Abstract:
The current approach to construction health and safety (H&S)
and sustainable construction underestimates the role of production
practices and focuses mainly to the formulation of
general guidelines and best-practice policies. This paper aims at
exploring the role of H&S in achieving sustainability for projects from
a different perspective. A conceptual model is formulated, enabling
the integration of H&S and sustainability under the prism of productivity.
An empirical framework is subsequently presented to evaluate
the relationship workers’ health, as expressed by their thermal
comfort and environmental parameters, in productivity estimation. A
structured data elicitation approach is established for conducting valid
field measurements. Process mapping and simulation-based analysis
is used for the comparative analysis of productivity forecasting
models. An exemplar investigation of formwork operations illustrates
the applicability of the proposed approach. The main conclusion from
the study is that the implementation of the empirical framework enables
the creation of foresight in planning construction operations
by analysing productivity variations compared to baseline estimates.
Thus, the effect of H&S on performance is quantified and the expected
productivity variability can be evaluated. It is believed that such an
approach provides a more realistic representation of construction operations
and improves the accuracy of the estimating process.
Keywords:
Construction, health,
productivity, safety, thermal
comfort
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