Employee safety is a top priority at McConnell Dowell, a company that offers innovative solutions for complex projects across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. For over 60 years, McConnell Dowell has successfully delivered various projects including building, civil engineering, electrical work, fabrication, marine operations, mechanical services, pipelines, railways, and tunnel and underground construction.
According to Safe Work Australia’s report “Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2020,” there were 194 fatal accidents and 120,000 serious injuries in Australian workplaces in 2020, with vehicle-related incidents being the leading cause of these fatalities. The construction and logistics industries disproportionately contributed to these statistics, accounting for approximately 68 percent of all fatalities. Despite implementing best practices, including exclusion zones, barriers, spotters, reversing cameras and comprehensive training, these statistics have remained largely unchanged over the past 20 years.
Greg Evangelakos, Health and Safety Manager at McConnell Dowell, emphasized that safety has always been a top priority for McConnell Dowell. Knowing the statistics of work-related injuries and fatalities in the construction industry, he and his team developed a training program to prevent vehicle-related incidents and fatalities among its more than 3,000 employees and 15,000 subcontractors.
“What we found on our project is that some employees and contractors lacked the understanding of plant (heavy equipment) and their blind spots,” said Evangelakos.
To educate employees about plant (heavy equipment) blind spots, the team launched the VR Simulator Plant Awareness Program, a training program utilizing Cat® Simulators SimLite Compact Tracked Excavator and SimLite Excavator systems, which feature VR technology. “We needed a different way rather than us standing in front of 200 people, showing them a photo and explaining where the blind spots are,” explained Evangelakos, adding that the focus was on educating the wider workforce, which included the quality team, engineers, surveyors and employees who work near heavy equipment.
“Construction people and activities are inherently hands-on. We saw an opportunity with simulators to flip the education and understanding of the current industry best practice for people-plant interaction controls and make it even more hands-on,” said Evangelakos, “In the simulator, you get as close as possible to the real plant (heavy equipment) without being in real danger.”
How Does the VR Simulator Plant Awareness Program Work?
Project Safety Systems Coordinator Dru Morrish explained, “We use the simulators in a 10 – to 15-minute session with each participant. The objective is to increase the employees’ awareness of the plant (heavy equipment), how it operates, and the dangers associated with it.”
When participants arrive, they receive an exercise sheet containing an aerial view diagram of an excavator with a circle surrounding it. They are asked to draw the machine’s blind spots based on their understanding of a typical operating environment and conditions. After watching an instruction video on using the simulator controls, they are ready to perform a pre-defined task for the machines.
Participants using the Cat Simulators SimLite Excavator system find themselves in a constrained work environment. After familiarizing themselves with the cabin environment and the surrounding worksite, they must excavate and load a truck. After participants complete the task, they are given the same exercise sheet they completed beforehand. They are then asked to draw the blind spots based on their experience.
Morrish explained that participants then recreate the worksite using small cardboard cutouts of scenery, machines, trucks and barriers and complete a survey with questions such as:
- Did you need more or less concentration than you expected? Where was your focus?
- If you were operating this machine, could you identify an approaching person comfortably?
- Did you notice any trucks, and if so, how many?
“Most people have an overconfidence bias. They would answer, ‘Yeah, sure, I would see someone if they were approaching me while I was operating the machine,’” said Morrish. However, when he would ask, “How many trucks were around the worksite?” It was not uncommon for participants to respond with surprise and say, “What? There was a truck?”
“In the excavator example, there are actually three trucks in the scenario that are scattered around the pad,” explained Morrish. “They struggle to see any of the trucks, yet they claim they could see a person. Then they realize, ‘Well, maybe I wouldn’t see them. If I can’t see a truck, how would I have seen a person?’”
Program Proves to be a Success
According to Evangelakos, the results have been extremely positive. “We probably have about 1,000 people who’ve gone through the program already. We have 16 key metrics that we’re using, for example, ‘Do you have an appreciation for the difficulties of a plant operator? Do you have an increased understanding of compliance with the plant (heavy equipment)?’”
After experiencing the realistic virtual environments the simulators provide, participants can better understand the blind spots on dozers and excavators. They also appreciate the concentration and skill required to operate heavy equipment safely. At the end of the program, participants are asked to complete a follow-up survey. Those survey results include:
- 91% found that operating plant (heavy equipment) requires a higher or very high level of concentration than they expected
- 93% increased their awareness of blind spots
- 95% found the VR Plant Simulation to be a good or excellent learning tool
- 96% have a higher appreciation of the challenges faced by plant (heavy equipment) operators
- 83% found it hard or very hard or could not keep track of surroundings
- 85% found it hard to notice what was going on in their surroundings while operating the plant (heavy equipment)
“We know from our metrics that behaviors are changing. Eight to nine people out of 10 have all come out with a greater appreciation of how difficult it is to operate the plant and how difficult it is to see out of the plant,” said Evangelakos. “To be honest, all those percentages are pretty amazing. That’s exactly what we want: respect for the operators and the fact that employees will change their behavior around the plant.”
Sharing the VR Simulator Plant Awareness Program with Industry Companies
Wanting to engage with the wider Australian construction industry, the company recently decided to offer its successful training program, along with its Cat Simulators SimLite systems, to other construction companies for two years. McConnell Dowell Regional Environmental Manager James Crewe explained, “We were looking for safety initiatives to share and went back to the success we’ve had with the VR Simulator Plant Awareness Program in our own business.”
“We looked at two high-risk items that cause injuries to many people in our region and across our country. The first is plant (heavy equipment) and speed. The second is working on freeways and highways,” said Crewe. He added that training employees effectively about these safety risks would require purchasing two additional simulators.
“We want to do two things,” explained Crewe. “We want to make the simulators available to the industry by pushing the program out to other companies. And then secondly, we want to engage with the next-generation companies in the construction industry.”
“We’re going to make a unit available to Box Hill Institute TAFE (Technical and Further Education) and they’re going to embed it into their curriculum,” said Crewe. “So, when their apprentices, carpenters and plumbers go through their schooling and listen about the risks on construction sites, they can get that real-life experience of using the simulator with VR and actually experience what they’re learning.”
He explained that the team will train the trainers at the institute and at various partner companies. As part of this initiative, they created a comprehensive video demonstrating how to operate the simulator and VR headset. Additionally, the organizations will receive an instruction booklet covering operating procedures and common frequently asked questions.
“It’s a new learning platform, and we think it’s important for us not to make it a toy or something that collects dust in the corner.” Crewe continued, “It’s about embedding it into their learning process. So, not just the students from 2024 and 2025 going forward, but hopefully, they will continue to use this equipment over the next five to 10 years.”
