International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2016, pp. 513–520 Article ID: IJCIET_07_04_047

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=7&IType=4
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
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IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT’S ON

BUILDING SITE PRODUCTIVITY
D. B. Phadatare
Civil Engineering Department, Pillai HOC College of Engineering & Technology,
Rasayani, Raigad - 410207, Maharashtra, India

S. B. Charhate
Civil Engineering Department, Pillai HOC College of Engineering & Technology,
Rasayani, Raigad - 410207, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT
The equipment management system and equipment policy always has a huge impact on the
profitability of the contractors with more investment in equipment. In civil engineering construction
projects, the cost of equipment can vary from 25-40% of the total project cost. The objective of this
project was to study that how the planned and proper maintenance is important for construction
equipment for better production. The data analysis here is monthly equipment utilization on site &
various reasons for losses in construction equipment production. It is necessary to evaluate if
additional construction equipment is brought to the construction site then whether a project can be
finished in a given period. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the overall traffic flow of
construction equipment which influences the efficiency of construction operations.
Key words: Construction Equipment, Building Site, Equipment Maintenance
Cite this Article: D. B. Phadatare and S. B. Charhate, Impact of Construction Equipment’s On
Building Site Productivity. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 7(4), 2016,
pp.513–520.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=7&IType=4

1. INTRODUCTION
The cost of construction is an important factor in all projects whether the construction project is to be
linear (i.e., concept, design, procurement, construction) or fast-track (i.e., design/build); whether a
construction contract is unit price, lump sum, or cost-plus. The labour, materials, overhead, equipment and
profit are important factors that impact construction costs. Shalomo Selinger (1983) established that to
determine the economic service life of earthmoving and transportation equipment, the mathematical
models are available. Michael C. Vorster (1990) has presents the capability to quantify, the significant
costs of downtime and lack of availability by a model. A little thought and innovation applying in the
model should make it possible to understand the philosophy, as well as the methodology used for
quantification. Zane W. Mitchell (1998) has concentrated on the management of heavy construction
equipment, which is a tough task. It was revealed how a second-order polynomial expression was selected
as the optimum and it can be used to identify best economic decisions of the cumulative cost model
developed by Vorster. Athanase I. Tsimberdonis (1994) examined the importance and magnitude of costs

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 D. B. Phadatare and S. B. Charhate

caused by equipment failure. Rickey A. Cook (1999) has developed a maintenance plan for improving
safety and efficiency of cranes and heavy equipment’s. Harkan Yman (2009) has stated future of
management which likely to be happens. The information output can be used by both managers and no
managers in the firm to make decision and to solve the problem. Accordingly, Cynthia S. Collyard (2012)
mentioned that as the contractor's with large investments in equipment have a great impact on the
profitability of the firm with equipment policy and equipment management system. Govindan Kannan
(2011) studies with professional experts in the equipment management field. The purpose of this article is
twofold: (a) to record observations and knowledge, and (b) to evaluate the performance of the tools. Many
construction firms seek to gain competitive advantages by increasing controlling and service losses by
reducing raw material and labour costs. By effective equipment maintenance, companies have found
effective way to increase profit margins (Craig A. Clutts, 2010). Most construction firms are tends to
concentrate on maintenance efforts of unscheduled breakdowns and emergency repairs; this eventually
tends to concentrate on maintenance department overtime, the production losses and in expediting parts for
repairs. Thus, the equipment’s are largest assets of construction companies (C. William, 1984). The
purpose of this study is to find out how construction equipment affects the effectiveness of construction
operations and to analysis the traffic flow. However, till date, limited work has been published related to
these especially in planning for equipment utilization.

2. CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE

The total productive effort in modern industry is depend upon equipment and machinery’s. So, those are a
very important part of industry. Therefore, downtime or idleness of equipment’s and machinery’s becomes
very expensive. Hence, the plant machinery should be properly maintained which is very much important.
The highest percentage of cost commonly considered to maintenance costs which are related to operating a
piece of equipment. It is also referred to by peurify and schexnayder (2002) as the highest percentage of
cost related to the equipment’s entire life cycle. The breakdown given was to 25% to depreciation, 15% to
overhead, 23% to operating cost and 37% is related to maintenance and repair. The reason of the research
title is maintenance due to its high percentage cost. The maintenance cost can shift hands in the process
whether the piece is rented, leased or bought. The secondary impact condition is the level of service to the
equipment directly impacts its life and therefore the hourly rate or cost calculation.
In maintenance, it is important to keep various components in their original form as far as possible to
ensure the safety and production speed. It includes inspection, adjustment and servicing, major repairs and
overhauls in main workshop, small repairs in the field, and proper is of laid-up machine.

Figure 1 Maintenance Process

(Source: Construction Engineering and Management, Khanna Publication)

Figure 1 shows the process of maintenance. In work identification, find the work of maintenance of
that particular equipment; identify the type of maintenance required. Further in work planning, plane for
how the maintenance work going to perform on that particular equipment, how much time required for
maintenance work and schedule the work to be performed. After completing all planning and scheduling of
work, actual execution of work start. Records the works performed on that equipment, and mention it in

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 Impact of Construction Equipment’s On Building Site Productivity

maintenance record book. Analysis the work, check whether it is performing better or not otherwise again
starts from work identification.

2.1. Type of maintenance

1. Reactive Maintenance – A maintenance system that repairs after breakdown occurs in equipment.
2. Preventive Maintenance – A maintenance system that uses maintenance procedures to prevent breakdown by
following a procedural approach with schedules and guidelines.
3. Predictive Maintenance – In predictive maintenance, online condition monitoring helps identify when wear-
out risk starts to increase and anticipate when failure is likely to occur. It is an equipment condition rather
than time intervals which determine the need for service.
4. Proactive Maintenance – Proactive maintenance based on data provided by predictive methods to identify
problems and isolated the source of failure. To find out the root cause of the failure, proactive maintenance
is use.

