Safety Publications 1

Safety Publications 1

Publication 1 - Process Performance Measurement in Safety and Quality
Karim, K., Davis, S., Marosszeky, M. and Naik, N.

Abstract
In Australia the measurement of safety and quality performance in the construction industry has mostly been in response to statutory requirements or client mandate. Consequently, the measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) developed/used by the industry have invariably focused on outcomes rather than processes. Most of the outcome indicators have tended to give feedback well after the event and hence their main benefit has been to inform policy designed to improve future projects. Whilst being useful in monitoring the end result, these lag indicators fail to actually identify those weaknesses within the system that need to be modified in order to achieve improved safety and quality performance, nor do they of themselves directly stimulate improvement.

In order to overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a framework for measuring the performance of management processes as well as related outcomes, which is currently being trialed on two construction projects. The framework was developed to stimulate improvement on the projects through the comparison of key performance parameters. The performance measurement framework addresses three complementary issues - management system compliance, management response to identified problems and deviations from process plans and finally, process outcomes.