Respiratory Protective Equipment at Risk

Pneumoconiosis is considered as one of the hazardous chronic health diseases in the Hong Kong construction industry. Most frontline workers lack proper education and their health and safety awareness is relatively low. Therefore, management of an organization plays a momentous role to implement the control of hazards within organizations and to incorporate health and safety into their operations. Personal protective equipment is designed, only after all health and safety measures, to remove and to control health and safety hazards. In the case of respiratory hazards, the hazard at source is impossible to entirely eliminate. Thus, wearing the personal respiratory protective equipment against the health and safety illnesses becomes critical. This paper examines awareness and attitude in using the personal respiratory protec- tive equipment in the Hong Kong construction industry. Questionnaire survey and structured interviews are conducted. From the survey results, it is found that awareness and understanding of the health and safety hazards, is insufficient. Moreover, workers are not familiar with the risks of the equipment fitting, and health and safety. Health and safety aware- ness can influence health and safety attitude and behaviour. The low awareness of health and safety would make worker more vulnerable to illness. Recommendations to improve health and safety awareness and understanding of health and safety diseases are also given in this study.

Frequency and continuity of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms for construction workers

Abstract Regarding occupational health and safety, musculoskeletal problems are serious injuries which, however, are always neglected by most construction workers (Washington State Department of Labor and Industries 2007). Limited research has been recorded in work‐related musculoskeletal symptoms, especially in the construction industry. The aim of this paper is to study frequency and continuity of musculoskeletal symptoms for local construction workers. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews are conducted. It is found that the musculoskeletal symptom is common among most construction workers, practically in their upper extremities and lower back. All respondents reported that they had experienced of at least one musculoskeletal symptom in the 11 body locations including neck, shoulder, upper back, upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, lower back, hip, knee, and ankle. Recommendations to reduce problems occurred for work‐related musculoskeletal symptoms are also discussed.

Behavior, attitude, and perception toward safety culture from mandatory safety training course

AbstractThe construction industry is one of the most hazardous trades as far as work safety is concerned. Efforts have been made to improve safety in workplace. These efforts have focused on legislation, engineering failure, safety awareness campaigns, safety training, and unsafe behavior. After years of developing safety technologies and safety management systems in the industry, many organizations recognize that the safety culture within the industry has to be addressed if high standards of health and safety are to be maintained. Therefore, this paper investigated the relationship among people’s behavior, attitude, and perception toward the safety culture and evaluated the effectiveness of a mandatory safety training course in Hong Kong’s construction industry. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews were conducted. It was found that a good personal safety attitude, personal roles and commitment among workers, and low obstacles to safe behavior resulted in good perception of accidents. In addit...

Application of GA optimization for solving precedent relationship problem in project scheduling

Abstract Based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs) with the matrix approach, the presented model introduces a pre-decision algorithm combining electronic spreadsheets to visually unfold the precedent relationship of activities in project scheduling problems. Trying to avoid large modification to traditional genetic algorithm operators and chromosome structures, the proposed method is improved by reducing time consumption in searching solutions. To demonstrate the technique, two types of scheduling problems for the construction industry are described and tested: traditional contracts with fixed finishing time constraint and the Build–Operate–Transfer (BOT) contracts which have a flexible finishing time with a reward/penalty arrangement. The results clearly show that the model can generate a promising upgrading when compared with the use of traditional GA method in chromosome structures and searching time.