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Abstract— Both quality and safety relate to the successful performance of the job and infuse the entire process from design to estimating to contract negotiation and throughout the construction process. Both quality and safety require constant vigilance and effort; everyone, including subcontractors, must participate in the effort. Another similarity in scope is that while many of the results are valued at the end of a project, both quality and safeties have long term implications.
Quality problems and chronic health problems may be discovered years after the project is completed. Critically to success and goal: No failures (deviations or injuries) Efforts to maintain quality and safety focus on a common objective: minimizing disruptions to the efficient process of completing a job. In both cases the disruptions are usually the result of human errors or adverse circumstances. In quality, the disruptions are called deviations; in safety they are called accidents. In fact, an accident can be defined as a type of deviation. If the requirement of a zero injury job is established, an injury is a failure to meet the requirement and therefore, by definition, a deviation. This approach places the safety function within quality management. "Doing it right the first time" can refer to the process (safety) as well as to the product (quality).
This paper aim to provide a basis framework, as the concepts of safety management and quality management certainly are still new in India, in this seminar entitled “Construction Quality and Safety” tries to summarize the importance of these two areas.
Keywords—Quality,safety,management and construction
Part I: Quality Control
Quality is defined as 'fitness to purpose', i.e. providing a product (a building) which provides an appropriate quality for the purpose for which it is intended. The price to be paid for a building is a reflection of the expectations of quality - A cheaper building probably uses inferior materials and is likely to be less attractive and less durable. The quality is also related to the timing of when it is delivered.
Quality control in the construction industry can be looked at as having three elements:
• To produce a building which satisfies the client
• To produce a building where quality is related to the price.
• To produce a building in which sufficient time is allowed to obtain the desired quality.
Like most other aspects of construction management quality control has to be planned. Planning seeks 'order' and a quality control system for a construction project reflects this sense of order. It may be seen to be in five basic stages:
• Setting the quality standard or quality of design required by client.
• Planning how to achieve the required quality, construction methods, equipments, materials and personnel to be employed.
• Construct the building right first time.
• Correct any quality deficiencies.
• Provide for long term quality control through establishing systems and developing a quality culture.
The costs of quality
It is obvious that quality is proportional to costs associated with the construction process. Costs associated with quality need to be identified for management decisions. The costs of quality can be broken down as follows:
• Failure costs: The costs of demolishing and rebuilding, the cost of production time, delays to other gangs
• Appraisal costs: The cost of inspection and testing.
• Prevention costs: The costs of providing better designs, more training to reduce failure costs, more maintenance.
Quality Assurance QA
Quality assurance is a mechanism for ensuring that the construction process takes place within the framework of a quality management system. This suggests that quality assurance defines the organization structure, tasks and duties for implementing quality management.
In 1987, the Building research establishment surveyed the quality problems on Britain's construction sites. They found that half of the faults were design related, and 40% of the problems arose from faulty construction. 10% were products failing.
Design faults
• Misunderstanding the client's brief to develop the design
• using information which is incorrect or out of date
• misunderstanding of the client's expectations of quality standards
• Lack of co-ordination between the designers.
• Loose or inappropriate specifications
Construction faults
• Not building to drawings or specifications
• Poor supervision leading to bad workmanship
• Insufficient management of the quality of construction.
• In order to eliminate those potential problems many clients have looked to quality assurance to reassure them that they will get the right building without undue quality problems.
Part II. Construction safety
Unfortunately the construction industry has become stereotyped as an accident prone industry, in fact only mining and fishing industries have higher fatalities. Depressingly, the accident rates experienced closely correlate to the level of activity within the industry, indicating that when work load is is high, safety tends to receive less attention.
It is argued that construction management must have a prime concern for safety and therefore should have a moral, economic, and legal commitment to ensure workplace safety on sites. However the responsibility for safety must commence upstream of the construction phase of a project; architects and engineers must have the technical knowledge to design buildings which can be safely constructed, as well as a commitment to safe working conditions for site workers.
