Thinking Ahead: The Value Of Maintenance Programs for Construction Equipment
Preventative Maintenance Programs for construction equipment save contractors time and money. Are you leveraging the most advanced equipment maintenance tools to maximize your profits?
Unplanned Maintenance vs. Planned Maintenance
There are two types of maintenance – planned & unplanned. Unplanned maintenance includes machinery breakdown or emergency maintenance for project equipment like crawler excavators, wheel loaders or dump trucks. In these situations, the project manager or contractor will wait for the part to fail before fixing it, costing time and productivity. Unplanned breakdowns can cost up to 9 times more than planned maintenance due to overtime, rushed parts, onsite service and scrapped production.
Maintaining construction equipment directly impacts profit potential. Unplanned maintenance inflates the cost of ownership and reduces the ability to competitively price products and services. The best way to avoid surprises is to take a proactive approach and schedule planned maintenance that aligns with the projected hours of machine usage. Planned maintenance helps outline timeframes, internal costs, and parts pricing, creating a firmer placement for profit margin.
Benefits of Maintenance Programs for Construction Equipment
DEFINES AND CONTROLS COST
Planned maintenance gives contractors the ability to predict maintenance budgets and forecast costs throughout the life of the project.
MITIGATES RISK
Regular maintenance programs for construction equipment help identify minor fixes early so they don’t develop into major repairs. Planned maintenance takes the guesswork out of maintenance costs.
INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY
By scheduling planned maintenance ahead of time, your team doesn’t have to halt production or take the time to send off machinery for repair. You can service machinery at a time and location that doesn’t disrupt workflow and productivity.
EXTENDS MACHINE LIFE
The depreciation of machinery depends on a number of variables, but regularly planned maintenance has been proven to extend the life and value of equipment.
CREATES POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT
Nothing is more frustrating than going to use a piece of machinery and it not working properly. By scheduling maintenance regularly for your equipment, your onsite workers will be less stressed and happier to work with well-regulated tools.
IMPROVES RESALE VALUE
Equipment condition plays heavily into its resale price. A comprehensive maintenance plan is the best way to preserve the value of the machine and slow depreciation over time.
Calculating Planned Maintenance Percentage
Planned maintenance percentage, or PMP, is one of the most widely used tactics to calculate planned maintenance costs for a construction project. By using this structure, contractors are able to create a customized approach to planned maintenance that can be very valuable.
PMP is calculated by taking the total amount of planned maintenance hours and dividing them by the total maintenance hours in the same period.
What percentage of time are you spending on planned maintenance?
Construction contractors that are seeing the value of planned maintenance typically spend 85% of their time performing planned maintenance.
If you fall into the range below 85%, further outline and research some of the more predictable maintenance needs that to fall into planned maintenance. Moving forward you can document, schedule and address these needs before a breakdown occurs.
How Strategies Group Helps Contractors Improve Equipment Management
Strategies Group works with Spectrum construction software to maximize returns on one of the largest investments you will make as a contractor, your equipment. Spectrum Equipment Management helps manage planned maintenance plans and track the usage of your equipment to keep it working and help predict issues that may arise.
Functionality includes:
- Track Owning and Operating costs
- Provide better Job Cost and Estimates
- Fleet Deployment optimization
- Track ROI on each piece of equipment
- Preventive Maintenance management
Learn More About Maintenance Programs for Construction Equipment
