Browsing by Author "Allsopp, Shane"

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    Cross-sectional analysis of incident causations within the South African civil construction industry
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Allsopp, Shane; Van Dyk, Wynand; Jooste, Wyhan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Industrial Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The civil construction industry in South Africa contributes greatly to the occurrence of work-related incidents in the country, often leading to injury or fatality. In order for South Africa to reduce the high incident rates in this industry, it must first become aware what is causing these incidents. The study sets out to provide information regarding the causation of incidents within the South African civil construction industry, identifying leading incident causation factors in terms of human errors, workplace factors and organisational factors. Relationships between these incident causation factors develops understanding of the failure pathway which leads to an incident occurring. Understanding incident causations can be done through the analysis of incident reports. The incident reports are gathered from three South African civil construction companies who shall remain anonymous. Each individual incident report is analysed using an incident causation framework (ICF) adapted from Jude Bonsu’s work on the South African mining industry (Bonsu et al., 2016). A cross-sectional analysis is then done across all incident reports, whereby leading incident causation factors and relationships between incident causation factors are identified. Prior to performing analysing the incident reports, motivation is given of the need for this study in the South African civil construction industry. The motivation is given through the comparison of incidents between this industry and the South African mining industry. The results of this comparison found that the South African mining industry has successfully reduced both injury and fatality frequency rates, whilst the civil construction data had no statistical significance. Lack of statistical significance indicated a lack of control over incidents. The South African civil construction has managed to reduce injury frequency rates; however, they were experiencing rates far higher than those of the mining industry. The findings of this study presented that common leading incident causations were occurring for the three companies. For all three companies; mistakes are found to be the leading human error; controlled work environment (CWE) the leading workplace factor; and hazard identification the leading organisational factor. Relationships were also established that linked the workplace factors to the human errors that they cause and organisational factors to the workplace factors they cause. The relationships were analysed, and it was found that reasoning could be given to the relationships occurring between each of the incident causation factors. The research concluded that it had both achieved the objectives set out as well as provided benefits that can be applied to the South African civil construction industry. Recommendations were also made to promote further studies and application of this study to the South African civil construction industry.