Fleet Management of Construction Equipment- A Case Study of Road

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1 Fleet Management of Construction Equipment- A Case Study of Road Er.Roshan H.Bhoye * Student of Masters of Engineering SSGB COE&T Bhusawal,India roshanbhoye92@gmail.com Prof.P.M.Attarde Associate Professor SSGB COE&T Bhusawal,India vattarde75@rediffmail.com Abstract: Construction Equipment fleet management at its basic level addresses the problem of managing fleets of various construction equipments stationary as well as mobile such as dumpers, excavators, shovels, scrapers, belt conveying systems, graders, pavers, rollers, cranes, HMA plant, RMC plant, transit mixers, etc. Use of Equipment fleet management increases the productivity of overall site and increases the profitability through a proper equipment selection & optimization, production monitoring, tracking of equipments, maintaining a maintenance schedule, etc. Use of various sophisticated tools & techniques can be used for the same such as the telematics, GPS navigation, information transmission systems & various software s. Keywords: Fleet management, Equipment optimization, benefit analysis, theoretical fleet, and available fleet. L 1.0 INTRODUCTION arge contractors have been steadily increasing their investment in construction equipment to satisfy their needs in response to increased construction volume in recent years. The technical advancement of earthmoving equipment during the 20th century includes many improvements in key parts of machines making the machine mechanically more efficient. Hence major large construction operations and mega projects uses a large number of various construction equipments. This group of equipments collectively forms a Fleet.[1] The fleet operations have become complex due to a large number of manufacturers, various capacity and sizes of equipment available which makes the equipment selection a crucial task. After equipment selection the complexity further increases to optimize the size and number construction equipments in the fleet.[2] Moreover large and highly competitive markets for infrastructure projects especially BOT type of contract, enforces the contractors to complete the project as early as possible to start regaining the investments.[3] Fleet Management consist of conceptual sub-components such as equipment selection and assignment, equipment optimization, maintenance, production monitoring, material and position monitoring, etc.[4] * Corresponding Author The scope of this work is limited to equipment optimization and benefit analysis at the site through equipment production analysis. The case selected for the project is a highway construction project where considerable amount earthwork is involved. This project mainly aims to achieve optimum equipment utilization by construction equipment s fleet management.[5] This paper explains, To study the concept of fleet management for construction project and Equipment optimization and benefit analysis. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW According to Saurabh Rajendra Kadam, Prof. Dhananjay S Patil (2013),The main goal of the research is equipment optimization and benefit analysis at the site through equipment production analysis. Large numbers of construction equipment are required on construction site. The efforts of contractors are to constantly push machine capabilities forward. As the array of useful equipment expand, the importance of careful planning and execution of construction equipment s increases. The objective of the project is to predict the fleet production rate and to optimize the number and size of equipment s in the fleet to match the equipment to project situations. Equipment economics is taken into consideration for the optimization. [1]

2 Sujay Dandwate explains that Fleet management can be defined by three basic components: Equipment assignment and optimization, Production monitoring, and Position and material monitoring. Equipment assignment and optimization is the primary reason many construction companies choose to implement fleet management systems in the first place. By enabling the scheduling and assignment of all types of equipment from multiple manufacturers as well as shift change management from a central office location. The second critical element, production monitoring, is the ability to review information on machine cycle time, payload, loading performance and other key operational parameters. [2] Larry Orcutt (7 JUNE 2012) has examine the Division of Equipment the Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) receives and evaluates numerous research problem statements for funding every year. DRI conducts Preliminary Investigations on these problem statements to better scope and prioritize the proposed research in light of existing credible work on the topics nationally and internationally. Online and print sources for Preliminary Investigations include the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and other Transportation Research Board (TRB) programs, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the research and practices of other transportation agencies, and related academic and industry research. [3] The