ISSN 2321 3361 © 2019 IJESC

Research Article Volume 9 Issue No.11

Analysis of Equipment Management in Construction Industry to

Improve Productivity
Lincy. G
PG Student
Department of Civil Engineering
Arunachala College of Engineering for Women, Manavilai, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, India

Abstract:
Construction equipment management is the important factor to run the project in a successful a manner. The effectiveness of
construction machineries is a major factor that differentiates construction companies in terms of heavy construction and also light
construction. Time and cost is an important factor in a construction project. Selection and planning of equipment is required for its
proper utilization. To complete the project within a stipulated time utilization of equipment becomes a priority. Datas about the
equipments and work are required from construction companies. As the array of useful equipment expand the importance of
careful planning and execution of construction equipment increases. Inefficient management of equipment leads to loss in
production, delayed production and hence leads to reduce overall profitability of the company. Utilization of machine properly
and matching their capacities to execute specific project requirements are important. Main objective of this paper is to managing
the equipment and thereby improving the productivity of construction. The project is going to be done with a questionnaire
survey.

Keywords: Equipment management, proper planning, selection, optimum utilization methods.

I. INTRODUCTION equipment managers usually result in major losses in

Good project management in construction must vigorously
pursue the efficient utilization of equipment, labour and
material. Improvement of productivity should be a major and
continual concern of those who are responsible for cost control
of constructed facilities. Equipment handling requires a special
attention for cost reduction. The use of new equipment and
innovative methods has made possible changes in the
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.
The basic operations that involved in the construction of any
project are excavation, digging of small or large quantities of
earth and moving them to fairly long distances, placement,
compacting, leveling, dozing, grading, hauling, etc. All the
machines that are usually used to carry out these construction
operations are referred to as construction equipment
Construction firms are often faced with problems related to
high rate of equipment unavailability, failure or breakdown
and accidents that reducing productivity. Poor selection of
equipment often claimed as a major cause of equipment
related problems. The only way to avoid this huge amount of
loss that usually leads to equipment breakdown or failure is to
adopt proper equipment maintenance management strategy.
This will keep construction equipment fit at all times and
allow timely completion of construction project, thereby
increasing construction project profitability Thus, to
understand effective construction equipment management, one
must also understand effective construction equipment
maintenance. There is a need to let construction managers
realize that maintenance of construction equipment if properly
carryout is a profit Centre,Effective management of equipment
is crucial for the success of construction firms. Inadequate
manual processes of equipment management and decisions of
construction firms. The equipment management practices
vary, to some extent, among different contractor sizes.
Equipment manager’s main task is to reduce downtime,
achieve optimum equipment utilization and increase
production at minimum cost.
II. IMPORTANCE OF EQUIPMENTS IN CONSTRUCTION
With 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 become an integral part of any
construction activity and plants and machinery now constitute
a substantial portion of the construction cost in a project has to
be maintained to turn the project into a profit making center
for any organization.And also because the cost of maintenance
of any equipment is in tune of 200 to 250 percent of cost of
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 knowhow of different machineries
involved, and it is an art because for identical problem it may
require different treatment or action or process. We need
equipment’s for technical and speedy construction and at the
same time for economical and timely completion of project.
III. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The objective of this paper is
 To study the various equipment management practices
currently being employed by large construction sector.
 To identify the best practices for effective management.
This study will help to understand the factors responsible

