what is a safety management system? – At its core, a construction safety management system is a way of systematically identifying hazards and managing risks on a jobsite. Instead of a backward-looking process of reacting to incidents, safety management systems are proactive and seek to prevent accidents. Besides saving lives, these systems also:

• Improve employee morale
• Improve company reputation, attracting more skilled workers
• Reduce overall employer costs from lost time, wages, investigations and fines

Despite developing health and safety regulations over the last 100 years, most construction industry SMS innovations have happened over the past 15 to 20 years. Within the last few decades, awareness and cost-savings have changed safety management from a collection of binders on a site-trailer shelf to adaptable, scalable and dynamic solutions.

Why is safety management important in construction?

Safety management is expected to take account that put project employees at risk. The heal th and safety the ind ustry ar e hi ghly unsafe. It is thus important to (Twort and Rees, 2011). mortalities are frequent i n the construction industr y.

What is construction safety?

What is Construction Safety? – Definition from Safeopedia Construction safety involves any safety procedure that is related to the construction industry or construction sites. Construction safety aims to ensure that a construction site or the industry as a whole is not the cause of immediate danger to the public around a construction site, or the workers at a construction site, as well as making sure that the finished product of construction meets required safety standards.

Construction safety is a major cause for concern in the working world, as it is one of the most dangerous. It is, according to the Bureau of labour statistics (BLS), the fourth most dangerous profession with the second most fatal injuries. It is possibly the second most dangerous land-based profession after the fishing industry.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides health and safety regulations and standards specific to the construction industry. Share this Term : What is Construction Safety? – Definition from Safeopedia

Is there safety management in the Chinese construction industry?

This paper aims to examine the status of safety management in the Chinese construction industry, explore the risk-prone activities on construction sites, and identify factors affecting construction site safety.

What is safety management system risk control?

SMS Component #2: Safety Risk Management – In order to effectively control safety risks, designated staff should perform a series of interconnected processes collectively called Safety Risk Management (SRM). It generally focuses on anticipating and mitigating risks at the process level. Listed below are the 5 steps that go into the safety risk management component of SMS:

1. System Description and Task Analysis: As a system design function, system description and task analysis is used by a cross-functional team within the organization to state the facts about the activities and workplace conditions (equipment, environment, etc.) involved in their processes. Systems factors and attributes should also be considered such as procedures, process measures, and interfaces, among others.
2. Hazard Identification: Hazards are identified as deficient conditions impacting activities which can result in injury, illness, or death to people and/or system, equipment, or property damages or losses. It is important to note that a hazard is any real or potential condition, including typical hazardous conditions related to human error such as time pressure, shift turnovers, and lack of system knowledge.
3. Risk Analysis: Risks are derived from hazards based on the judgement of key safety personnel. Analyzing risk involves considering the likelihood and severity of adverse consequences. Since a single hazard can have multiple consequences, increased exposure to hazards can also make it more likely for grave consequences to recur. On the other hand, severity is mainly driven by the nature of the consequence itself.
4. Risk Assessment: To assist with decision-making, perform a risk assessment and establish whether a safety risk is acceptable or not. A risk matrix is used as a tool for evaluating the combined effects of likelihood and severity, prioritizing which safety risks to address in what sequence for adequate resource allocation. If deemed acceptable, the SRM component of SMS is complete and the risk moves to the next component for monitoring. Otherwise, risk controls should be put in place to mitigate or reduce the risk.
5. Risk Control: The safety management system element of risk control, also known as risk mitigation, enables the implementation of safety measures to safeguard people, property, or the environment. While the severity of risks may be lessened to a certain degree, decreasing their probability or likelihood is what happens in most situations. Risk controls applied to working conditions can be effective instruments of risk reduction and failure prevention.

Sample Risk Matrix for the Safety Risk Assessment Element of SMS by FAASTeam

Risk Likelihood	Risk Severity
Catastrophic A	Hazardous B	Major C	Minor D	Negligible E
Frequent	5	5A	5B	5C	5D	5E
Occasional	4	4A	4B	4C	4D	4E
Remote	3	3A	3B	3C	3D	3E
Improbable	2	2A	2B	2C	2D	2E
Extremely Improbable	1	1A	1B	1C	1D	1E

Why is safety management important in the construction industry?

What is safety management in construction? – The construction industry and construction projects are inherently dangerous – from the people conducting work to people in the vicinity and surrounding environment. Some of the safety issues in construction arise from obvious high risk activities like:

The risk of a person falling from a height over 2 metres Work involving the use of explosives Work carried out near highly pressurised utility pipes Work carried out near oncoming traffic Works involving asbestos contact or interaction Any type of hot works involving sparks or flame Many more

While other safety management issues can arise from every day work-related tasks like:

Moving around a site littered with supplies, materials and uneven ground Lifting and manual handling materials and supplies Noise and vibration injuries and damage stemming from frequent or high intensity noise and vibrations

And these are obviously just a few of the ever-present dangers which are present on almost any industrial or construction site. So to manage all of these risks in the best way possible, construction companies practice safety management. Safety management is a construction company and organisational function which seeks to ensure that potential safety risks and hazards have been identified, assessed and analysed in order to mitigate the chance of safety near misses, incidents, injuries and fatalities to all stakeholders.

31% of injuries were from being hit by an object 30% of injuries were sustained by lifting, pulling and pushing objects 15% were from falls from heights 16% of deaths were from vehicle collisions 15% were from electrocution

While some of these issues are inevitable when you have millions of people performing millions of tasks, it’s also easy to see how these numbers could be reduced through better risk assessment and better safety procedures.

What are the safety issues in the construction industry?

What is safety management in construction? – The construction industry and construction projects are inherently dangerous – from the people conducting work to people in the vicinity and surrounding environment. Some of the safety issues in construction arise from obvious high risk activities like:

The risk of a person falling from a height over 2 metres Work involving the use of explosives Work carried out near highly pressurised utility pipes Work carried out near oncoming traffic Works involving asbestos contact or interaction Any type of hot works involving sparks or flame Many more

While other safety management issues can arise from every day work-related tasks like:

Moving around a site littered with supplies, materials and uneven ground Lifting and manual handling materials and supplies Noise and vibration injuries and damage stemming from frequent or high intensity noise and vibrations

And these are obviously just a few of the ever-present dangers which are present on almost any industrial or construction site. So to manage all of these risks in the best way possible, construction companies practice safety management. Safety management is a construction company and organisational function which seeks to ensure that potential safety risks and hazards have been identified, assessed and analysed in order to mitigate the chance of safety near misses, incidents, injuries and fatalities to all stakeholders.

31% of injuries were from being hit by an object 30% of injuries were sustained by lifting, pulling and pushing objects 15% were from falls from heights 16% of deaths were from vehicle collisions 15% were from electrocution

While some of these issues are inevitable when you have millions of people performing millions of tasks, it’s also easy to see how these numbers could be reduced through better risk assessment and better safety procedures.

What is the problem with safety management in the past?

Safety management forms and workflows – The problem with safety management in the past – and sometimes today – is that there has been a perceived (and sometimes real) trade-off between managing safety more effectively and moving projects forward. Workers have felt that if they pay too much attention to safety and report too many near misses or hazards, their work and projects will suffer – jeopardising their and their company’s performance.

1. The holy grail for construction companies is to improve safety outcomes while also minimising the time and effort spent on safety administration.
2. While not easy, the right processes can reduce the time which workers spend on capturing, organising and tracking safety – while also reducing safety issues.

And most of this lies with your safety forms and workflows. How do people report an incident? How do people inform their project manager of a near miss? What does the investigation process look like? These questions can be answered by the forms and workflows you establish as the guidelines for your safety management plan.

During the first phase of projects, assessing risk with standardised risk and safety registers is paramount – whilst these registers and risk assessments most be continually updated and maintained throughout the project. During project delivery, safety forms, of which there can be hundreds including hazard report forms, incident notification forms, la should be standardised into templates which can be deployed to people on site or ‘on the ground’.

You can make these forms quicker and easier to fill out by using dedicated safety apps and by being smart and strategic about what you do (and don’t) include in safety forms. Making forms quick and easy to fill out increases safety task completion. And finally, once these forms are filled out, what happens to them? How are these form findings fed back into your safety registers ? How are they organised and where can they be found when an incident, investigation or audit occurs.

What makes a good safety plan in construction?

Creating a safety management plan for construction projects – In order to build and maintain better safety processes, construction companies create and maintain safety management plans. These plans are intended to outline the specifics of how safety will be managed by the company and on specific projects.

• The key components of a safety management plan include: People – The specific positions and roles of people who are in charge of thinking about, implementing and monitoring safety.
• At small companies, this may be people who have other primary jobs and who spend a portion of their time managing safety inputs and outcomes, while at large contractors and subcontractors they often have dedicated safety teams.

Communication and collaboration plans – In construction, safety is never an individual or exclusive effort. Almost every project involves a number of interdependent parties who must work together to bring a project to completion. A safety plan in construction should outline how safety will be managed across and between parties including:

Establishing agreed to safety practices Discussing safety issues and outcomes on meetings or toolbox talks Establishing a safety committee

Incident management – The safety management plan should clearly identify and specific how incidents will be managed including:

The notification of emergency services as necessary How to isolate the incident scene Arrangements for how a safety incident will be investigated Emergency situations such as evacuations First aid equipment and training

Site specific health and safety rules – Every site is a little different in how it is setup, its geography and proximity to services etc. A safety management plan needs to include site specific safety details which can be managed and implemented by:

Toolbox talks Posting rules on posters and other collateral in prominent areas around site

Tracking and assessing safety outcomes – While it’s best when safety management is proactive, it’s always crucial to track and monitor safety outcomes – either through looking back through incidents or by using. This enables companies and teams to understand how they are performing in terms of safety, and course correct and make changes to avoid other safety issues arising.