Web-Based Job Hazard Assessment for Improved Safety-Knowledge Management in Construction

摘要

An essential component of effective safety management systems is the identification and proactive mitigation of hazards through the completion of job hazard assessment (JHA). Aimed at identifying potential hazards and subsequently implementing controls that reduce the likelihood or severity of incidents, JHA is a manual process influenced by the experiences, specific expertise, and biases of safety practitioners, rendering the development of standard mitigation strategies difficult in practice. Due to factors including ineffective information storage and dissemination systems, knowledge management of JHA data remains a challenge in the industry. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes and describes the development and application of a web-based JHA system designed to enhance JHA management efficiency by facilitating accessibility, interfacing, connectivity, and information-sharing between users during the completion of JHAs. By increasing and facilitating access to information, the proposed system can enhance the consistency of JHAs generated throughout the organization, while also ensuring that potential safety risks are not overlooked by less experienced or otherwise biased personnel. Project and safety managers validated the functionality of the proposed system; they indicated that the proposed system could enhance the efficiency and consistency with which JHAs were generated, resulting in the improvement of real practice. The proposed system's importance is described, and its approach is detailed.