Taxicab, Limousine, and Para transit Foundation explains that Maintenance is a complex activity involving such variants as equipment, statistics, cost administration, productive activity, and business. These variants must be well administered in order to be efficient. In the past, maintenance decisions have been limited to what kind of action to use (corrective or preventive) and to the definition of such variables as best frequency, best predictive technique, and best information organization. Today, due to the changing role of fleet management and maintenance, decisionmakers also must also consider the coordination of the human, physical, logistical, and logical structures of maintenance, which in turn must be combined with previous variables to create an integrated administration. [4] Construction equipment are used in all types of construction work viz highway work, building construction, bridges, dams, tunnels etc. but the fleet management of construction equipment are used in industry very rarely. It has proven its best results in various fields of construction, it is quality improvement technique in construction equipment and which reduces the cost of project as we know the total cost of project is depending on equipment. Position and material monitoring is the third key component. At its most basic level, fleet management is about monitoring equipment location for an entire fleet but beyond that, it also helps to ensure that machines are in the right location and that the amount and type of material they are moving is accurate. The study revealed to analyze performance factors such as dump movement and haul road congestion to boost overall site productivity. 3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS Fleet management can be defined by three basic components of Equipment assignment and optimization, Production monitoring, and Position and material monitoring. Equipment assignment and optimization is the primary reason many construction companies choose to implement fleet management systems in the first place. By enabling the scheduling and assignment of all types of equipment from multiple manufacturers as well as shift change management from a central office location. The second critical element, production monitoring, is the ability to review information on machine cycle time, payload, loading performance and other key operational parameters. Fleet management provides visibility in real time to this kind of data which can be tracked by individual machine or operator, groups of machines, specific sites or an entire fleet enabling miners to make timely changes to improve loading performance and increase payload predictability. Position and material monitoring is the third key component. At its most basic level, fleet management is about monitoring equipment location for an entire fleet but beyond that, it also helps to ensure that machines are in the right location and that the amount and type of material they are moving is accurate. The study revealed to analyze performance factors such as dump movement and haul road congestion to boost overall site productivity Methodology 1. Study the actual composition of fleet at construction site. 2. Equipment optimization by Equipment productivity analysis using performance charts and other parameter such as distance, speed, number of trips, capacity, cycle time etc.

3 3. Study the site layout and site conditions with the planning & designing for current equipment utilization at the site. 4. Perform Benefit analysis by Comparing the actual and optimized fleet performance. 3.1 Equipment assignment and optimization Equipment assignment and optimization is the primary reason many construction companies choose to implement fleet management systems in the first place. By enabling the scheduling and assignment of all types of equipment from multiple manufacturers as well as shift change management from a central office location, fleet management helps minimize unproductive machine wait time and optimize equipment usage on site. 3.2 Production monitoring The second critical element, production monitoring, is the ability to review information on machine cycle time, payload, loading performance and other key operational parameters. Fleet management provides visibility in real time to this kind of data which can be tracked by individual machine or operator, groups of machines, specific sites or an entire fleet enabling fleet managers to make timely changes to improve loading performance and increase payload predictability. 3.3 Position and material monitoring Position and material monitoring The third key component. At its most basic level, fleet management is about monitoring equipment location for an entire fleet but beyond that, it also helps to ensure that machines are in the right location and that the amount and type of material they re moving is accurate. This type of data can be used to alert operators to misroutes before mistakes or safety hazards occur, as well as to analyse performance factors such as dump movement and haul road congestion to boost overall site productivity. 