safety,risk and reliability
Amir Hossein Soltaninia; Mahdi Ravanshadnia; Milad Ghanbari
Abstract
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management significantly affects reducing costs, increasing productivity, and the social credibility of construction companies and plays a facilitating role in the transition towards sustainable development. This study aims to identify and quantitatively analyze OHS ...
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Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management significantly affects reducing costs, increasing productivity, and the social credibility of construction companies and plays a facilitating role in the transition towards sustainable development. This study aims to identify and quantitatively analyze OHS risks in sustainable construction projects in Iran. To do this, first, common OHS risks are identified by conducting library studies. Then, these risks are screened and localized for Iran's sustainable construction projects by surveying 13 experts, selected by the snowball sampling method, in a focus group meeting. Afterward, each risk's importance and priority are determined using the Neutrosophic Group Best-Worst Multi-criteria (NGBWM) method, while applying a weight to each expert's opinion. The Neutrosophic sets theory provides the basis for obtaining accurate and more reliable results by considering the uncertainties in the experts' opinions. The findings showed that "the lack of sufficient safety skills of employees due to not allocating time to specialized safety training," "occupational injuries and diseases," "hazards caused by improper design and layout of the project site," "Weakness and inefficiency of occupational health and safety management personnel," and "Negligence and lack of planning for emergency maneuvers," with weights of 0.052, 0.036, 0.035, 0.032, and 0.028 respectively, are the most critical OHS risks in Iran's sustainable construction projects. Finally, reactive and preventive responses were proposed to face them in detail.IntroductionThe construction industry is one of the most dangerous industries worldwide, and Iran is no exception. According to reports from Iran's official institutions, 30-35% of work-related accidents occur in the construction sector. Furthermore, analysis of construction accidents indicates that 22% of accidents occur in the stages of preparation and demolition, while 61% occur during the construction phase (Alipour-Bashary et al., 2021). Research has revealed that sustainable construction projects pose a greater risk to health and safety than conventional construction processes. The health and safety of workers are essential aspects of social sustainability. However, the importance of health and safety risk assessment in sustainable construction projects is still in its early stages (Onubi et al., 2019). Given the complexity and challenges in the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risk assessment environment, it is crucial to develop a suitable mechanism for identifying and measuring safety risks in sustainable construction projects. This would enable finding the best solutions for risks that have a high probability of occurrence and severe consequences. The current research aims to answer the following main question: What are the key OHS risks in sustainable construction projects in Iran and the appropriate response and preventive actions for them?Literature eviewReviewing previous research shows that while risk management in construction projects is not a new concept, the focus on the safety of construction projects in recent years is a relatively recent development. Furthermore, with leading international companies in the construction industry increasingly embracing sustainable development, there is a growing interest in integrating safety risk management with sustainable practices, making this perspective unique and novel. Previous studies on the safety risks of construction projects have typically categorized these risks within the dimensions of Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE), often neglecting other dimensions of safety risks. In contrast, the current research proposes to combine the three aspects of sustainable development (economic, social, and environmental) with the dimensions of HSE, thereby offering a more comprehensive framework for organizing the safety risks of construction projects. A significant research gap in this field lies in the evaluation and quantitative analysis of identified risks. To address this gap, the current research employs the Neutrosophic Group Best-Worst Multi-criteria (NGBWM) method, which involves weighting experts' perspectives to provide a more robust and reliable assessment of safety risks.MethodologyThe current research was applied with a purposeful and descriptive survey approach. Data were collected from 13 project managers and executive officials in Iran's sustainable construction projects, sampled using the snowball method. Semi-structured interviews and two researcher-made questionnaires were employed to gather the required data. The research objectives were pursued through a proposed methodological framework comprising five main phases. In this study, Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks in sustainable construction projects were evaluated and analyzed within a neutrosophic space and through group decision-making. Following the identification of the final risks, the Neutrosophic Group Best-Worst Multi-criteria (NGBWM) method was applied using the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) to measure importance and determine high-ranked risks. The group decision-making approach aimed to mitigate bias in results and enhance decision accuracy by leveraging collective wisdom. Implementing the NGBWM method in the neutrosophic space helped reduce uncertainty in subjective judgments and enhance decision accuracy through the use of three or four-point estimates and consideration of possibility functions for experts' opinions. ResultsAccording to the results, 45 Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks were identified for Iran’s sustainable construction industry. The application of the Neutrosophic Group Best-Worst Multi-criteria (NGBWM) method revealed that risks such as "lack of sufficient safety skills of employees due to not allocating time to specialized safety training," "occupational injuries and diseases," "hazards caused by improper design and layout of the project site," "Weakness and inefficiency of OHS management personnel," and "Negligence and lack of planning for emergency maneuvers," respectively, had the most significant importance and the highest ranks, with weights of 0.052, 0.036, 0.035, 0.032, and 0.028.DiscussionThe inadequacy of specialized training programs in the field of safety has been identified as the root cause of many OHS risks in Iran’s sustainable construction projects. The role of the human resources unit in enhancing and nurturing a skilled and knowledgeable workforce in the principles and standards of safety in sustainable construction projects is more crucial than ever. It is imperative to prioritize the quality of work and personal life of human resources. Designing an efficient incentive system, providing health insurance for employees, conducting periodic check-ups, and offering comprehensive training programs can serve as preventive measures to mitigate the occurrence of injuries and occupational diseases. These proactive steps not only enhance workplace safety but also contribute to the overall well-being and productivity of the workforce in sustainable construction projects.ConclusionThe occurrence of safety risks in sustainable construction projects is multifaceted and does not solely stem from individual carelessness or unexpected accidents. Instead, these risks originate from various areas including social, managerial, structural, and health domains. Consequently, solely focusing on OHS risks in a one-dimensional manner and lacking a systematic and comprehensive view of this issue hinder managers and decision-makers from accurately understanding and analyzing the main sources of risks and implementing appropriate preventive measures.
project management
Ali Namazian; Somayeh Behboodian
Abstract
Projects, during their execution, face various risks that can impact the achievement of project objectives. Therefore, the need for extensive project risk management is widely recognized. In a systematic risk management process, after risk evaluation, risk analysts are confronted with the risk response ...
