On a building site, countless workers and pieces of equipment are active at once, carrying out multiple construction processes simultaneously, all in real time. To protect the life and limb of all the human workers and to allow the different moving parts to interact with each other in the same physical space smoothly and without accident, maintaining site safety is crucial.
What’s important to remember is that a site safety management strategy that relies only on a site manager’s personal experience and capabilities has limitations. That is why Samsung C&T strives to instill safety as part of its baked-in workplace culture by developing systems and improving safety awareness.
Risk-reducing platforms
Recently, Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction (E&C) Group has developed three platforms in order to prevent safety and environmental risks throughout the entire construction process, from site opening to completion.
First of all, the safety and environment set-up manual is a process map that sets out the work process for 180 days: 90 days before the start of construction and 90 days after it. The purpose is to eliminate blind spots in site management by sorting out the tasks that are to be done in the early stages of a project.
The second platform that focuses on risk reduction is an AI-based risk prediction system. Objective data from the site is analyzed in real time by artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict accidents that have a high possibility of occurrence. The system also sends out by email and to mobile phones examples of accidents that have previously taken place during similar work, as well as high-risk tasks.
The third platform is a system to deliver work safety rules using robotic process automation (RPA), which is a technology that automates repetitive and simple work processes. Thanks to RPA, workers can automatically be sent safety rule cards and specific safety directions for major tasks by text message. Furthermore, workers can be trained repeatedly on essential work instructions as required. This fosters within workers the ability to manage risks by themselves.
As shown above, Samsung C&T E&C Group endeavors to eradicate accidents from construction sites utilizing various technologies such as AI and RPA. However, developing technology is not the only effort to improve site safety. In the second article in this series, we are going to look at Samsung C&T’s efforts to raise the safety awareness of its workers, the main agents of site safety.
