Othman Mohamed

RETHINKING CONSTRUCTION SAFETY: AN INTRODUCTION TO TOTAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Who is responsible for construction safety: architects, engineers, contractors, or perhaps even clients? Safety of the constructed facility is normally the responsibility of the architect and engineer, whereas safety of the construction process is conventionally considered to be the contractors responsibility. In many cases, construction accidents are, therefore, mainly considered as the contractors responsibility. In fact, many factors associated with construction accidents can be traced back to the designers responsibility as well as the clients responsibility. Under the barner of rethinking construction mainly introduced in the UK Construction industry, there is a need to include rethinking construction safety as a focus. This paper discuss a concept of rethinking construction safety. This concept contains an introduction of total safety management (TSM) in construction. The development of this concept is based on the constraint-response theory of construction accident. In this paper, the role of p...

Risk management: Looming the modus operandi among construction contractors in Malaysia

Construction projects are commonly afflicted by risk due to their uncertainty and complexity in nature. Thus this requires the contractor to have an effective risk management approach. Previous studies revealed that there was no formal risk management being used by the contractors in Malaysia. Hence, the study concentrated on the types of risk involves during construction project, the application of risk management by contractors in Malaysian construction industry and the strategy taken by them to mitigate risks. The research conducted surveys to the contractors registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia (CIDB). The finding shows that there is a lack of standardization in the practice of risk management. Risk management has been mandated by the company and that the application has improved project performance. Besides formal approach and educating the people to conduct risk management, it is recommended that a standardized guideline of risk management is needed to improve the application of risk management among contractors in Malaysia.