Determining safety-related critical success factors in petrochemical projects through an extensive fuzzy risk assessment approach
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2026.25992Abstract
The construction phase of petrochemical units encounters many risks, a large number of which leads to death and disabling injuries. The purpose of this study is to provide a framework to determine safety-related critical success factors (CSFs) in petrochemical construction projects through risk assessment. The proposed approach involved two phases. At first, 15 potential risks were identified through a review of previous studies and interviews with experts. Then a combination of failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation (CRITIC) and technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) in a fuzzy environment was used for risk assessment, and the risks were classified based on their score. In Phase 2, safety-related CSFs were identified and ranked using the solutions provided for each risk and by consulting with experts. Results showed that falling from height and structural collapse due to excavation operations were the most and least important risks, respectively. Top management support was identified as the most important factor amongst the safety-related CSFs. The findings of this paper assist petrochemical construction project managers to adopt a structured approach for the risk assessment and determination of safety-related CSFs in their projects.
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safety-related critical success factors, petrochemical construction projects, risk assessment, fuzzy FMEA, fuzzy CRITIC-TOPSIS, expertsHow to Cite
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