Methodology of improving occupational safety in the construction industry on the basis of the TWI program

摘要

The article presents the way of using the Training Within Industry (TWI) program, derived from manufacturing processes, in the construction industry in order to improve occupational safety. The origin and meaning of the TWI program and its relation to the philosophy of Lean Management is also described. The article shows how a preventative approach to ensuring safety has developed over the years. It has been proved that human errors, and not technical problems, have the greatest impact on the occurrence of accidents. After literature surveys, three main root causes of human errors were defined and include: a lack of or poorly led training, badly defined and developed work standards and also a lack of supervision of employees. The statistics of fatal accidents in construction and manufacturing industries over several recent years in the UK were analyzed. It has been noted that in the construction industry the average accident level is much higher than in the manufacturing industry. Conclusions were used to develop a methodology of improving occupational safety in the construction industry. The developed methodology is based on the selected components from the TWI program and contributes to the elimination of problems associated with the three main root causes of human errors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.