Nick Blismas

Drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in Australia

Purpose – Much has been written on offsite manufacture (OSM) in construction, particularly regarding the perceived benefits and barriers to implementation. However, very little understanding of the state of OSM in the Australian construction industry exists. A “scoping study” was recently conducted to determine the “state‐of‐the‐art” of OSM in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to report on the overall findings of the study.Design/methodology/approach – The study took a broad qualitative survey‐based approach. This involved three industry workshops, several interviews and seven case studies across four major states of Australia. The study surveyed a range of suppliers across the construction supply‐chain, incorporating the civil, commercial and housing segments of the market.Findings – The study revealed that skills shortages and lack of adequate OSM knowledge are generally the greatest issues facing OSM in Australia. OSM uptake into the future is dependent on many factors, not least of which is a be...

Safety climate in conditions of construction subcontracting: a multi-level analysis

A multi‐level safety climate model was tested in the Australian construction industry. Subcontracted workers’ perceptions of the organizational safety response (OSR) and supervisor safety response (SSR) in their own organization and that of the principal contractor were measured using a safety climate survey administered at a large hospital construction project in Melbourne. One hundred and fourteen construction workers completed the survey, representing nine subcontractors engaged at the project. Two requisite conditions for the existence of group‐level safety climates, i.e. (1) within‐group homogeneity; and (2) between‐group variation were satisfied for perceptions of subcontractors’ OSR and SSR. This supports the contention that subcontractors working in a single construction project exhibit a unique group‐level safety climate. Subcontracted workers also discriminated between group‐level safety climates (i.e. the SSR) in their own and in the principal contractor’s organizations. The results suggest some cross‐level influence. Perceptions of the SSR were positively predicted by perceptions of the OSR in both the principal and subcontractor organizations. Perceptions of the OSR of the principal contractor were also a significant predictor of the perceived OSR and SSR in the subcontractor organizations. Perceptions of the subcontractors’ SSR were a significant predictor of the rate of lost‐time and medical treatment incidents reported by the subcontractor. Although perceptions of the principal contractor’s SSR were not directly related to subcontractors’ injury rates, they were a significant predictor of subcontractors’ SSR, revealing an indirect link. The results suggest that supervisory personnel (e.g. foremen and leading hands) play an important role in shaping safety performance in subcontracted workgroups.

ToolSHeD™: The development and evaluation of a decision support tool for health and safety in construction design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative information and decision support tool (ToolSHeD™) developed to help construction designers to integrate the management of OHS risk into the design process. The underlying structure of the prototype web‐based system and the process of knowledge acquisition and modelling are described. Design/methodology/approach – The ToolSHeD™ research and development project involved the capture of expert reasoning regarding design impacts upon occupational health and safety (OHS) risk. This knowledge was structured using an innovative method well‐suited to modelling knowledge in the context of uncertainty and discretionary decision‐making. Example “argument trees” are presented, representing the reasoning used by a panel of experts to assess the risk of falling from height during roof maintenance work. The advantage of using this method for modelling OHS knowledge, compared to the use of simplistic rules, is discussed Findings – The ToolSHeD™ prototype development and testing reveals that argument trees can represent design safety risk knowledge effectively. Practical implications – The translation of argument trees into a web‐based decision support tool is described and the potential impact of this tool in providing construction designers (architects and engineers) with easy and inexpensive access to expert OHS knowledge is discussed. Originality/value – The paper describes a new computer application, currently undergoing testing in the Australian building and construction industry. Its originality lies in the fact that ToolSHeD™ deploys argument trees to represent expert OHS reasoning, overcoming inherent limitations in rule‐based expert systems.

Group-level safety climate in the Australian construction industry: within-group homogeneity and between-group differences in road construction and maintenance

In modern organizations it is overly simplistic to assume that a uniform, organization‐wide climate for safety develops. Workgroup‐level safety climates are more likely to arise in decentralized organizations and their influence on occupational health and safety (OHS) behaviour is likely to be stronger when work is non‐routine, as in construction. The existence of workgroup‐level safety climates was examined in the Australian construction industry. A group‐level safety climate survey was conducted in a road maintenance and construction organization. The clear factorial structure produced in a larger sample of Australian defence logistics workers was not replicated and factors splintered, possibly due to the subject‐to‐item ratio in the construction study. However, the internal reliability consistency of the factors produced in the earlier pilot study was found to be acceptable for the construction industry data. Two requisite conditions for the existence of group‐level safety climates, i.e. (1) within‐group homogeneity; and (2) between‐group variation, were satisfied within the road construction and maintenance organization. The results indicate that distinct workgroup safety climates exist in construction, providing a theoretical explanation for why some workgroups perform better in OHS than others, despite having similar risk exposure.

Do perceptions of supervisors’ safety responses mediate the relationship between perceptions of the organizational safety climate and incident rates in the construction supply chain?

A multilevel safety climate survey was conducted in three Australian organizations in the construction supply chain. A principal components analysis (with varimax rotation) yielded six distinct safety climate factors reflecting aspects of the organizational safety response (OSR), supervisors’ safety response (SSR), and coworkers’ safety response (CSR). Perceptions of top management’s commitment to safety (an aspect of OSR) and supervisors’ safety expectations (an aspect of SSR) were both significantly and inversely correlated with the combined medical treatment and lost time injury rate of workgroups in the analysis. Further, regression analysis revealed that perceptions of supervisors’ safety expectations fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of top management’s commitment to safety and the workgroup injury frequency rate. The results highlight the critical role played by first-level supervisors in acting as the conduit through which organizational safety priorities are communicated to the ...

