The final analysis reviewed the responses to the open-ended questions
to understand why the relationship between quality and safety
exists and to understand the management strategies that promote
the achievement of both. The responses provided in this article are
individual comments, and not all of the collected comments have
been included. However, the provided comments represent the
majority of responses for a particular topic.
Perhaps the most enlightening quote from a project manager is
as follows: “I firmly believe that there is a direct relationship between
rework and safety performance. Four years ago, (we) started
looking at the root causes of the recordable injuries within (our
company). We found that over 60% of all our injuries were in the
performance of rework. Over the past four years as we have improved
the quality of our projects, we have had a corresponding
reduction in recordable injuries.”
Another contractor confirmed these ideas, and elaborated on
why more injuries occur during rework activities, stating that,
“National statistics [state that] 60% of injuries occur during rework.
This means that workers who are redoing work are focused on
trying to get it done and providing the quality needed, but are not
so much concerned with safety practices.” Indeed, rework often occurs
under intense schedule pressure, and a number of project managers
cited time as being a major driver of both quality and safety.
One contractor elaborated on this, saying, “Quality goes along with
not taking shortcuts, safety comes hand in hand; I think it starts
with putting guys in the right place at the right time and giving
them the right duration to finish what they do.” It follows, therefore,
that rework would create time-limited situations that emphasize
schedule compliance over safety. This creates conditions in which
injuries are more likely to occur. Another project manager cited a
different reason for the high incidence of injuries during rework,
stating that: “Another reason of risky situations, rework orders
are due to field work by hand.” [Rework orders are performed
in the field, usually by hand. This generates hazardous situations
for workers.]
Not all project managers agreed with these conclusions, however,
and out of the 24 open-ended responses, only three mentioned
that they did not believe there was a direct relationship between
safety and quality. One of these project managers said, “I personally
don’t feel these are directly related. You can have a very safe
project but have poor quality and/or a lot of rework and vice
versa.” The project manager went on to say that both safety and
quality can be improved through selective subcontractor hiring, which implicitly indicated that they have similar causal factors.
The main argument was that safety and quality do not intrinsically
have a relationship, and ultimately they can vary independently.
One contractor stated, “[I] do not believe there is a direct relationship
between the two. Both [safety and quality] deal with management’s
attitudes and employee’s concern for personnel safety and
ownership/pride in their work.”
Once again the contractor cites common underlying factors
that affect both safety and quality, but does not believe that they
are directly related. Another way of expressing this point would be
that decreased rework does not cause increased safety performance,
and that increased safety performance does not necessarily cause
decreased rework. Previous quotes directly challenged these dissenting
opinions by implying a causal relationship between rework
reduction and increased safety performance. It is important to recognize
that there are multiple viewpoints.
Interviewees identified a number of reasons why the authors
may have observed the empirical relationships, and most identified
linking factors that affect both injury rates and quantity of rework.
These themes are important from a management perspective because
strategies to mitigate these factors will promote better safety
and quality performance. One emerging theme was the importance
of allowing adequate time for successful construction execution.
During preplanning, it is essential for the contractor to make
realistic scheduling estimates. As one project manager said, “if a
contractor is given the time to perform in a quality manner, rework
goes down and safety is better.” It would seem that time is a linking
factor that mutually affects safety and quality. In fact, limited
schedules can lead workers to do poor work, because, “quality goes
along with not taking shortcuts, [and] safety goes hand in hand.”
When workers are put on severe time crunches, they are more liable
to take shortcuts and make mistakes.
Another pervading theme was the importance of multiple levels
of leadership. On one hand, safety and quality comes from topdown
leadership such that “Learning best practices, lessons learned
on future projects, early involvement, however how early is not
up to the CM/GC as that falls on the owner.” Other times, however,
project managers placed a heavy emphasis on the importance of
localized work crew leadership. One contractor stated that it was
essential to “have a good leader on the crew that really cares about
safety and quality.” On work crews, safety and quality are dependent
on having “strong leadership from their foreman [who] has full
authority to act on behalf of their company at the lowest level.”
Thus, empowering leadership and encouraging accountability to
lower levels of leadership is also important to foster both safety
and quality.
Another strong theme focused on the importance of preplanning
on multiple levels in reducing injuries and increasing quality.
As one project manager claimed, “Preplanning is the absolute key;
more planning on the front end means a better chance of quality and
safety that the project can achieve.” Similarly, contractors placed
a very high value on having work crews that were informed and
prepared, so that they are not making decisions on the fly while in
the field. As far as subcontractor planning goes, “the more detail
the better. It shows that they’ve prepared their work and know what
they need to do.” Furthermore, processes that are unknown were
cited to decrease quality and safety by increasing mistakes. One
project manager aptly stated that “it comes down to known processes
versus unknown means and methods; the more you get guys
out of the comfort zone they are more likely to make mistakes,
forcing them into a learning curve they would not otherwise go
through.” Because designers do not often design for safety or quality,
preplanning becomes even more important to familiarize
unknown means and methods.
One management strategy that was mentioned several times
was finding quality workers and encouraging them to have pride
in their work through trust and accountability. Project managers
emphasized the importance of “assembling a team of subcontractors
that have proven themselves as safe and quality oriented;
after you get guys like that under contract, be thorough with the
submittals process and shake out details.” After hiring good people,
“making our craftsmen and foremen accountable for safety and
quality is the first step. We expect and empower our team members
to stop work if they think it is unsafe. We also expect them to stop
work if work is being installed incorrectly or in a manner that does
not meet the contract drawings and specifications.” In fact, treating
subcontractors and workers with respect may be an excellent way
to encourage good work practice. This sentiment was reflected by
one project manager, who stated that “For the most part people take
pride in their work; if their standard of work is poor it reflects on
them as a person. Meaning they are more than likely have the same
poor standards in regard to safety.” Thus, encouraging subcontractors
and workers to have pride in their work may increase both
safety and quality.