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McKay, L J, Gibb, A G F, Haslam, R and Pendlebury, M (2002) Implications for the effect of standardization and pre-assembly on health, safety and accident causality: preliminary results. In: Greenwood, D (Ed.), Proceedings 18th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2002, Northumbria, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 1, 257–64.

  • Type: Conference Proceedings
  • Keywords: construction planning; decision analysis; health and safety; prefabrication; standardization
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0 9534161 7 8
  • URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2002-257-264_McKay_et_al.pdf
  • Abstract:
    The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has highlighted health and safety as being under-represented in Government-funded research. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) acknowledges that Standardization and Pre-Assembly (S&P) need to be properly evaluated for their effect on health and safety. The adoption of S&P is widely supported for many reasons - including claims that it will improve safety performance. Most experts agree that this should be the case. However, there is no conclusive evidence that this is the case - much is anecdotal. There has been no real investigation of the actual causal relationship between accidents and the change in construction methods initiated by S&P strategies. Furthermore, although the actual health and safety risks reduce on site with S&P, the hazards change and need careful consideration throughout the project process. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a research project which aims to provide a comprehensive study covering, non-volumetric, volumetric and modular building approaches across engineering construction, civil engineering and building sectors. It will establish the extent of the effect of S&P on health, safety and accident causality in construction. A particular aim is to inform industry of the benefits and risks of using S&P. The process will involve 1) ergonomic work place audits to elicit key areas of concern regarding health and safety in off-site fabrication. 2) the development of a decision making process framework to identify areas of risk and benefit for both conventional on-site construction and off-site fabrication. This paper presents and delivers an overview of the salient issues relating to the research. Preliminary results and a selection of conclusions are presented.