Construction Safety costs
To many managers who have been brought up to the importance of construction scheduling, and controlling costs, the economic aspect of safety is the most forceful. In construction the costs associated with an accident can be immense. For material losses in which no injury occurs the accounting of loss can be easily assessed; but where human loss is concerned, the costing becomes more difficult since life or a physical facility cannot crudely be financially evaluated, yet it has been widely recognized that monetary compensation to either the injured party or relatives in the event of fatality has to be paid. Most compensation payments are paid by the contractor's insurance company. Insurance companies will base their premiums upon historical evidence and a poor safety record will inevitably be reflected in insurance premiums.
However, the loss to a company by an accident can be broken into:
• Lost working hours of an injured employee.
• Cost of repair or replacement of property damage, whether it is equipment or an element of the permanent construction.
• Insurance premiums increase.
• Rescheduling costs or even delay costs in some cases. Though, it was noticed that contractors who use Q
Scheduling for construction scheduling can reduce this effect tremendously since the technique is rather flexible in respect of performance rates and alternatives, yet other safety costs would be inevitable.
Construction Safety policy
To generate safety consciousness within construction organizations, a firm lead must be taken by top management. It is recognized that finance and lost production are convenient measurements of accidents, but accidents should generate an emotional response, and if this emotion is genuine it will carry conviction. A safety policy which is founded upon compassion will more often succeed, since it will impervious to shifts and changes in construction scheduling and fashion and, consequently, will be less easily diluted.
Contractors should give careful thought to the role of the full time safety officer. Two basic concepts exist about this role:
• Safety officers should be advisers to site management
• Safety officers undertake the safety responsibility on behalf of sites.
In general the role of the safety officer shall consist of the following duties:
• Formulating the company's safety policy
• Advising management on legislation and safety matters
• Assisting in drafting of safe working procedures and codes of practice.
• Reporting and investigating accidents with the preparation and analysis of safety records.
• Safety training.
• Safety assessment of site management.
• Inspection of sites to ensure compliance with safety measures (Safe working methods, proper use of construction equipments, protective clothing, and availability of First aid)
• Providing information to sites on accidents that have happened elsewhere on similar sites to help generate safety consciousness within working sites.
Construction accidents are one of the most common work related personal injuries. Construction injuries may be the result of machinery failure involving forklifts, cranes, front end loaders and any other piece of construction machinery found on the job site. They may also involve faulty safety equipment, falling debris, lack of proper training for construction workers, improperly assembled scaffolding, structural collapse, electrical fires, electrocution and a slew of other job site violations.
• Under the U.S. Department of Labor, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) must protect those who work in the construction industry. OSHA guarantees a certain level of safety for any construction worker who works on high risk job sites and is exposed to hazardous conditions. In addition, the State of Oregon protects construction workers under the Oregon’s Employer Liability Law. This law requires
all construction companies engaged in dangerous work to take every necessary precaution in order to prevent worker injury on the job site.
• Construction is a dangerous profession and there are many hazards in the construction workplace. While these state and federal regulations are necessary, they offer only a small amount of comfort to construction workers and their families. In many cases, construction workers are victims of irresponsible employers and are exposed to unnecessary risk while at work. It is also common for third party members, such as contractors and subcontractors, to be present on the job site, creating hazardous and chaotic conditions for the workers.
• No matter what construction company you work for, it is the responsibility of the construction company to educate their workers on proper safety precautions and to make sure the job site meets all safety regulations. The Department of Labor and Industries examined construction injuries over a four year period. They found the following seven injuries to be the most common (they also accounted for 92 percent of all compensable claims):
• • Work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, back and upper extremities
• Workers struck by heavy machinery or falling objects
• Workers pinned up against a wall by machinery or motor vehicles
• Workers caught inside or underneath a piece of machinery