Safety Collaboration and Coordination for Subcontractors in Construction Projects (Research Proposal Sample)

Safety Collaboration and Coordination for Subcontractors in Construction Projects Ali Omran, Sultan Majid, Khalid Ahmed Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management College of Engineering University of Sharjah, UAE Abstract Large construction projects often have multiple specialized subcontractors working on the project simultaneously. This increases the risk of accidents and injury when safety practices are not well coordinated in a collaborative approach. Many studies have demonstrated the importance of a collaborative safety approach when working with multiple subcontractors in construction sites, but there is limited understanding of the best practicable strategies for ensuring safety through collaboration and coordination of all parties involved in a construction site, up from the project safety managers to the worker. This research aims to collect information from selected construction sites with multiple subcontractors, to gain insight into how safety managers, subcontractors, and workers coordinate safety practices in a collaborative environment with the overall goal of ensuring safety at every corner of the site. Keywords: Safety, Construction projects, subcontractors, collaboration, coordination 1 Introduction The construction industry is typically one of the most hazardous industries globally. The continued expansion of the construction market is accompanied by an increase in the rate of accidents and fatalities. The complex nature of the industry also makes it prone to many health hazards ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GvjCS0T5","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Thanaraj & Priya, 2019a)","plainCitation":"(Thanaraj & Priya, 2019a)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":489,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/r6h8rKwY/items/7VRSPBQP"],"itemData":{"id":489,"type":"article-journal","issue":"04","language":"en","source":"Zotero","title":"Effective Safety Management in Construction","volume":"06","author":[{"family":"Thanaraj","given":"M Samuel"},{"family":"Priya","given":"M"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Thanaraj and Priya, 2019). The increased use of subcontractors in the construction industry follows from the nature of the industry. As the industry continues to expand and the workload becomes highly diversified by type, size, function, form, materials used, and method of production, the execution of various construction activities equally requires different specialized trades ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"0xvQjEX2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kozlovsk\\uc0\\u225{} & Strukov\\uc0\\u225{}, 2013)","plainCitation":"(Kozlovská & Struková, 2013)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":512,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/r6h8rKwY/items/IFFKM7DZ"],"itemData":{"id":512,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Several factors should be considered by the owner and general contractor in the process of contractors` and subcontractors` selection and evaluation. The paper reviews the recent models addressed to guide general contractors in subcontractors’ selection process and in evaluation of different contractors during the execution of the project. Moreover the paper suggests the impact of different contractors’ performance to the overall level of occupational health and safety culture at the sites. It deals with the factors influencing the safety performance of contractors during construction and analyses the methods for assessing the safety performance of construction contractors. The results of contractors’ safety performance evaluation could be a useful tool in motivating contractors to achieve better safety outcomes or could have effect on owners` or general contractors’ decision making about contractors suitability for future contracting works.","container-title":"Selected Scientific Papers - Journal of Civil Engineering","DOI":"10.2478/sspjce-2013-0002","journalAbbreviation":"Selected Scientific Papers - Journal of Civil Engineering","source":"ResearchGate","title":"Integration of Occupational Safety to Contractors` or Subcontractors` Performance Evaluation in Construction Projects","volume":"8","author":[{"family":"Kozlovská","given":"Mária"},{"family":"Struková","given":"Zuzana"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013",5,21]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kozlovská and Struková, 2013). Smaller subcontractor companies provide the specialized trades needed to complete a construction project. Consequently, there is a large number of subcontractors dominating the industry, providing subcontracting services to their larger counterparts. Construction workers are exposed to a wide range of hazards. With a dynamic array of construction activities carried out simultaneously, the use of heavy machinery, and elevated work areas, managing subcontractor safety and the safety of all workers is paramount in maintaining a secure construction site. It is also important for construction companies to maintain safety as it minimizes unnecessary financial expenditures on medical costs, legal services, and compensations, and builds a good safety reputation ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"sh1F6v7g","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ivensky, 2008)","plainCitation":"(Ivensky, 2008)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":520,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/r6h8rKwY/items/XXHNGJZY"],"itemData":{"id":520,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Abstract: Occupational safety and health risks related to subcontractors are significant business\nrisks encountered by contractors that employ other contractors.\nMitigating these risks is an important task of a prime contractor’s management\nteam, which should include the insurance, contracts, legal, operations and safety management\ndepartments.","container-title":"Professional safety","journalAbbreviation":"Professional safety","source":"ResearchGate","title":"Safety Risk Management of Subcontractors What is a Standard of Care?","author":[{"family":"Ivensky","given":"Vladimir"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2008",2,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ivensky, 2008). Indirect costs related to safety in construction projects include lost productivity, repair of damaged equipment, training substitute workers, and low work motivation. Ensuring safety in construction projects strengthens the trust between workers and safety managers, leading to better communication, coordination, efficiency, and productivity. Although the construction industry has taken significant steps to improve safety, more effort is needed to achieve requisite safety. 1 Background Construction safety continues to pose a serious challenge to governments, regulatory agencies, construction companies, and trade unions. In larger construction projects, the bulk of the construction work is undertaken by subcontractors, who are hired by the main contractor to complete specific tasks or trades within the project ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"9yZ0it6R","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Tan et al., 2017)","plainCitation":"(Tan et al., 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":553,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/r6h8rKwY/items/869MX4N4"],"itemData":{"id":553,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Subcontracting is a common practice in the modern construction industry. The performance of construction projects will be adversely affected if the relationships between main contractors and subcontractors are not properly managed. Therefore, the relationships between main contractors and subcontractors are becoming more and more important to the success of construction projects. Based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey in the Hong Kong construction industry, the relationship between main contractors and subcontractors was studied. Main contractors in the local industry can be classified into four clusters according to the nature of their relationship with subcontractors, namely, adversarial, coopetitive, collaborative, and partnering. Furthermore, the impact of these relationships on main contractor competitiveness and the critical factors affecting collaborative/partnering relationships and main contractor competitiveness were also explored. The findings of this research reveal that good relationships with subcontractors are positively and advantageously associated with main contractor competitiveness. A long-term partnering relationship, based on win-win principles, is more likely to benefit both parties in construction practice.","container-title":"Journal of Construction Engineering and Management","DOI":"10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001311","journalAbbreviation":"Journal of Construction Engineering and Management","page":"05017007","source":"ResearchGate","title":"Relationships between Main Contractors and Subcontractors and Their Impacts on Main Contractor Competitiveness: An Empirical Study in Hong Kong","title-short":"Relationships between Main Contractors and Subcontractors and Their Impacts on Main Contractor Competitiveness","volume":"143","author":[{"family":"Tan","given":"Yongtao"},{"family":"Xue","given":"Bin"},{"family":"Cheung","given":"Yim"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017",2,28]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Tan et al., 2017). By their nature, construction sites are complex work environments, with multiple contractors and subcontractors working simultaneously on a project. In addition, the industry is known for its high turnover rates, which can make safety management more challenging. Introducing new workforce to the project site increase the risk of accidents. According to ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"BYQ7DNrU","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Yiu et ...