Proper Maintenance Key To Reliable Performance of Machines And Vehicles
Reliable operators do not grease construction equipment without first cleaning the grease fittings. That would be like a doctor stitching an injury without first sanitizing and cleaning the wound. It’s just not the way construction contractors avoid breakdowns on machines and vehicles.
We work in a dirty environment. The very nature of construction work promotes an increase in workplace dirt, dust and fumes. It’s all part of digging, drilling, dumping, grinding, sawing and more. Without proper equipment maintenance, your vehicles and jobsite equipment are doomed to an early demise in service availability. On the other hand: Proper maintenance of construction equipment advances:
- Jobsite safety
- Long-term equipment reliability and equipment durability
- Fewer emergency service calls
- A reduction in wasted work hours
- AND better quality in finished products and services.
3 Process To Help Keep Construction Equipment In Prime Operating Condition
Effective tool maintenance is more than changing the oil, planning for routine tune-ups and working to control fuel costs in construction. When scheduled in a timely manner, monitored for compliance and performed correctly, proper maintenance of construction equipment translates to safer work conditions as well as higher on-the-job productivity for workers as well as equipment operators.
Let us look at three keys crucial to successful equipment upkeep:
1) Machines and Vehicles – Attention to Sound and Sight
Dirt hinders equipment functionality and performance. Many great pieces of machinery have ended service merely because no one took time to clean the grease fittings, wash down the radiator, knock mud clods free of the exposed gears, or take time to learn the sounds of a smooth-running engine.
Solution: Train operators in what looks right and what sounds right, and in what to do when either sound or sight designates a problem with the equipment.
2) Machines and Vehicles – Operators, Workers and Maintenance Crew
Years in the field and some operators yet fail to practice basic machine maintenance. Drivers ignore scheduled pit stops. Workers fail to maintain a cleared work area. Sometimes the maintenance crew misses a schedule task.
Solution: Training helps. Enforcement ensures.
3) Machines and Vehicles – Documentation
Failure to practice proper equipment maintenance is not always about lack of knowledge, concern or training. Sometimes, and more often than expected, a breakdown in construction machines and vehicles directly corresponds to a breakdown in communication and documentation. It’s about:
- Incomplete records
- Inadequate follow-up
- A failed warning system
- AND no way of backtracking the error.
Solution: Test-drive the Assignar maintenance management software component.
About Assignar Construction Software
Assignar is a full-service workforce and asset allocation and planning construction-focused software solution. Construction contractors use Assignar to:
- Dispatch workers, vehicles and machines to the right place at the right time
- Organize and track quality control compliance
- Establish and manage safety management
- Handle quoting, scheduling, invoicing and payroll
- AND so much more.
Make sure all your people get all relevant documents in a timely and effective manner. Start for free and upgrade later.
