The construction industry often faces issues on many levels, though most troubles occur from heavy equipment malfunction or untimely maintenance. Though most problems are machine-related, they can affect any construction project’s overall quality and efficiency, hindering timely delivery within the budget. Most construction companies often deploy multiple fleets for multiple projects, making it more challenging to keep track of what every fleet is up to on-site. Lack of visibility into different levels of projects leads to issues that can affect the project delivery and budget.
Some of the top problems faced by heavy equipment in real estate are:
1. Fuel theft
One of the significant problems the real estate construction space faces is fuel pilferage. As a basis of any piece of equipment, fuel costs are carefully considered and budgeted during a project’s planning. Issues like fuel theft and even tampering with fuel tanks can cause loss of resources, decreased logistics performance, budget crossing, and, in some cases, accidents. Fuel thefts also affect the asset functioning as a lack of fuel can cause the equipment to come to a standstill, leading to a slow down in productivity and efficiency.
2. Equipment breakdown and malfunction
Well-maintained machinery and equipment equal to project efficiency. But often, equipment breakdown can hamper project progress on many levels. When there is an equipment breakdown, whether sudden or due to prolonged use, it delays the work done on-site and slows down the entire timeline of the project that must be completed promptly. Secondly, another issue that arises from equipment malfunction is its suddenness and its impact on the budget allocated for the entire project. Untimely maintenance and service can incur extra costs for emergency repairs or replacing some equipment. Malfunction of the equipment is also a threat to the surrounding environment as they can cause ecological degradation and fatal accidents.
3. Improper operator behavior
Productivity issues start when there are operator-based troubles during work hours like leaving the machine idling with the engine on or leaving equipment unmanned or poor attendance at work. Apart from these site-related issues, problems like rash driving, speeding, vehicle or equipment impact, and other grave accidents arise from inadequate equipment training or insufficient supervision of the operators. Monitoring driver behavior can help the management oversee and manage workers based on their idle times, working hours, and attendance. But, the lack of control over remote operations and project can incite these problems as there is no way to know the real-time working apart from manual logging and data collection. This costs the top management level financially and causes delays in project delivery.
4. Overall lack of project management
Lack of total visibility into equipment and operator functioning leads to an inability to oversee all the aspects of the project. This holds for heavy equipment management and maintenance as well. Proper supervision of assets leads to timely care and servicing of the equipment. Without complete control over the equipment functions and status, it is challenging to know their current working status, how they are affecting the surrounding from their presence, and being able to provide emergency aid in case of sudden breakdown.
Conclusion:
Heavy equipment problems can affect the overall productivity and efficiency of the project, causing unprecedented delays and extra expenses. IoT integration into these assets can help offset these issues by providing granular visibility into the equipment’s real-time status and supervising operator behavior to help create comprehensive solutions.
Tor Loco is an end-to-end IoT solution that enables you and your heavy equipment to work smarter and sustainably to meet your project goals.
