Abstract
There have been limited studies that have examined the relationship between quality and safety performance. In addressing this issue, this paper examines a project-lifecycle safety, quality, and environment (SQE) strategy, which was supported by a behavioral and accountability initiative, and its effect on reducing the number of safety incidents in an AU$375 million program alliance that delivered 129 water infrastructure projects over a 5-year period. While the SQE program proved to be effective, the alliance also recognized that rework had become an issue and thus developed a rework prevention program as part of their continuous improvement process. Thus, this paper describes the nature of these programs and provides statistical analysis to demonstrate their combined effectiveness in reducing safety incidents. It is suggested that the alliance’s approach and experiences in simultaneously addressing quality and safety provide learning opportunities for those organizations that are seeking to ameliorate the performance of the projects that they are charged with delivering.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Barwon Water Alliance for its generous support and willingness to openly communicate information and engage in sharing their data for the benefit of the construction industry. The research presented in this paper was funded by the Australian Research Council (DP130103018).
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142 • Issue 8 • August 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 9, 2015
Accepted: Dec 1, 2015
Published online: Feb 26, 2016
Discussion open until: Jul 26, 2016
Published in print: Aug 1, 2016
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