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 for better efficiency and less operating cost of owning
and operating by reducing the downtime of equipment.
IV. LITERATURE REVIEW
Various literatures were reviewed related on the equipment
management which is useful for the project. The literature
reviews helps to give a better idea about the Equipment
management and improving productivity. “Identifying Ways
to Improve Productivity at the Construction Industry” written
by Mohammed Salleh Hammad, Abdelnaser Omran, Abdul
Hamid Kadir Pakir says that by improving management
practices, a construction company can therefore reduce
waiting time significantly. Besides long periods of waiting,
there are many other drains on productivity at the construction
site. By comparing project, the company can determine why
one project was more productive that the other. The company
can carefully observe the percentage of productive and
nonproductive time at a site. By comparing project, the
company can determine why one project was more productive
that the other. In the report “Planning and Selection of Heavy
Construction Equipment in Civil Engineering” written by Mr.
Nilesh D. Chinchore, Prof. Pranay R. Khare. The capital
investment on purchase and or rental/lease, and operation of
the plant and equipment being very high, it has to be managed
so as to ensure maximum return on investment, productivity
and minimum operating, maintenance and repair cost. Thus
appropriate selection and planning is essential for successful
completion of project and to secure maximum profit out of it.
Another report “A Review on Need of Implementation of
Modern Construction Techniques and Equipment in Indian
Construction Sector” written by Anirban Deshmukh explains
that Construction equipment is a vital resource in the
execution of every construction projects and success of a
project within targeted times and budget constraint is greatly
influenced by the selection of right kind of equipment for the
tasks to be performed. Factors like efficiency, productivity,
cost, safety and environmental is given due attention during
selection of construction equipment. Procurement of
construction machinery is an essential decision making
process and planning is required to weigh necessity of
equipment at several stages of construction. Analysis of
Factors Affecting Machinery in the Construction Industry of
Pakistan is a paper by Anwar Zeba, Dr. Abdul Qudoosb, and
Hashim Hanif. This paper says that identification and
Contractors rely on the output, useful life, fuel cost,
depreciation cost, repair and maintenance cost, salvage value,
interest rate and taxes of the machinery. Author developed a
regression model from quadratic function for the repair cost of
the machine age from field data. As machinery life changes
with every repair work, so whenever it requires repair,
decision to be made to estimate the life earned due to repair.
Finance of the construction equipment is related to the owner
and operating cost includes repair, purchase, life, maintenance
and its availability. Another approach would be to have
standby equipment in case of failure. The report “Critical
Study on Latest Heavy Equipment and Latest Technologies
Used In Road Works and Recommending The Types of
Equipment and Its Effectiveness for Indian Roads Equipment
Recommendation for Indian Roads” was written by Mithilesh
V.V.S, Nagavinothini R. Paper says that a Proper use of
appropriate equipment’s will contribute economy, quality,
safety, speed and timely completion of project. Equipment’s
used in road works are from small to heavy construction
equipment’s. Almost 15- 30% of total project cost has been
IJESC, November 2019
accounted towards equipment and machinery. The use of
equipment & methods has made possible changes in
construction technology in recent decades. Highway
construction projects are the yardstick to measure the
development of country. Now the highway construction
projects are changing their face. Proper planning, selection,
procurement, installation, operation, maintenance and
equipment replacement policy plays an important role in
equipment management for successful completion of project.
“Productivity in Construction-A Critical Review of Research”
by D. A. R. Dolage and P. Chan. The study ascertained that
the main drawbacks of past productivity studies are the strong
empirical inclination of methodologies adopted and the
overwhelming positivist approach to examining productivity
issues. The absence of follow-up studies to investigate the
validity of productivity measurement techniques and the
models and to test the claims made in productivity
improvement studies, is a striking feature. The rational
participants who perceive productivity as the ratio of output
resources to input resources must strive to get higher outputs
from lower inputs. In the construction industry higher
productivity levels invariably lead to superior profitability,
drawing the constant attention of the management. “A Review
on Factors Affecting Productivity of Multi-Storey Building
Construction” is the paper by Neelima Suresh, Sahimol
Eldhose. This paper explains that productivity measurement at
construction site level enables companies to monitor their own
performance against their site performance. Productivity
measures are formulated as a ratio of output to one or more of
the inputs. Multi-factor productivity is an indication of the
productivity with which selected factors of production are
used in the creation of the output of a firm, industry, etc.
Construction companies may gain advantage over their
competitors by improving upon productivity to build projects
at lower costs yet most contractors do not systematically and
properly address this strategic issue or evaluate its impact on
the project’s profit. This paper “Impact of Construction
Equipments on Building Site Productivity” is written by D. B.
Phadatare. The objective of this project was to study that how
