Industrial construction safety policies and practices with cost impacts in a COVID-19 pandemic environment: A Louisiana DOW case study

Workforce scheduling efficiency assessment in construction projects through a multi-objective optimization model in the COVID-19 context

The COVID-19 disease has caused a drastic stoppage in the construction industry as a result of quarantines. For this reason, this study focuses on the workforce scheduling problem when working under COVID labor distancing constraints, and additional costs derived from deviation hours or hiring new employees that managers must assume on a project due to circumstances. A multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model was developed and solved using weighting and epsilon constraint methods to evaluate workforce scheduling and the mentioned COVID costs. The first objective function corresponds to the sum of the total extra hours; the second objective function represents the total non-worked but paid hours. Two sets of experiments are presented, the first based on a design of experiments that seeks to determine the relationship between the proposed objective functions and a methodology to determine the cost of considering COVID constraints. The second set of experiments was applied in a real company, where the situation without COVID vs with COVID, and without allowing extra hours vs with COVID allowing extra hours were compared. Obtained results showed that hiring additional employees to the man-crew leads the company to increase the extra hours cost up to 104.25%, being more convenient to keep a workforce baseline and to pay extra hours costs. Therefore, the mathematical model could represent a potential tool for decision-making in the construction sector, regarding the effects of COVID-19 costs on workforce scheduling construction projects. Consequently, this work contributes to the construction industry by quantifying the impact of COVID-19 constraints and the associated costs, offering a proactive approach to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic for the construction sector.

The Affective Domain, Safety Attitude, and COVID-19 Prevention of Employees in the Petrochemical Industry

The petrochemical industry is relatively strict regarding safety rules in the workplace. The workplace involves high-risk categories that are intolerant of human error. Especially in the current situation with COVID-19, concerns regarding prevention and safety in the workplace have increased. In light of this pandemic, the company must know whether all employees recognize the implementation of COVID-19 prevention. In addition, employee awareness of safety grounded in the affective domain of human thought is lacking. This study investigates the safety attitudes and COVID-19 prevention in the workplace based on the affective domain of employees. A survey questionnaire based on the Likert scale was utilized to collect data from 618 employees in the petrochemical industry. Descriptive analysis and analysis of variance were used to examine the data. The results reveal that employees in the petrochemical industry have a positive degree of responses to COVID-19 prevention, safety attitudes, and the affective domain, regardless of employment characteristics such as gender, age, position, and work experience. This study concludes that a positive affective domain of employees is followed by a positive safety attitude; thus, effective COVID-19 prevention was established in the workplace based on the perspectives and attitudes of the employees.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on construction safety in China and the U.S.: A comparative study

Many studies indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on construction safety. However, the studies had differing views on whether the pandemic increased or decreased construction safety performance. Furthermore, past studies did not adopt a comparative time series approach to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on construction safety. Thus, this study explores the differences in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on construction safety in China and the United States. This study used SciNet to forecast the number of construction accidents without the pandemic. Subsequently, the forecast was compared with the actual number of accidents since the outbreak, and the analysis showed a reduced number of construction accidents during the pandemic. However, there were minimal changes and even a slight worsening of fatality rates. Moreover, the correlation analyses showed that the effect of the pandemic on construction safety was weak and lagging. Construction safety was significantly affected by the pandemic in China, and the impact is relatively rapid. In comparison, outbreaks did not have a major impact on construction safety in the U.S. in the early stage. Since the pandemic is still raging worldwide, this research helps governments or project stakeholders formulate more targeted and data-driven safety countermeasures to improve construction safety during the crisis. The study also helps nations respond to future pandemics and crises to prevent adverse effects on construction safety.

Facility planning and schedule design in the pandemic: Eliminating contacts at construction workplace

The construction industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions on person-to-person contacts issued by the government. A construction site usually has a high number of workers working at the same time; therefore, the question of how to ensure their safety during the pandemic-that is, how to protect them from getting infected-has become an urgent problem. In this study, we propose a bi-objective integer programming model to establish the optimal schedule plan under COVID-19 regulations. We develop a solution method and conduct numerical experiments to solve and validate our model. The optimal schedule plan can avoid contacts between workers of different groups while minimizing the total costs of complying with government policy. Our proposed model can be applied in practice to help project managers establish a reasonable and cost-effective schedule plan. This study contributes to reducing the operating costs of contractors and protecting the health of construction workers.