2.2. Maintenance Strategies

Maintenance action can be categorized into four general strategies. These four strategies often used on the
same machine. The maintenance plan for a company’s assets will be a combination of these strategies
shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 Maintenance strategies

(Source: Construction Engineering and Management, Khanna Publication)

On–Failure: Mostly the equipment fails at its running condition that’s why it requires urgent
maintenance for proper work perform.
Condition Based: Maintenance is done as per the condition of equipment. Earlier maintenance is
requires if its condition is dangerous.
Fixed Time: Maintenance is done as per planned schedule. (Per month, every 3 months, once in 6
month, yearly)
Design Out: In maintenance work, first priority is to identify the main root cause of failure of that
particular equipment.

3. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

For data collection, we have considering “THE PARK TOWER”, Worali. It is a residential project site
which taken as a case study. The overall site plan of the project is as shown below.

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 D. B. Phadatare and S. B. Charhate

Figure 3 Site plan

(Source: Capacite Infra project Ltd)

The data collected from site regarding the progress of construction. Equipment information is given below.

Table 1 Equipment used on site

NO Equipment name Company NO
1 Air Compressor ELGI 5
2 Auto Level EIE 7
3 Bar Bending Machine Global 12
4 Bar Cutting Machine Hitachi 15
5 Batching Plant 30cum/hr ACC 1
6 Breaker Machine Hitachi 10
7 Concrete Pump Aquarius 4
8 Cube Testing Machine EIE 1
9 Crane (3 Tonne & 15 Tonne) Potain 3
10 Drill Machine ITCO 20
11 Dumper Tata 2
12 Earth Compactor Saluja 2
13 Electrical Vibrator Cosmos 20
14 Generator Kirloskar 1
15 Grinder Machine Hitachi 19
16 JCB L&T 1
17 Lift Universal 1
18 Mini Roller L&T 2
19 Needle Saluja 30
20 Plywood Cutter Global 4
21 Passenger Lift Universal 2
22 Slump Cone Test Accro- tech 1
23 Transit Mixer (6cum) ACC 4
24 Total Station ELE 1
25 Welding Machine Warpp Engg. 1
26 Weigh Batcher ACC 1
The concrete pumps, transit mixer, JCB are mainly used construction equipment on construction site
from October 2015 to March 2016. The data collected on site can be represented in graphical form.
The graphical representation of work executed against planned by construction equipment’s shown
below:

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 Impact of Construction Equipment’s On Building Site Productivity

Figure 4 Actual production vs. planned production

The graph shows the total expenditure cost occurred during breakdown & failure of equipment’s in the
duration of October 2015- March 2016.

Figure 5Expenditure in cost of equipment’s in all months

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 D. B. Phadatare and S. B. Charhate

Following graph shows the total expenditure cost per month for all equipment’s:

Figure 6 Total expenditure cost per month for all equipment

Operating time against loss time

A details study to be carried out for operating time against loss time of different equipment’s which consist
of following,
Planned operating time = fully productive time + quality loss + speed losses
+ downtime losses + planned shutdown
Planned shutdown = Tea break +lunch/dinner/super break.
Downtime = Waiting time for operator + setup & changeover time
+ meeting time

Production data
Shift length (operating time)
Tea breaks
Lunch break
Down time
Idle (design) run rate

Total number of production quantity support variable

Planned production time = Shift length – break
Operating time = Planned production time – downtimes

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 Impact of Construction Equipment’s On Building Site Productivity

The details for the above against important major equipment will be studied in working out the loss
of efficiency of equipment’s in an execution of a project.
The main cause of losses in production is due to construction equipment’s performance.

Table 2 Losses in production due to Equipment Downtime

NO Loss Category Loss category example Comment

Equipment failure
Loss due to breakdown of
1 Breakdown Unplanned maintenance
Downtime equipment
Tooling damage
losses
Setup & Setup/changeover Time lost due to adjustment in the
2
Adjustment Operator shortage equipment
Idling & Small stop losses occur when
3 Minor Components jams equipment stops for a short time as
Stoppage a result of interim problem.
Speed losses
Minimized speed refers to the
Reduced Operator inefficiency
4 difference between design speed
Speed under design capacity
and actual operating speed.
Some equipment requires warm up
5 Startup loss Quality loss Equipment warm up time and certain adjustment to
obtain optimum output.
The volume of the work done by equipment’s on every day is planned for the project. On site, the
actual volume of work done by equipment’s is recorded. By summarizing all records, the data analysis can
be performed. In the data analysis, the volume of work done by the each equipment is compared with its
planned and actual woke done.

4. CONCLUSION
The overall equipment efficiency was improved with less idling, low machine breakdown and minimized
accident in plants which maximized the productivity rate, optimized process parameter. To improve the
production rate of equipment is essential for a construction industry. In equipment management, proper
planning, installation, selection, procurement, operation, maintenance and equipment replacement policy
plays vital role for successful completion of project. From collected data, it has seen that equipment
utilization on site has to be studied in details. The overall productivity of construction is affected by
various reasons. The downtime and idle run time of equipment play important role in production. These
downtime & idle time factor also effect on total cost of project.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We express our sincere thanks to Capacite Infra project Ltd for providing the various useful data regarding
the equipment’s. We express our gratitude to our professors for their unfailing inspiration. We take this
opportunity to thank our colleagues for their company during the course work and for useful discussion we
had with them.

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 D. B. Phadatare and S. B. Charhate

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