A STUDY ON EQUIPMENT MAINTAINCE AND ITS MANAGEMENT

IN LARGE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

1​
Narmatha A, 2​​ Dr.M.Gunasekaran
1​
P.G,.Student, Construction Engineering and Management, Department of Civil Engineering, K.S.R. College of Engineering,
Tiruchengode, India.
2​
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, K.S.R.College of Engineering, Tiruchengode, India
Mail id:​gunasanjay07@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The project discusses in brief about collecting data from any two well established
construction companies in INDIA. The data regarding equipment details like planning, selection, Work schedule
and it control, Economic and commercial considerations of the Equipment, the Economical value of
construction equipments should also be taken into consideration. The details about ownership cost, operating
cost, precaution and safety of the equipment, i.e. various types of maintenance records are of immense value.
The data regarding layouts of workshop and its section of both the construction companies are studied. The
Do’s and Don’ts and the precautionary measures for maintenance of equipments are to be taken into account
in establishing and managing the maintenance functions of equipment in both the construction companies.
After completing the collection of the data and making required entries in various records for both the
companies, they were compared for the following parameters (i) Usage and availability of the equipments, (ii)
The Overall maintenance cost, (iii) Maintenance cost of each equipment.
After comparing, a modern methodology namely FAILURE MODE EFFECT ANALYSIS (FMEA)
has been introduced as a tool for carrying out maintenance cost of equipments FMEA is applied for a Tower
Crane, Concrete Mixers and motor graders to know its functions, severity, causes and effects of the failure
based on all these criteria, the Risk Priority Number (RPN) for these equipments is observed. That increase in
RPN value increase the failure causes.

Key words:​ Tower Crane, maintenance, Work schedule, Planning.

 .

1. INTRODUCTION
The advent of heavy construction equipment and the approach of large construction company of converting
the construction sector to a more mechanized and in turn an organized sector has made it mandatory
for maintaining the fleet of equipment to perform to its optimum.
Since machinery and equipment which have became a integral part of any construction activity, plants and
machineries now constitute a substantial portion of the construction cost in a project ( in tune of 10
to 30 percent of total project cost depending upon the extent of mechanization ), has maintained to
turn the Project into profit making center for any organization, because the cost of maintenance of
any equipment is in tune of 200 to 250 percent of cost equipment it has become imperative for going
in for maintaining the equipment during its expected Life cycle. Equipment maintenance is a science
because it involves scientific and technical know how of different machineries for identical problem, it
 may require different action or process. We need equipments for technical and speedy construction
and at the same time for economical and timely completion of project.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Ali A. Shash and Shuaib Ghazi (2001) ​Construction equipment constitutes a major resource for a contractor.
This paper presents the results of a survey performed to unfold the practices followed by contractors in
Saudi Arabia in managing their construction equipment. It was possible to find that contractors in Saudi
Arabia follow practices similar to those followed by top contractors in the USA. They were found to identify
needs, evaluate alternative proposals quantitatively and qualitatively, and make decisions to acquire
equipment. During its useful life, contractors maintain accurate records and subject equipment to preventive
and scheduled maintenance programs. The contractors also use several economic analysis techniques to
determine the economic life, pricing, rate of returns, accounting, etc. of equipment. This information and
other parameters are used in equipment replacement evaluation.

2​. ​David J. Edwards​, ​Gary D. Holt​, (2009)​ ​A literature review is presented in the subject of construction plant
and equipment management (CPeM) to: delineate the subject; consider its development over recent years;
and identify principal themes within it. The paper aims to close the gap in knowledge, by using these objectives
as a mechanism to observe how research themes relate to primary CPeM functions, and to suggest future
research direction.It is suggested that “optimum production methods” and “minimal resource consumption”
will become inherent theme goals.

