“Prevention and Performance in Construction” Chair

The chair " Prevention and performance in the construction industry » was born from the findings of a study conducted by theProfessional Building and Public Works Prevention Organization (OPPBTP) which attests to the positive impact of prevention on the economic performance of companies. It has three objectives:

• strengthen the academic basis of work on prevention/performance links within companies
• offer them a relevant tool in terms of prevention
• understand the associated sociological issues

Deepening the link between risk prevention and economic performance

This chair is jointly led by OPPBTP, CentraleSupélec, Eiffage Civil Engineering et Vinci Construction Earthworks. 

Objective: To extend the work undertaken by the Organization over the past ten years to better understand the interactions between prevention and performance. It also aims to promote a positive approach to prevention and to better implement it within companies. Studies conducted by the OPPBTP highlight that actions taken to promote prevention (training, equipment acquisition, developments) contribute significantly to company performance (better productivity, fewer downtimes and accidents, etc.).

A chair for research, teaching and leading

It is structured around three axes:

• Understanding the prevention-performance relationship through research/actions in companies in order to scientifically prove this link.
• Experiment with this relationship by creating a business game aimed at construction industry players to make them aware that prevention creates profits.
• Manage the prevention/performance relationship by creating indicators enabling companies to act on these phenomena.

Produced at CentraleSupélec in the laboratory of Industrial Engineering, in close collaboration with students from the "Mechanics, Civil Engineering" and "Human and Social Sciences" departments, the work, lasting three years, will be coordinated by two scientific managers, Christian Michelot (psychosociologist, lecturer at CentraleSupélec and associate researcher at the University of Paris Nord laboratory) and Christian Griffault (lecturer at CentraleSupélec and construction professional). Representatives of OPPBTP and partner companies will be closely involved in this work and will actively participate in various working groups.

A business game for concrete feedback

In order to better understand and analyze the results of the studies conducted, the idea of ​​setting up a business game was chosen to experiment with the relationship between prevention and performance.

The players, defined as prevention managers in companies, will have to make decisions that integrate or exclude prevention and assess their impacts. This business game will thus be able to:

• Develop the representations of construction industry stakeholders by training in the prevention-performance relationship,
• Enable prevention workers to take ownership of the positive approach to prevention,
• Contribute to the teaching of engineering students at the CentraleSupélec school.