How to Better Manage Your Construction Equipment and Improve Worksite Productivity

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In construction, there is never enough machinery and heavy construction equipment. These are essential because they allow people to work and build incredible projects. However, worksite productivity and efficiency have always been suboptimal for the most part. Many construction companies have struggled for a long time with managing worksite operations effectively. 

Luckily, those worries are a thing of the past. New technology offers management solutions that help everyone in the entire organization. This is usually done through effective equipment asset management, which is a process of handling all of the assets of a construction company while tracking and eliminating any risk factors along the way. 

This means easier and more productive work for the on-site operators, easier tracking for construction site managers, and better decision-making for top-level company owners. This brings about a load of other amazing benefits as well. Here is everything you need to know about modern construction site management trends used for improving worksite productivity. 

Provide effective training 

Yes, heavy machinery makes a lot of incredible things possible in the construction industry. However, this cannot go without skillful hard-working employees. Heavy machines are very expensive and dangerous. That is why you should invest more into adequate worker training. Everyone must be on the same page in order to avoid situations where a person who doesn’t have complete training has to operate a brand-new crane. This is by far the least productive use of their time and labor. In addition to that, skimping on proper training is a massive risk factor for your business as many people can get injured or even suffer fatal consequences. 

Comprehensive training is not just about letting a person simply get used to the environment. In fact, it is a serious and well-structured process. That is why it should include: regular worksite monitoring of possible risks, equipment maintenance, and inspection keeping the program updated, emphasizing safety and efficiency over speed, and encouraging communication.  

Encourage information exchange

There is no doubt that front-line workers know the most about what is going on. As much as this is the manager’s job, the information is already stale by the time it reaches them. That is why the optimal scenarios should include encouraging the workers to communicate at all times about essential changes happening on the site. This can be done more efficiently by implementing a good communication system where the staff knows when and who to talk to. 

Digitally track your equipment

All these concepts are well worth implementing, however standard methods so far have been inefficient. This is simply because people didn’t have access to actual real-time data. This is especially useful now that projects are becoming more and more complex and the equipment used is much more specialized than it used to be. 

Using Internet of Things (IoT) technology allows people not only to operate the machinery much more safely and easily but to also maintain the equipment in perfect condition. Powerful construction equipment maintenance software allows people to track the status of the machines in real-time so that they can make important decisions much sooner. In the long run, this keeps your machinery functioning optimally. 

construction equipment
Photo by Roger Brown: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-front-loader-at-construction-site-5125783/

Schedule maintenance

One surefire way to eliminate any injury or fatality risk factors on a construction site is to perform routine maintenance. This is also a leading factor in extending the life of your equipment. As a bonus, your employees will be much more satisfied knowing that they have fully functional equipment that is safe to use. 

Regular maintenance should include changing oil filters, undercarriage cleaning, replacing parts according to official factory specifications, tire rotation, and performing pressure checks. These things are going to keep your machines functioning well for a long time. Luckily digital management solutions can help here too since you will have a clear priority list when performing maintenance. 

Minimize downtime

Keeping downtime to a minimum is also a major concern when it comes to boosting overall productivity. However, every good business owner knows that nothing always goes exactly according to plan. In these cases, downtime is inevitable, in which case the only thing you can control is how you use that period of time. 

For instance, you can conduct inventory assessments, check in with your clients, perform maintenance, provide training, handle equipment cleaning and finish up important paperwork. It is worth keeping a to-do list of tasks in scenarios like these so that people know what to do during downtime.  

Final comments

Running a successful construction company comes down to optimally managing construction equipment. There are several things you can do to increase productivity when using your equipment: provide effective training, encourage communication between workers, track your equipment using powerful software, schedule maintenance and make the most out of downtime.