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Projects, during their execution, face various risks that can impact the achievement of project objectives. Therefore, the need for extensive project risk management is widely recognized. In a systematic risk management process, after risk evaluation, risk analysts are confronted with the risk response phase, where they decide on the actions to be taken regarding identified risks. Hence, designing and implementing a structured approach to manage and mitigate risks will yield beneficial outcomes for successful completion within the desired budget, time, and quality. In conducted studies, a comprehensive approach that integrates the time and cost implications of risks and response strategies has been lacking. In this article, an optimization model of zero-one programming has been employed to select the most suitable risk response strategies for the project. In the developed framework, the modeling of the impact of risks on the time and cost of activities, as well as the effect of implementing risk response strategies on reducing the undesirable time and cost implications of risks, has been utilized to select optimal strategies. Finally, to evaluate the efficiency of the model, an industrial case study was utilized, which confirmed the favorable performance of this framework.IntroductionEvery project throughout its lifespan faces opportunities and risks. Risks are uncertain outcomes or consequences of activities or decisions. Therefore, in the project planning process, it is necessary to identify potential risks and then consider appropriate strategies to deal with various risks. In this article, a mathematical programming model is used to evaluate and analyze project risks and to select project risk responses. This model considers the probabilistic nature of risk events and develops an index for evaluating the time and cost impacts of risks, as well as response strategies. The proposed approach can be used to select the best combination of risk response strategies that have the most impact on the time and cost of implementing activities, resulting in completing the project with minimum time and cost.Literature ReviewDifferent models have been developed for project risk management to enhance success in development projects. These approaches utilize various structures and tools to quantitatively or qualitatively model the selection of risk response strategies for the project. In recent years, due to unexpected events such as financial crises, significant delays have occurred in projects worldwide (Motaleb, 2021). Thus, researchers have attempted to propose various methods to mitigate the effects of risks in recent years.In the Zonal-based approach, two selected criteria based on risks are plotted on the horizontal and vertical axes, respectively. The two chosen criteria are the weighted probability of immediate project risk and external project risk, and the controllability and specificity of the risks related to the project. Based on the different values of these two criteria, a two-dimensional chart consisting of multiple regions is formed. Different strategies are placed in the corresponding regions. Therefore, suitable strategies can be selected based on the regions formed by the coordinates of the two criterion values.In the Trade-off-based approach, in order to identify the selected risk for formulating response strategies, exchanges are conducted considering the project's goals, requirements, and managers' mental settings among risk-related criteria such as cost, success probability, percentage of work losses, duration, quality, etc. Then, desirable strategies can be selected from the options based on the efficiency frontier rule.The approach based on WBS is considered a risk management and project management method. This choice aligns the risk response strategy with the work activities based on WBS analysis of the project. (Guan et al., 2023) developed an integrated approach based on an optimization model and fault tree analysis for budget allocation in response to risk from safety and prevention perspectives.The optimization approach involves creating a mathematical model to solve the problem of selecting risk response strategies. In general, the objective function aims to minimize the cost of implementing strategies, and the constraints include combinations of strategies, an acceptable level of risk loss, budget for implementing strategies, etc.MethodologyIn this study, a set of work activities is considered, and for each work activity, there may be associated risks that can have an impact. Then, risk response strategies are modeled to determine the most desirable strategy. The zero-one programming technique is used to solve the model. By solving the model, strategies are selected that maximize the estimated impact of risk response after implementation and minimize the cost of implementation. In the proposed model, a set of actions is selected in a way that satisfies the system constraints and optimizes the corresponding objective function. The objective function can be related to time or cost, and the goal of the model is to minimize project completion time or project cost. The model constraints are related to time and cost. The time constraint means that selected strategies should not exceed the specified time frame for their execution and impact on time. The cost constraint means that selected strategies should not exceed the budget and predefined cost in terms of their cost and impact on cost. ResultsThe model presented in this study has an objective function and nine constraints. The purpose of this model is to determine strategies that minimize project completion delay and help achieve and improve project goals. Due to the structure of the modeling, including the objective function and problem constraints, the complexity of the model will change polynomially based on the number of risks, response strategies, and project activities. If simulation-based approaches are used to solve the model, considering the binary nature of project risks and replacing it with the expected value, the complexity of the solution approach will be exponential. Therefore, using the logic of expected value to calculate the duration of activities and project completion time will accelerate the solution process.Discussion and conclusionsIn a systematic project risk management process, after assessing the risks, the implementation of project risk response strategies takes place. The conducted research has generally provided general solutions, and there is no comprehensive model for evaluating project risk reduction measures. In this article, a mathematical optimization model has been developed by considering the risks and response strategies as independent variables for each work activity. Essentially, based on the potential risks that may occur for each work activity, strategies are chosen to minimize project completion delay and reduce the incurred costs, ultimately achieving the project's completion with the least delay and cost. Implementing risk response strategies to mitigate the time and cost impacts of risks requires time and investment. Therefore, selecting these strategies will be justifiable when the time and cost benefits derived from their implementation are greater than the time and cost spent.