Understanding the Effect of Co-Worker Support on Construction Safety Performance From the Perspective of Risk Theory: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Abstract

Co-worker safety support has been given prominence in manufacturing and transportation field for its positive effect on individual workers’ safety; however, there is little evidence to show if such supporting role of co-workers is significant in improving project-level safety performance in construction workplace. This study adopts agent-based modeling (ABM) to understand the effectiveness of two distinct co-worker-safety-support actions on the safety performance of a construction project. Based on the risk theory, the ABM model simulates a construction site where worker agents reinforce steel bars with the likelihood of suffering crane-related incidents. The results indicate that both co-worker-support actions can significantly reduce the occurrence of nonfatal incidents but shows little influence in fatal incidents, and in reducing high-severity incidents, the action of warning peers to leave the hazardous area has the same effectiveness as reminding peers to wear Personal Protective Equipment. The present study provides a fresh insight into the safety-related role of co-workers: not only reveals how the local-level effects of co-workers’ safety assistance emerge the system-level consequences, but demonstrates the effectiveness of specific peer-support actions on three levels of construction safety performance, and thereby extends our existing body of knowledge on co-worker safety support in the construction field.

Segurança em canteiros a partir de modelagem baseada em agentes: um panorama acerca da literatura

“…Observa-se uma distribuição relativamente equilibrada de modelos empíricos e teóricos, sendo a maioria (9 pesquisas) composta por modelos teóricos. Com relação as plataformas de software, observa-se que o software NetLogo se destaca, sendo utilizado por cinco artigos, dois modelos teóricos (A1 [21] e A9 [5]), dois empíricos (A11 [3] e A13 [19]) e um modelo teórico e empírico (A2 [22]). NetLogo, em especial, tem grande presença na comunidade acadêmica por se tratar de uma plataforma de software livre para modelagem baseada em agentes de fácil programação.…”

“…A modelagem baseada em agentes (ou sua sigla em inglês ABM, Agent based Model) se destaca como uma solução para o desenvolvimento de tais questões. Trabalhos recentes têm buscado analisar o tema a partir desta abordagem bottom up, abordagem esta que analisa os aspectos a partir da base da produção (colaboradores) para o topo (gerência) [3] [4] [5] [6].…”

Applications of multi-agent systems from the perspective of construction management: A literature review

“…The results of that study led to the suggestions that management teams should emphasise and cultivate the leadership role among supervisors and that senior managers should regularly be involved in safety activities. Ji et al (2019) simulated workers at a construction site with a crane hazard, and the results indicated that combined coworker support actions, such as warning coworkers to leave hazardous areas and reminding them to wear personal protective equipment, could effectively reduce the severity of recordable, lost-time and fatal incidents, whereas a single measure would be more likely to work when nonfatal incidents occurred.…”

Understanding the Sociocognitive Process of Construction Workers’ Unsafe Behaviors: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

“…Zhang et al [26] established a model of scaffolding workers' unsafe behaviors and explored the impact of management measures on workers' safety performance. Ji et al [63] adopted the ABM method to simulate the scene of reinforcing steel bars on…”

“…Zhang et al [26] established a model of scaffolding workers' unsafe behaviors and explored the impact of management measures on workers' safety performance. Ji et al [63] adopted the ABM method to simulate the scene of reinforcing steel bars on the construction site, and proposed the support of the workers can reduce the occurrence of the nonfatal incidents. Liang et al [42] developed a hybrid simulation approach that integrated System Dynamics (SD) and ABM to study the social contagion effect of safety violations within a construction crew.…”