Construction Equipment Management through Selection, Maintenance and Replacement Practice

Abstract

Effective equipment management is a critical success factor for any construction firm to sustain in the industry. In construction equipment management, the equipment selection, maintenance and replacement are the main key areas of attention. Conventional processes of equipment management and bias decisions of equipment managers often result significant losses in construction firms. Inefficient usage of consequential cost in equipment management seriously diminishes the effectiveness of selection, maintenance and replacement decisions of construction firms. It is found in the study that; majority of Sri Lankan construction firms acquire the construction equipment either from leases or loans. Frequency of equipment usage is identified as the main criterion considered when making the decision, whether to hire or buy equipment. It was generally identified that; companies incorporated scheduled preventive maintenance policies and corrective maintenance policies in construction equipment maintenance. Periodic maintenance is found to be an important practice in equipment maintenance. In the event of equipment failures, it was found that location of the equipment and waiting for spares are the most significant causes for reported downtime. Delays of construction due to equipment breakdowns is the foremost reason to dispose construction equipment. Effective application of consequential costs like downtime costs of equipment management, would certainly improve the construction equipment management processes.