Risk Management in Construction - Challenging and Emerging Issues (in Vietnam) Part 2

Dr. Hadikusumo made a presentation about Safety Management System for Zero Accident Target. His presentation discussed how to develop a good safety management system and which safety programs are effective to achieve our safety performance target. His presentation was based on a 4.5 years intensive study conducted in Thailand by Dr. Thanet Aksorn and Dr. Hadikusumo.

In his presentation, he explained that most of accidents are caused by unsafe behaviors of people and unsafe conditions. The unsafe behavior contribute 80% of the total accidents. The main reason of the unsafe behavior is because of Human Error. Based on Acciddent/Incident Theory of Dan Peterson, human error can be reduced and eliminated if the company has a good safety management system.

Dr. Hadikusumo concluded that four important issues which are very important to support the implementation of Safety Management System: (i) Management Committment, (ii) Worker Participation, (iii) Safety Protection System and (iv) Safety Administration.

He mentioned that many contractors dont really know which safety programs are effective to help them to achieve good safety performance target. Based on the 4.5 years intensive study, Dr. Thanet revealed that some safety programs are very effective and efficient to reduce accidents, unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. They are:
  • Accident investigation including near-miss accident
  • Safety Inspection
  • Job Hazard Analysis
  • Safety committee
  • Safety Audit
  • Control of Subcontractors

Effective means can achieve the result and Efficient means the safety program does not need a lot of resources.

During the Question/Answer session, forum audience asked following issues:

  • How much is the appropriate safety budget for a construction project? In Dr. Hadikusumo's opinion, the budget is within 1.5 to 3% depends on the size of the project. For large construction project with longer duration, the safety budget can be 1.5% since the PPE can be repetitively used. However, he mentioned that the most important is not the percentage figure, but how the budget is allocated. He recommended that the safety budget must be separated from the total project cost and the contractor must breakdown the safety budget in detail so that this safety budget plan can be used to check whether the contractor really implement the safety plan. This issue is important because many projects tried not to spend on safety expenses for increasing their profits.
  • Do I need to have a Safety Management System, if i already pay insurance? The answer is yes! They are two different purposes. Insurance is to protect you from a certain risk while Safety Management System is for your organization competency and development.
Posted by

Dr. BHW Hadikusumo
CEIM Coordinator
http://www.set.ait.ac.th/ceim/

" CEIM offers Master and Doctoral degrees in Construction Project Management and Infrastructure Management in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam "