Reduce rework, improve safety: an empirical inquiry into the precursors to error in construction

Abstract

A positive association between rework and safety events that arise during the construction process has been identified. In-depth semi-structured interviews with operational and project-related employees from an Australian construction organisation were undertaken to determine the precursors to rework and safety events. The analysis enabled the precursors of error to examined under the auspices of: (1) People, (2) Organisation, and (3) Project. It is revealed that the precursors to error for rework and safety incidents were similar. A conceptual framework to simultaneously reduce rework and safety incidents is proposed. It is acknowledged that there is no panacea that can be used to prevent rework from occurring, but from the findings presented indicate that a shift from a position of ‘preventing’ to ‘managing’ errors is required to enable learning to become an embedded feature of an organisation’s culture. As a consequence, this will contribute to productivity and performance improvements being realised.

Keywords:

• Error
• error prevention
• error management
• learning
• rework
• safety

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Research Council (DP130103018) that enabled the work reported in this paper to be undertaken. The authors would also like to thank the contractor who participated in this study for their continued support and encouragement. Finally, the authors would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments, which have helped improve the quality of this manuscript.

Notes

1. An injury or illness that is work-related whereby an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness.