Safety
Technology

Moving Construction Toward Data-Driven Safety

By capturing detailed safety data from workers, machines, tools and systems, construction companies can apply analysis and reporting to maximize employees’ safety.
By Ryan Quiring
September 9, 2021
Topics
Safety
Technology

The construction industry is on a strong rebound. In the United States alone, it is expected to grow by 15.6% in 2021, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com. This is leading more construction companies than ever to accelerate their technology adoption, from automated vehicles to sensors, global positioning systems, radio-frequency identification and telematics. Through these digital transformation initiatives, they are increasing productivity, reducing construction time and obtaining real-time data for better decision-making.

However, the adoption of modern technology has not yet extended to most construction firms’ safety management practices, which too often rely on Excel spreadsheets and paper records. Unfortunately, these manual processes often leave construction safety officers reacting to incidents rather than preventing them in the first place. Such lapses can shut down operations for days, contribute to negative images about construction that further hinder hiring, and lead to lost business opportunities as customers turn to competing firms.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Clearly to maximize competitiveness, construction companies will need to start automating safety at their work sites much as they already automate other aspects of their operations. Fortunately, many businesses already have some of the technologies in place to collect important safety data.

Consider a dump truck that has been retrofitted with an autonomous system, including sensors that capture a wealth of data. Real-time monitoring of this data can determine if the vehicle is operating properly or if something is starting to move outside of acceptable parameters. Such insights can enable a construction manager to flag and address a potential problem before the truck poses a risk of injury to workers onsite.

Beyond vehicles and other machinery, managers also have to look at other factors. Does an employee have the right training to use a particular tool safely? Is that person’s certification up to date? Are any employees working extended shifts that may lead to exhaustion and accidents?

Structuring Data for Analysis

Before such data can be analyzed, it needs to be structured, normalized, and stored in a database (directly or via an application), so that it is repeatable across all existing records. Environmental, health and safety applications are optimized for managing structured safety-related data. However, construction firms that lack EHS software can get started by using their existing enterprise resource planning and/or human resource applications to capture and analyze this information.

Managers with no ERP, EHS or HR solution in place should consider implementing one of these applications. Doing so will enable the construction company to start collecting data digitally and gaining important insights from its safety program in as little as four weeks.

By contrast, trying to enter legacy data stored in spreadsheets, PDFs, Google docs or paper files into a database can take months to years to complete and can be costly. For this reason, such initiatives tend to fail.

Capturing Meaningful Insights

Once the applications are in place, construction firms need to ensure that they are capturing the right data. Some managers make the mistake of trying to categorize their data out the gate, e.g., capturing age ranges instead of each worker’s age. However, this can limit the discovery of important insights. Instead, it is better to collect more, detailed data, particularly since business applications are starting to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that can scan thousands of data points to find associations humans are likely to miss.

Normalizing the data is also important. For example, managers will want to know how many employees are working at a construction site to understand the percentage of safety incidents per worker rather than simply the total number of incidents. This is especially important for construction companies in regions that see significant peaks and slowdowns due to weather. For example, looking only at the number of incidents in June can be misleading, since there are typically more workers onsite during that month.

Encouraging Collaboration

Ideally, construction firms will get employees to collaborate in collecting data, such as information about hours working between breaks, training or other safety-related factors. The key to workers’ participation, especially in construction where many employees are at remote sites, is letting them use their mobile phones to access web applications that automatically normalize the data.

Notably, newer technologies, such as Quick Response codes, provide a way to identify individual workers via their mobile phones and effectively act as digital signatures that can be stored and tracked with other information. This can help track employees at risk if, for instance, they lack or have outdated training on a particular tool.

Managers can also collaborate with workers by digitizing toolbox talks. Many construction companies still deliver these safety meetings manually. By moving toolbox talks to a digital e-learning format, businesses streamline their delivery and capture data about workers’ comprehension and compliance with safety requirements. This structured data can then be analyzed to understand correlations between worker training and incidents, which can help managers to tune the construction firm’s safety programs.

By capturing detailed safety data from workers, machines, tools and systems across the organization, construction companies can begin to apply the same type of analysis and reporting used for optimizing their operations to also prevent incidents, facilitate government and industry compliance, as well as maximize employees’ safety.

by Ryan Quiring
Ryan Quiring brings more than a decade of experience as a senior automation consultant and functional safety engineer working on massive capital projects globally in the scope of process automation.

Related stories

Safety
Mitigating Struck-By Incidents on the Jobsite
By Rob Dahl
Some workplace injuries are more serious than others, but that doesn't mean mitigating them has to be more complicated.
Safety
Cultivating a Company Culture Committed to Safety, Mentorship and Education
By David Frazier
Mentorships, education and employee training programs still work wonders when cultivating a culture of wellbeing at your construction company.
Safety
Where's the Fire?
By John Heinen
Fire safety on construction sites is at a crossroads. It’s time for an approach based on collaboration, education and training—and powered by wireless digital solutions.

Follow us




Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Stay in the know with the latest industry news, technology and our weekly features. Get early access to any CE events and webinars.