Concrete prefabricated housing via advances in systems technologies: Development of a technology roadmap

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the roadmapping methodology and its application to concrete prefabricated housing in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the concrete and housing industries of Australia collaboration in a project to develop a technology and innovation roadmap that will advance the concrete industrys supply chain capabilities by identifying and mapping innovation necessary for prefabricated concrete house construction. The roadmap lays out what is necessary for an off‐site systems‐based approach to housing construction in Australia. The systems‐based approach to prefabricated concrete products is a relatively new and developing extension of the concrete industry supply chain in Australia. New manufacturing technologies and innovations, which are emerging locally and from overseas, make these potential extensions possible. For the long‐term sustainability of the concrete industry, it is critical that it better understands how to adopt cooperative in...

Properties of group safety climate in construction: the development and evaluation of a typology

A safety climate survey was conducted in three Australian construction industry organizations. Workers’ perceptions of their supervisors’ safety response (SSR) and co‐workers’ safety response (CSR) were measured as facets of group safety climate. A two‐dimensional schema was developed based upon the strength and the level of group safety climate. The resulting framework was used to position the 40 workgroups included in the sample within one of four group safety climate types. A non‐parametric Kruskal Wallis test revealed that workgroups in which members share a strong consensus that co‐workers should treat safety as a priority had a significantly lower injury frequency rate than other workgroups in the sample. While no significant differences between the injury frequency rates of workgroups positioned in the four safety climate types were found for the other facets of group safety climate, workgroups with strong and high (i.e. strongly supportive) safety climates related to supervisors’ safety expectations and co‐workers’ actual safety behaviour reported injury frequency rates on average two‐thirds the magnitude of the remaining workgroups in the sample. Although limited by the reliance on retrospective and insensitive measurement for the dependent variable (i.e. injury frequency rates), the research provides preliminary evidence for the importance of considering both the strength and level of group safety climates in the construction industry. Future research should seek to replicate and extend this research by examining the antecedents of group safety climate strength and level in the construction context.

Analysis of Disruptions Caused by Construction Field Rework on Productivity in Residential Projects

Operational performance in residential construction production systems is assessed based on measures such as average house-completion time, number of houses under construction, lead time, and customer service. These systems, however, are prone to nonuniformity and interruptions caused by a wide range of variables such as inclement weather conditions, accidents at worksites, fluctuations in demand for houses, and rework. The availability and capacity of resources therefore are not the sole measures for evaluating construction production systems capacity, especially when rework is involved. The writers’ aim is to investigate the effects of rework timeframe and frequency/length on tangible performance measures. Different call-back timeframes for rework and their impact on house-completion times are modeled and analyzed. Volume home-building was chosen as the industry sector studied in the research reported in this paper because it is a data-rich environment. The writers designed several experiments to model on time, late, and early call-back timeframes in the presence of rework with different length and frequency. Both mathematical modeling and discrete-event simulation were then used to compare and contrast outputs. The measurements showed that the average completion time is shorter in systems interrupted by frequent but short rework. In other words, a smaller downstream buffer between processes is required to avoid work starvation than those systems affected by infrequent but long interruptions. Early call-backs for rework can significantly increase the number of house completions over the long run. This indicates that there is an opportunity for the mass house-building sector to improve work practice and project delivery by effectively managing rework and its related variables. The research reported in this paper builds on the current body-of-knowledge by applying even-flow production theory to the analysis of rework in the residential construction sector, with the intention of ensuring minimal disruption to construction production process and improving productivity.

Prevention through design: Trade‐offs in reducing occupational health and safety risk for the construction and operation of a facility

Purpose – The research aims to explore the interaction between design decisions that reduce occupational health and safety (OHS) risk in the operation stage of a facilitys life cycle and the OHS experiences of workers in the construction stage.Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected from three construction projects in Australia. Design decisions were examined to understand the reasons they were made and the impact that they had on OHS in the construction and operation stages.Findings – The case examples reveal that design decisions made to reduce OHS risk during the operation of a facility can introduce new hazards in the construction stage. These decisions are often influenced by stakeholders external to the project itself.Research limitations/implications – The results provide preliminary evidence of challenges inherent in designing for OHS across the lifecycle of a facility. Further research is needed to identify and evaluate methods by which risk reduction across all stages of a facilitys l...

The model client framework

Purpose – Clients of the construction industry, an important segment of the project management (PM) discipline, can make an important contribution to the occupational health and safety (OHS) performance of the construction projects they procure. This practice note aims to describe an initiative of the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – A model client framework was developed to assist Australian Government agencies to embed OHS into their procurement and PM practices.Findings – The model client framework establishes principles for the management of OHS in construction projects and establishes processes for client involvement in OHS through the planning, design and procurement, construction and completion stages of construction projects. Within each project stage, key management actions are established for Australian Government agencies.Practical implications – The model client framework will enable Australian Government agencies to operate in a consistent f...