DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE MODEL TO IMPROVE SAFETY FOR CONSTRUCTION ORGANIZATIONS

Construction incidents have numerous root causes, but one of the most frequent is worker behavior. Therefore, construction safety management systems should be designed to maximize the number of safe behaviors by workers, and focus on the execution of construction safety management to achieve excellent safety performance. Operational excellence, a safety concept from the chemical processing industry, is defined as doing the right thing, the right way, every time - even when no one is watching. Good operational excellence results in effective reinforcement of appropriate safety systems, and significantly reduces the rate of unsafe behaviors. Researchers managed to embed the concept of operational excellence into construction safety management. Through an extensive literature review, discussions with industry experts on the topic, and subject matter expert validation, the researchers have developed an operational excellence model designed to evaluate and improve safety performance for construction organizations. This paper describes the model development process and the key elements included in the Operational Excellence Model (OEM). The primary contribution to the overall body of knowledge is developing a practical operational excellence model for practitioners to assess and improve safety performance through behavioral and cultural elements.