IJIE 2003Quality and Safety Management Systems in Construction: Some Insight from ContractorsTodd W. Loushine, M.S., P.E. Peter Hoonakker, Ph.D.Center for Quality and Productivity ImprovementUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonFunding provided by CPWR (no. 1020-48)

OverviewSafety statistics for construction indicate high fatality and injury ratesQuality research indicates inefficiencies and mismanagement are wasting billions of dollarsThe nature of construction requires the work processes to deal with uncertainties, continuous changes, and riskWe are investigating a new type of management system, to deal with the dynamic and uncertain nature of construction work

Safety StatisticsConstruction fatalities account for 22% of the U.S. total, while employing only 7% of workforce. In comparison, manufacturing employs 15-21% and accounts for only 11% of fatalities (BLS, 2003)W.C. premiums cost contractors anywhere from 1.5% to 6.9% of total project costs (Agarwal & Everett, 1997)A construction company operating on a 3% profit margin would need to increase sales by $333,000 to pay for a $10,000 injury, such as amputation of a finger (Construction Chart Book, 2002)Indirect costs associated with worker medical injuries were estimated up to 20.3 times greater than direct costs (Hinze & Applegate, 1991)

Make sure to make a comment about indirect costs (as compared to direct costs)

Safety Issues in Construction

Safety Issues in Construction

Cost of Quality in ConstructionFrom a quality/productivity standpoint, labor typically accounts for 30% of project costs (Picard, 2000)Manpower mismanagement and construction delays were found to contribute to 40-60% non-productive time for onsite work (Jereas et al., 2000)Rework costs up to 12% of total project costs and up to 11% of total project work hours (Love et al., 1999)Dun & Bradstreet data indicate that construction business fail at a higher rate than all other businesses (Construction Chart Book, 2002)

The Nature of ConstructionThree primary participants (Carty, 1995):Owner: wants something builtDesigner: develops a planContractor: converts a plan into a productConstruction is very complex and non-standardized (Rowlinson & Walker, 1995)Exposure to weather, dynamic site conditions, coordination of multiple parties, etc.81% of U.S. contractors have less than 9 employees (Construction Chart book, 2002)

Owner needs something built, residential, non-residential, highway, or commercial

Our Concept: Integrate Quality & Safety ManagementApply traditional safety management (OSHA, 1989)Management commitmentEmployee involvementHazard identification and controlTraining and educationAccident investigationProgram documentation and ReviewTo Quality Management principles (Dean & Bowen, 1994)Customer-focusTeam workContinuous Improvement

Our Basic Research QuestionCan quality and safety be integrated into a management system?

Literature ReviewConducted Fall 2001, updated Fall 2003Key search engines: ABI inform, WebSPIRS, ProQuest, PsychINFO, and Web of KnowledgeKey words: quality, TQM, quality management, safety, safety management, occupational safety, construction, and construction industry18 construction safety articles26 construction quality articles2 empirical and 3 theoretical articles on safety and quality management

We could only find these articles, we had to refer to manufacturing research to broaden our basis

Safety Management ArticlesPositive effect on safety performance indicatorsManagement commitment (9)Audits/observations (8)Strong safety culture/climate (8)Communication (6)Employee involvement (5)Continuous improvement (4)Safety through Designers (3)Partnerships (1)Training (alone) was not found to improve safetySafety performance comprised of incidence rates, EMR, survey response, and observations

Quality Management ArticlesPositive effect on quality performance indicators:TQM, in general (7) Employee empowerment (4)Partnering with subs and suppliers (4) Customer focus (3)Team work (3)Management commitment (3)Communication (2)Continuous improvement (2)Quality performance indicated by cost (budget) and time (schedule) growth, number of defects/errors, survey response, audit/observations, and customer satisfaction rating

Quality Management ArticlesBarriers to successful implementationnature of constructionpoor understanding of customer expectationslack of management commitment/leadershiplack of worker empowermentSelf-assessment tools, such as ISO 9000, MBNQA, and BS 5750 were helpfulAlso found to improve safety performance in a two studies

More diffinative transition between barriers and helpful assessments

Safety and Quality Management ArticlesSafety and quality criteria used in pre-qualification for hiring subcontractorsThe complexity of an integrated S&Q management system requires expertise and resourcesBased on a survey, quality managers were more positive than safety managers about integrating quality and safetyThe Deming approach was applied to safety management (theoretical)

Objectives for InterviewsThe literature review indicated:Characteristics of safety programsSafety performance indicators: EMR, IRCharacteristics of quality programsQuality performance indicators: budget and schedule growthSafety and quality integration has been given minimal attention by researchersWe wanted to know what contractors were doing for safety and quality, and what they thought about integrating quality and safety

MethodsInterviews (face-to-face and telephone) were conducted in the Summer and Fall of 2002.A list of interview candidates was provided by the WI ABC, attempted to provide a variety of work specialty and contractor sizeOut of 12 candidates, nine interviews were conductedSemi-structured interview format was used Interviews ran between 30-75 minutes, and were tape recorded for transcription

Semi-structured, basically open-ended questions; What do you think about safety, about quality? Etc.

Study Sample

Results - Safety5 contractors felt that the EMR was the best representation of safety performanceSafety goals cited varied, zero accidents(6) and/or reduction of the EMR(3)Education/training of workers(3), more involvement by GC(3), and management commitment(2) were cited for safety performance improvementContractors felt that worker attitude(3) and nature of construction(5) were barriersI think the biggest barrier (to safety) is the worker himself. They have an uncanny belief that its not going to happen to them, and they dont need to do it (work safely).

Results - QualityCited measures for quality: how it looks, work hours to complete, productivity or efficiency rating, meeting schedule deadlines, visual inspections, number of building defects, repeat business, customer satisfaction rating, and cleanliness of jobsiteQuality improvement methods reported: education/training(4), teamwork(2), accountability(2), audits(2), and use of pre-qualification(1) data for hiring subsReported barriers to quality improvement included: worker attitude(4), lack of awareness(3), product/supply problems(2), and the nature of the construction process(2)Boy, I dont know how you would collect data on the quality performance.

Results Quality and SafetyConcerning similarities, 2 acknowledged the potential benefits (improved productivity, happier workers, better business) 6 contractors felt that safety and quality were two entirely different issues (and required special attention)3 contractors indicated that a strong safety program would probably improve quality performanceYou have people that either have their stuff together and are doing well, and then those who are not following safety are not running a good business either.

DiscussionSafety response were similar to the literatureUse of EMR & IR for safety performanceTraditional safety characteristicsHowever, focus on workerQuality responses were not similar to the literatureVarying definition of quality, and metricsLimited acknowledgement of a formal systemSimilar to safety, focus on workerIntegration of quality and safety not well understood, limited application

SummaryConstruction is a complex process, involving multiple parties (with individual interests) to transform a mental concept into a physical structure.The non-standard or unpredictable nature of construction increases the variability within the processAn integrated safety and quality management system could help reduce some variability in the construction process, however it is not very well understood at this time

AcknowledgementsProfessors P. Carayon, M.J. Smith, UW-MadisonProfessor E.A. Kapp, UW-WhitewaterWI ABC Safety Director Don MoenCPWR for support

Thanks for Listening! For more information or copies of reports, contact Todd W. Loushine at twloushine@wisc.edu

Make sure to make a comment about indirect costs (as compared to direct costs)Owner needs something built, residential, non-residential, highway, or commercialWe could only find these articles, we had to refer to manufacturing research to broaden our basisMore diffinative transition between barriers and helpful assessmentsSemi-structured, basically open-ended questions; What do you think about safety, about quality? Etc.