3.4 Fleet Problem and Action Plan The construction of dams, levees, highways, airports, commercial buildings and industrial plants utilize some type of earthmoving operations. Earth-moving is must on every construction site. Moreover all the mining operations include excavation and haulage. Earth-moving operations include excavating, hauling, placing, and compacting. Consider a virtual problem of moving of Aggregate stockpiled at a certain location A to certain location B which is 2 Km away. The total stockpile volume is 10,000 meter cube Equipment Selection The various factors governing equipment selection in earthmoving operations can be summarized as follows: 1) Budget & schedule. 2) Range of total size of work. (i.e. total of amount material to be moved) 3) Material condition. (i.e. if soil weather wet or dry) 4) Distance of soil movement. 5) Hauling road condition (i.e. off highway road or a public road) 6) Digging Depth 7) Working space available. 3.5 Study the actual composition of fleet at construction site Fleet management of Construction Equipment is the application of management techniques and systems in construction to complete projects on budget, on schedule, safely, and according to plans and specifications. The advent of powerful microcomputers, the advances in computer hardware and soft- ware, and their low costs have led to increased utilization of computers in various areas of construction management such as project management, scheduling, cost eliminating, bid markup analysis, accounting, submittal management, equipment management, materials management, and field management. The purpose of the study of composition of fleet at construction site, the equipment management system developed, A FLEET is a collection of four subsystems (modules): 1. Inventory management module. 2. Cost, time, and production records module. 3. Maintenance management module. 4. Report generator module FLEET is developed in D-BASE Relational database management system: 3.6 Equipment Management Practices: As the challenge of selecting, managing, and maintaining the equipment asset becomes more complex and costly every day, effective

4 management of these assets directly fuels the success for business by significantly minimizing direct and indirect costs of equipment while still concurrently ensuring high availability of equipment productivity. Realizing the right practices on equipment management is dependent on where the machines are in their lifecycle. Indeed, equipment management practices can be categorized into four groups: machine acquisition, operations, maintenance, and disposal. Key practices in each particular stage of machine lifecycle include, for example, procurement decision approach (equipment acquisition stage), safety and training programs (equipment operational stage), schedule PM inspection and standby repair-maintenance facilities (equipment maintenance stage), equipment economic life and replacement decisions (equipment disposal stage) Equipment planning: Equipment planning on major construction projects includes besides its selection the decision about working shifts, number and sizes of machines, the matching of units working in a team, procurement schedule and the arrangements of necessary technical staff to operate, service and repair of the equipment. Planning of workshop and stores facilities is also an important aspect of equipment planning. The type and equipment selected usually depends upon soil and valley conditions and upon the characteristics of material to be handled. Whether to use wheeled equipment or track equipment; to use bottom dump or rear dump trucks; to use drag line excavator or power shovel; to use cable ways or cranes and trestles for concrete placement are some of the questions that may have to be answered by the planner of construction equipment after considering soil and valley conditions of construction site. The number and size of machines selected depend upon the magnitude of work, working days available and number of shifts worked in a day Management requirements: Scope of work to be carried out. Use of available equipment. Suitability for job conditions. Size of equipment. Use of standard equipment. Uniformity in type. Unit cost of production. Country of origin. Availability of spare parts. Versatility. Table 1: Inventory Report, FLEET Selection of manufacturer. Suitability of local labour. Adaptability for future use. Technical considerations. Equip. No. (1) Description (2) Manufacturer (3) Purchase price (4) Estimated life (5) 1 Vibrating compactor Deere 15, Sheep foot roller Deere 75, Wheel loader Deere 35, Crawler tractor Deere 65, Tower scraper Cat 50, Off-highway truck Cat 35, Crawler crane Cat 50, Tower crane Cat 70, Risk management: Risk can be defined in a number of ways i) It signifies situations where the actual outcome of an activity or event is likely to deviate from the estimated or forecast value. ii) A working definition of risk would be along the following lines. Taking into consideration external aspects of a project risk can be defined as, Exposure to the possibility of economic and financial loss or gain, physical damages or injury, or delay as a consequence of the uncertainties

