Study on the measurement of the level of construction occupational health and safety management in prefabricated building: a case study of a practical training building

Purpose Prefabricated building (PB) has high technical requirements and is susceptible to safety accidents, and its construction occupational health and safety (OHS) problems should not be ignored. To promote the better development of PB, this study aims to measure their construction safety management level and propose corresponding countermeasures. Design/methodology/approach By systematically combing the relevant literature, this study extracts the influencing factors that appear frequently in several studies and categorizes them according to six dimensions: people, materials and components, technology, mechanical equipment, environment and system. Combining expert opinions, the measurement index system, including 6 primary indexes and 24 secondary indexes, is constructed. The structural entropy weight (SEW) method is applied to calculate the index weights. The cloud matter element (CME) model based on the weights is constructed to determine the level of construction occupational health and safety management (COHSM). A project case of a training building is used to verify it. The results obtained from the model are compared with those from other measurement models to verify the feasibility of the model in measuring the level of COHSM for PB. Findings The calculated weights show that technology is the most important for the COHSM of PB. The management level of the project in terms of people, materials and components, technology, machinery and equipment, environment and system is Level II good. The overall safety management level is also Level II, which is good. The model of this study is consistent with other model measurements. The methodology of this study yields reasonable and realistic results. Originality/value This study is the first to include occupational health dimensions in the research on the construction safety management of PB, which not only covers the key elements in traditional construction safety management but also considers the impact of the construction process, material use and technology of PB on safety management, making the measurement index system more scientific. Meanwhile, the introduction of the CME model based on the SEW method effectively solves the deficiencies of the traditional method in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty and provides practitioners with more accurate and comprehensive measurement results. It helps practitioners formulate a more scientific management plan in combination with the actual situation and provides a guiding idea and practical path for the COHSM of similar projects.