the planned and proper maintenance is important for
construction equipment for better production. The main
purpose of this study is to evaluate the overall traffic flow of
construction equipment which influences the efficiency of
construction operations. 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. “Review Study on Improvement of Overall
Equipment Effectiveness in Construction Equipments” written
by Mr. Nilesh Ayane, Mr. Mangesh Gudadhe. This paper will
review the goals and benefits of implementing Total
Productive Maintenance and it will also focusing on
calculating the overall equipment effectiveness in construction
equipments. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of a
machine plays an important role where performance and
quality of the product are of key importance to the company.
The OEE intended at minimizing the breakdowns, increasing
performance and quality rate and thus improving the
effectiveness of the machine. The cost component usually
depends upon the nature of the project and the extent to which
equipment is employed. The report “Construction Equipment
Management” written by Kartik Sharad Thete, Dhiraj
Rajendra Baviskar. Paper deals with the performance of
equipment selected are to be measured on basis of various
factors like fuel consumption, productivity of equipment per
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hour, hiring cost if an equipment. Selection of equipment
governs the quality of executing the work. Thus whole
decision is pending to the senior authority to assign the
equipment on site for a particular task. Equipment is also
available at a company but when the situation comes where we
require the same machine for more than one place then we are
in need of an outsourcing agency. In the report “A Survey on
Downtime Cost of Equipment Used in a Construction
Industry” written by Kalpana Gangane, Prof. D.P.Patil, Prof.
A.N.Bhirud says that in today’s competitive manufacturing
market, production efficiency and effectiveness are among top
business priorities. Thus, production equipment becoming the
central focus of interest as it is the backbone of the
manufacturing process and key performance indicator of
productivity. The requirements of outstanding performance
force companies to substantially consider reducing their
machines downtime frequency and its consequential costs.
Equipment downtime occurs due to planned or unplanned
stops. However, the unplanned stops caused by failures and
disturbances occurrence are the most common unexpected
factors that have the non-trivial influence on the overall
productivity. Productive maintenance strives for minimizing
downtime events and hence cost. On the other hand, proper
costing method can be of much beneficial to maintenance
managers through assessing the efficiency of the adopted
maintenance policy. In the report “ Equipment Management in
Construction Sector” Prasannasangeetha.A, Alan.S says that
construction equipment plays great significant role in
construction industry, costs as high as 36% of the total
construction project expense, however, the equipment
maintenance has not been given appropriate attention and this
contribute to about 40% of total construction project cost
overrun. The objective of this research is to ensure that
construction practitioners realize and adhere to proper
equipment maintenance strategy as effective aspect of
construction project profitability. For evaluation of factors
some questionnaires has been prepared using this information
and distributed between construction professionals. Aim of
this paper is to reduce downtime, achieve optimum equipment
utilization and increase production at cost. The paper “A
Methodology to Select Construction Equipment Acquisition
Method” is written by Ms. Neha Shinde and Prof. Rahul
Shinde. The study describes that construction equipment is a
high cost of capital investment necessary for the successful
existence of a private construction company .The highest
impact cost factor other than the initial purchase investment is
the expenses related to maintenance and repair. This project
recommends a decision support model that can be used by
private and public entities alike to determine the best fit
acquisition method and guidance for profitability optimization.
Methods of life cycle cost estimating and decision methods
were researched and compared. Data was acquired from
equipment rental companies and private construction
companies. The paper “Factors Influencing Effective
Productivity on Construction Sites” written by Githae
Wanyona, Stephen Dianga, Abednego Oswald Gwaya. The
research design used in this study was the survey methodology
where project managers, contractors and developers were
engaged on their experiences in Labor productivity in the
construction industry. Delays in meeting construction activity
completion times on site has caused losses on projects’ profits
to the contractors; increased costs to the clients and strained
the working relationship between the parties in a project. The
study established that delivery of materials, adequacy of
supervision and motivation of workers, are the most important
factors affecting labor productivity.
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V. CONCLUSION
This research provides study and knowledge of construction
productivity and focus on factors affecting equipment
productivity in infrastructure construction projects. Prior
knowledge of equipment productivity during construction can
save cost and time. Investments for these projects are very
high and because of the complexity in construction, various
factors can highly affect overall productivity, thus projects can
end up adding even more time and cost the research is
intended to identify major common factors affecting
equipment productivity in construction projects. This study
investigates all possible factors through a structured
questionnaire
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