5 associated with pursuing a particular course of action. Risk = Probability of event *Magnitude of loss / gain. Risk can also be defined as the coalescence of all the uncertain factors, which shall have a combined negative effect on the objectives of the project Management practice and downtime: 1. Administrative time:- Time required for communication flow from user to manufacturer, time required for commercial formalities, and hours necessary to report a machine failure and give work directions for maintenance; 2. Supply time:- Time when repair is delayed due to non-availability of spare parts and materials necessary to perform maintenance; 3. Active repair:- Time when technicians are working on the equipment to actually commission it including both preventive and corrective maintenance. To minimize the consequential impact of downtime, contractors may opt to seek for substitute equipment, wait until the repair finished, accelerate work pace, modify work schedule, or transfer crews to other works. Heavy equipment practices have been categorized into four significant stages based on machine lifecycles, i.e. acquisition, operations, maintenance and disposal. 3.7 Equipment Maintenance and Repairs The maintenance of construction equipment is also vital to the contractor's success and profitability. The first step in a maintenance management system is a welldeveloped preventive management program. The preventive maintenance file keeps track of the schedule of preventive maintenance for different pieces of equipment and different types of maintenance. 1) Reduce unscheduled equipment downtime. 2) Increase on-shift and overall equipment availability. 3) Increase shop and mechanic efficiency and quality. 4) Pin-point machine deficiencies and initiate improvement. 5) Facilitate warranty requests from a manufacturer or rebuilder. 6) Aid new equipment selection and specification. 7) Improve predictability of inventory demand requirements 4.0 CONCLUSION The system presented is a user-friendly and practice-oriented system and is designed to demonstrate the accessibility of the database management systems. Development, acceptance, and continued use of such systems should contribute to the efficiency and profitability of contractors. FLEET provides this efficient as a foundation to good management practices and policies. More research work is still required in this field, so great scope of research is accessible for new researchers in this field. References [1] Saurabh Rajendra Kadam, Dhananjay S Patil, "CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT FLEET MANAGEMENT - A CASE STUDY" International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 Impact Factor (2013): [2] Sujay Dandwate, Construction Equipment Fleet Management (Civil Engineering Department, D.Y.Patil College of Engineering, Akurdi, Pune-44, India International Journal Of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER). [3] Larry Orcutt, Division of Equipment, National Survey of Equipment Management Practices Preliminary Investigation Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation Produced by CTC & Associates LLC June 7, [4] The Taxicab, Limousine, and Paratransit Foundation "Fleet Management Solutions" By The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis Under Sponsorship from Midwest Transportation Consortium. [5] Douglas D Gransberg, Optimizing Haul Unit Size And Number Based on Loading Facility Characteristics, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 1996, [6] SerjiAmirkhanian and Nancy J. Baker, Expert System for Equipment selection For Earth Moving Operations, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 1992, [7] NipeshPrdhanga and Jochen Teizer, Automatic spatio-temporal analysis of construction site equipment operations using

6 GPS data, Automation in Construction, 2013, [8] Simon D. smith, Earthmoving Production Estimation using Linear Regression Techniques, Journal of Construction engineering and Management, 1999, [9] C William Ibbs and Kenneth R. Tarveer, Integrated Construction Preventive Maintenance System, Journal of Construction engineering and Management, 1984, [10] ThanapanPrasertunganian and B.H.W Hadikasumo, Modeling the Dynamics of Heavy Equipment Management Practices and Downtime in Large Highway Contractors, Journal of Construction engineering and Management, 2009, [11] SaeedKarshenas, Truck Capacity Selection For Earthmoving, Journal of Construction engineering and Management, 1989, [12] Mohamed Marzouk and Osama Moselhi, Multiobjective Optimization of Earthmoving Operations, Journal of Construction engineering and Management, 2004, [13] Peurifoy, Schnexyder, shapira, Construction planning, equipment, methods. [14] V.B. Pandit, Norms for Production of Construction Machinery and Manual La Author s Biography Er.Roshan H.Bhoye obtained Bachelors Degree from Pune University. He is a student appearing for Masters Degree in Civil Engineering at SSGBCOE&T, Bhusawal, India and his area of specialization is Construction Technology and Management. Prof. P. M. Attarde received Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Pune. His area of specialization is in Structural Engineering. He had published 05 research papers in international journals and 10 papers in conferences. He is a life member of various professional bodies.