Developing an integrated digital delivery framework and workflow guideline for construction safety management in a project delivery system

Abstract

<p>The drive to digitalise the construction industry has led to attempts to mitigate health and safety (H&S) risks by employing digital technologies to manage construction safety. However, despite these efforts, the CI is still considered as a high-risk industry due to the frequency and severity of accidents recorded annually. This is because health and safety is best managed when integrated at the very onset of project planning in a collaborative project delivery system. However, the current consideration of health and safety at the construction stage results in lesser control and mitigation of hazards, and the underutilization of health and safety technologies. To fill this gap, this paper identified the integrated digital delivery (IDD) system as the optimal collaborative strategy for integrating H&S management into project delivery. As a result, a digital workflow guideline for managing construction site incidents was proposed. Also, considering the relationship between H&S performance and project delivery systems, a novel IDD-Health and Safety Management (IDD-HSM) framework was developed to enhance the integration of digital technologies for H&S management in a delivery system. This study makes distinctive contribution to knowledge by proposing guidelines for mitigating construction hazards through a novel IDD-HSM framework to establish a proactive real-time lifecycle approach to managing construction H&S. Prospective case applications of the digital workflow guidelines and the novel IDD-HSM framework have been presented in this study. However, it may require real life application and expert judgement to verify its validity and reproducibility.<br></p>