Enhanced Construction Productivity by Effective Equipment Management through Fleet Operations

Abstract

In construction equipment management, achieving optimum utilization is essential for cost reduction and ensuring efficient completion of tasks. Equipment fleets, which comprise various machines working together, are central to this goal. For instance, tasks like loading, hauling, and compaction often require coordination between an excavator, multiple haul units, and auxiliary machines. These interconnected systems form the backbone of construction projects, with each component contributing to overall productivity. Take, for example, an excavator and a fleet of trucks; they operate as a linked system where the performance of one directly impacts the efficiency of the others. Therefore, effective management involves not only maximizing the efficiency of individual machines but also coordinating their operations to minimize downtime and optimize production. By understanding the interdependence of equipment and implementing strategies to enhance their performance collectively, construction projects can achieve greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Equipment Management

Good construction equipment management in construction must vigorously pursue the efficient utilization of equipment. Improvement of equipment productivity should be a major and continual concern of those who are responsible for cost control of constructed facilities. Equipment management, which includes proper utilization of equipment without any downtime, optimum utilization of equipment requires special attention for cost reduction. The use of new equipment and innovative methods has made possible wholesale changes in construction technologies in recent decades. Organizations which do not recognize the impact of various innovations and have not adapted to changing environments have justifiably been forced out of the mainstream of construction activities. Equipment management is required and this will focus and enhance a companywide approach to improving equipment productivity. A phased equipment management approach is the process of focusing efforts to improve the elements of equipment utilization, equipment performance, and equipment availability. These phases are key to moving a company through the installation of total productive management.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Dushyant A. Deshmukh and Parag S. Mahatme (2016) focused on factors which affects construction equipment performance. By monitoring excavators in terms of its planning, selection and performance; Some of the common factors that can affect the performance of excavating equipment has been identified and discussed in this work such as Proper equipment selection may affect to increase its productivity

Kunal Ghadge and Ashish Ugale (2015) focused on study of proper planning and management of equipments on dam site analysed. On time completion of project can be possible by only three factors as economy, time, quality and this contributes to many factors of resources but much affected by equipments.

Saurabh Kadam and Prof. Dhananjay Patil (2013) described equipment optimization and benefit analysis at the site through equipment production analysis with the help of studying the highway construction site for current practices of equipment management. To optimize the current composition of the earth material moving fleet they have focused on performance of equipment also they have studied comparison of the current composition at site by productivity analysis and benefit analysis.

Amir Tavakoli, Member, ASCE, Emmanuel D. Taye and Mehmet these authors has mentioned a result of a questionnaire survey that reports the construction equipment policy in the Engineering News Recorded top 400 construction companies. They are presented what kind of special attention is paid to equipment financing, replacement analysis, equipment standardization, safety and maintenance management.

Fadi A. Kara[1]and Anas Y. Nasr[2], Resource management in construction Journal of Construction Engineering These authors mainly described the allocation of resources of different types to a construction project is a difficult managerial problem, particularly when construction equipment has to be shared among a number of project sites.

Govindan Kannan “Field studies in construction equipment economics and productivity” This paper marked difference between companies that handle equipment from a central function versus using equipment as a consumable for a project. The equipment policy department is involved with capital and budget-related decision making (eg. asset management), analysis of fleet performance (eg. age, cost, reliability), ownership period and economic decision (eg. repair, replace, rebuild, retire) The job site optimization department is basically responsible for the operational strategy at a particular job site.

Kjell B. Zandin: “Maynard’s Industrial Engineering Handbook In this book Kjell Zandin discusses about the Japanese productive management on equipment management. This study mainly emphasis on the production equipment which is normally the largest asset. A phased equipment management approach is the process of focusing efforts to improve the elements of equipment utilization, equipment performance, and equipment availability. These phases are key to moving a company through the installation of TPM.

III. OBJECTIVES

In this dissertation it is proposed to do the following work,

1. To study the equipment optimization and benefit analysis at the site through equipment production analysis
2. To do survey of various construction companies for their equipment management strategies on the basis of economy.
3. To study the different costs affecting the economy in construction.
4. To identify how to improve a economy of Construction equipment.

IV. METHODOLOGY

For carrying the proposed work, following methods are used for analyze the data, Determination of production capacity of the total system with the help of lesser of the production capacities of individual systems.

(Fleet management-equipment fleet/spread of work)

V. METHODOLOGY

1. Only one third of the construction industries were found to have documented policies, it was found that there is a uniform practice of management among industries, which indicates that there is a policy for management although it is not properly documented.
2. Incorrect equipment selection may directly affect to its productivity for that work. Excavation is generally faster for soft soil as compared to hard strata.
3. Greater angle of swing results in greater cycle time which may lead the work to delay.
4. Time saved per cycle is nothing if the operator’s skill is poor.
5. The choice for equipment will vary case by case depending upon terrain, task, time of completion of project and construction cost.

References

[1] Dushyant A. Deshmukh, Parag S. Mahatme, “Factors Affecting Performance of Excavating Equipment: An Overview” (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064,Volume 5 Issue 1, January 2016 [2] Kunal R Ghadge1, Ashish B Ugale2 Construction Equipment Management for Construction of Dam Site (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064,Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2015 [3] Saurabh Rajendra Kadam, Prof. Dhananjay S. Patil, “Construction Equipment Fleet Management: Case Study of Highway Construction Project” (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064,Volume 4 Issue 6, June 2015 [4] Amir Tavakoli[1] Member ASCE, Emmanuel D. Tayeand[2], Mehmet Erktin[3] “Equipment policy of top 400 contractors: Survey”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 115, No. 2June, 1989 [5] Aviad Shapira and Marat Goldenberg, Soft considerations in equipment selection for building construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management), Vol. 133, No. 10, October 1, 2007 [6] Fadi A.Kara[1]and Anas Y. Nasr[2] ,Resource management in construction Journal of Construction Engineering, Vol. 112, No. 3 September1986

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 Mr. Vishal D. Sakhare, Mr. Ajinkya S. Dixit. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.