During a construction project, it is not uncommon to experience pressure to meet deadlines. With that pressure, employees can attempt to justify taking a shortcut on safety or quality to save time. Although they are doing so to try to fast-track timelines, this is not an acceptable or even efficient way to do so. The potential risks associated with shortcuts are being ignored. Someone could get hurt or injured, causing lost time or potentially worse. With a safety incident, you can lose time and resources performing an investigation or due to a stand down to allow for corrective action. If someone attempts to save a few minutes by ignoring safety protocols, they could potentially cost a project thousands of dollars in lost time and medical services. Potential risks can contribute to a delay in schedule, which is to what was trying to be avoided in the first place.
If the shortcuts are taken that result in poor quality, the potential for rework can add to schedule delays and additional costs. Time to report the issue, making sure the equipment is safe to perform the rework, a possible root cause analysis on how the poor quality occurred, and re-verification are all factors that can contribute to delays and extra costs. If poor quality results in equipment damage, it could cause significant project delays from procuring the replacement parts as well as the replacement costs.
The risks to the project costs, schedule, and an individual’s safety should always be ever-present on a construction project. To prevent risks, everyone should make an effort to take a step back and take a little extra time to ensure they are working safely and ensuring quality compliance. Even if it is just an additional five (5) minutes, the payoff is much higher when ensuring the compliant safety of an individual, their project team, and the equipment, as well as producing quality work.
About the Author
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Brian is a well-qualified Electrical Engineer with over 10 years of commissioning experience working in Data Centers, Hospitals, Office Buildings, and more. He has experience with setup, coordination and implementation of testing for sequence of operations, and functionality of field-installed power distribution equipment.