3. ​Ghaith – AI- Werikat, 2017 Construction projects encounter many disruptions that usually have a negative
impact on the project in terms of time delays and cost overruns. Managing the Construction Supply Chain(CSC)
aids in mitigating the risks of projects disruptions to occur. This research analyses the extent of impact that the
equipment flow has on construction projects performance in terms oftime delays in isolation of the other
components of the construction supply chain. In doing so,preliminary investigations, survey and simulation
were used to finalise the research main aimand objectives. The results of the analysis revealed that the most
likely causes for equipment.

4. ​Argaw Tarekegn Gurmu​(2017)​ ​Construction project productivity can be enhanced by the implementation
of good management practices. The purposes of this research are to identify construction equipment
management practices that have the potential to improve productivity in multistory building projects, develop
a tool for measuring such practices, and on that basis, build a logistic regression model for predicting the
probability of exceeding a baseline productivity factor when the levels of implementation of equipment

​ lso, the logistic regression model can be used to test whether a certain
management practices are known.​ A

level of implementation of a construction equipment management practice might be associated with higher or
lower productivity compared to the baseline.
Contractors can use the probability-based predictive model to assess the risk of low productivity for specific
levels of implementations of construction equipment management practices. This research contributes to
the body of knowledge by developing a construction equipment management practices measuring,
planning, monitoring, and evaluating tool in the context of multistory building projects.

5. Kartik Sharad Thete(2011) Selection of construction equipment plays very crucial role in effective
completion of any civil project. Thus selection and planning of equipment is essential for the its utilization
with minimum cost. It is an engineer’s responsibility to assign a particular equipment to complete a task as
per site conditions. As there are large number of equipments available in the market it becomes a difficult
task to select the equipment depending upon its productivity & other responsible factors. Many of the
construction firms are unaware of the new construction equipment available in the market. To complete the
project within a stipulated time use of equipments becomes a priority. Thus the equipments should be well
classified so as to reduce their selection time. The objective of this paper is to deal with classification ,
selection & utilization of all construction equipments to ease the method of selection & timely completion of
project.As if we are hiring an equipment from a vendor and if it breakdowns at a site then vendor must have
provisions for other backup equipments. So as to avoid any lags for an activity. Equipment is also available at
a company butwhen the situation comes where we require the same machine for more than one place then
we are in need of an outsourcing agencies. A firm should have good database of such vendors.

6. PRANAV KHARE(2018) ​Any enterprise cannot operate on its own. Even a contractor can neither build nor
operate on itself. Therefore, it has to be manned by the people who form the backbone of the enterprise,
and it is their candid performance on which the success of the whole enterprise depends. Their knowledge
and skills are to be scrutinized and analyzed so as to fit the right person in the right place. A large percentage
of construction site accidents involve the negligence of someone other than a co-employee or employer.
Many subcontractors may be involved and responsible for your damages. There are a variety of
circumstances in which a construction worker can be injured. There are many causes for construction site
accidents, including negligent and dangerous construction site practices. This paper deals with the planning
and selection procedure for equipment adopted by a company to achieve its objective of timely project
completion

3. AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The objective of this thesis is
(i) To study the various maintenance and management practices that are currently being employed
by large construction Sectors.
(ii) To identify the best practices for effective maintenance management. This study will help to
understand the maintenance phenomenon and factors responsible for better efficiency and less
operating cost of owning and operating by reducing the downtime of equipment. To identify the
risk map for cost overrun factors.
4. NATURE AND SCOPE OF STUDY
 There are mainly four types of maintenance

● Reactive maintenance/ breakdown maintenance/ corrective maintenance (Failure based

maintenance)
● Predictive maintenance and reliability centered maintenance
(Condition based maintenance)
● Preventive maintenance / scheduled maintenance
(Time based maintenance)
● Proactive maintenance
.
.

SELECTION OF EQUIPMENT
A contractor is frequently confronted with the problem of the selection of the most suitable
equipment as he plans to execute the project. Equipment purchase involves initial heavy investments.
In long run, equipment adds to the profitability by reducing the overall costs, provided the equipment
is properly planned, technically scrutinized, economically procured and effectively managed. Poor
selection and bad management of equipment are generally attributed to task mismatch, unplanned
requirement forecasts, hasty purchase decisions, inadequate repairs and spares supply, and lack of
maintenance. The rapid development in equipment judicious deployment of the same on work is one
major factor, which will go a long way in helping the contractor to maintain the completion targets of
his contract within the estimated cost. Selection of an equipment to perform an assigned task
depends on many interrelated factors. These factors are outlined in further sections.
Effects of the Failure

● More stresses beyond the rated capacity may tilt or damage the crane
● Improper inspection leads to sudden unexpected failures
● Adjustment and repair to tower cranes not done by designated persons may again leads to the repair
or failure of the crane
● Cabs and remote control station shall protect from falling objects and materials and also from the
elements
● Cab windows not constructed with transparent safety glazing material cause invisibility to the
operator
● If automatic trolley break is not available in case of trolley rope breakage then non-stopping,
uncontrollable movement occurs
● If the tower cranes operated when the wind speed is greater than 30 miles per hour will cause
uncontrollable operation
● Operation of a crane without counterweight trolley was found to be faulty. (Not running smoothly)
Severity of Failures in Concrete Mixers

1. Sometimes human life gets affected

2. Improper speed and time leads to improper operation
3. Repair work not done by skilled persons may cause heavy loss money
4. Works gets delayed.

4.9.5 Causes for the Failures

1. Improper speed and time
2. Improper maintenance on every individual parts of the mixer
3. Improper inspection
4. Improper trained operators
5. Pouring more material than the rated capacity of the mixer
6. Not selecting well designated and most experienced persons

EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE

Maintenance of a piece of equipment is the operation of keeping its various components in their
original form as for as possible with the view to ensure that safety and production in operation do not
deteriorate. It includes servicing, inspection and adjustment, small repairs in the field, major repairs and
overhaul in main workshops and proper is of laid - up machine. The objective of maintenance

● To maximize availability of machinery and facilities needed for smooth production

● To minimize downtime due to breakdown of machinery

To ensure long life of the machinery to avoid high rate of depreciation of capital
CONCLUSIONS
Based on relative importance index the causes, effects and methods of minimisation of construction
delays are ranked and conclusions are to be given. The conclusion from our findings of this research showed
that the project schedule, budget and quality level are affected significantly different. Time and cost overrun
have been a major recurring problem in construction industry. Brief reasons for time overruns as reported by
various project implementing agencies are delay in land acquisition, delay in equipment erection, inadequate
mobilization by the contractor, delay in forest clearance, fund constraints,change in scope of work,
cancellation of tender, law & order problem, delay in supply of equipment, slow progress of civil work,
escalation in cost.

REFERENCES
 1. Ali A. Shash and Shuaib Ghazi (​2002​), “Construction Equipment Management Practices of Major
Contractors”​, International journal of project Management Vol. 189, No 11 pp.421-541
2. David J. Edwards​, ​Gary D. Holt​, (​2009​) "Construction plant and equipment management
research: thematic review", ​Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology​, journal of construction
Engineering and Management ​Vol. 7, pp.186-206​,
3. Ghaith Al-Werikat, (2017​) “The role on equipment flow within the construction” journal of
construction Engineering and Management VOL 6 NO. 2, pp 517-526

4. Argaw Tarekegn Gurmu​ and ​Ajibade Ayodeji Aibinu​,(2017)“Construction Equipment Management

Practices for Improving Labor Productivity in Multistory Building Construction Projects” Volume 143,
pp 32-35

5. Kartik Sharad Thete(2011)”Construction Equipment Management” Construction of Engineering and

Management Vol.5, pp11-13

6. PRANAV KHARE(2018)” Planning and Selection of Heavy Construction Equipments in Civil Engineering”
Journal of Project Management Vol.5, pp 59-62