Heavy vehicle fleet management has advanced by leaps and bounds in the latest decades of constant technological advancements. Critical, data-driven KPIs are being developed, which will result in better time planning and supervision. Heavy equipment fleet management has grown less difficult as telematics, a branch of information technology concerned with long-distance information transmission, has evolved.
An efficient heavy equipment fleet management software keeps projects on track. In this article, we’ll look at recommended practices for heavy equipment fleet management, as well as the challenges associated with it.
What Is Heavy Equipment Fleet Management?
The practice of planning, controlling, and supervising heavy fleet assets in order to improve and optimize business operations is known as heavy equipment fleet management. Fleet vehicles, operators, dispatchers, and other stakeholders are all included.
Heavy equipment fleet management provides businesses with insight and control over their fleet operations, allowing them to better understand and optimize these critical business functions. It entails using numerous tools and software to plan, direct, supervise, and report on the fleet vehicle and operator activities.
In a nutshell, it is
- Heavy Equipment Tracking
- Route Optimization
- Operator Guidance and Supervision
- Data Gathering and Reporting
These responsibilities are carried out both offline and online through various modes of data collection and record-keeping. The manner in which these obligations are carried out differs from business to company; however, due to new restrictions, more and more fleet companies are adopting a paperless approach.
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What Are The Challenges Associated With Heavy Equipment Maintenance In Different Industries?
Heavy equipment or construction fleet management is not as easy as it appears! Because an organization has a large number of assets and equipment that must be managed! You will confront various equipment management issues, which we will go through below!
- Scope for Human Errors
When you work manually, you increase your chances of making mistakes. If there are any inaccuracies in the data while entering it, the data’s efficiency will suffer. Many firms use spreadsheets for data entry since they are free and they wish to save money.
Spreadsheets are prone to errors. When counting inventory, you must guarantee that you have reliable data because manual inventory counts or equipment counts might be time-consuming.
- Maintenance Costs
Because maintenance expenditures are expensive, maintenance costs have always been a concern for all enterprises. Although routine maintenance is costly, when it is not performed on assets, it becomes more costly. Another reason is unexpected equipment failure. When equipment fails, it must be restored promptly, which is why they are expensive.
- Equipment Tracking
Trying to keep track of equipment is one of the most typical equipment management difficulties. When equipment is relocated from one area to another, the chances of theft and misplacement increase. When equipment is missing or lost, daily operations suffer, and productivity falls.
- Deploying a Regular Maintenance Strategy
Assets and equipment are constantly being moved, especially in industries like construction. Equipment that does heavy work must be maintained; otherwise, not only will maintenance costs rise, but everyday operations will be disrupted, and the project will be delayed.
So, periodic heavy equipment maintenance is necessary! It minimizes the chances of unexpected equipment breakdown and makes assets more dependable. The first step in introducing a new maintenance strategy is determining which maintenance planning system will be helpful to your business.
What Are The Pitfalls Of Inefficient Heavy Equipment Management?
It’s easy to grasp the importance of heavy equipment fleet management when you consider the pitfalls of handling it poorly. So in this section, we will discuss the downfalls of poor heavy equipment fleet management.
- Lower ROI
Construction equipment can be costly to buy, store, and maintain. The vehicle never receives planned maintenance as a result of inadequate construction equipment management methods.
As a result, it becomes increasingly wasteful and decreases job site production. When it inevitably fails, the cost of maintenance is significantly more than it would have been with regular maintenance. The total cost of inadequacies and expensive repairs may exceed any economic gain derived from the truck’s operation.
- Project Delays
Equipment that is not where it should be is one of the most evident signs of inadequate management. Consider personnel on the job site spending time on low-priority activities while waiting for equipment to arrive in order to keep the project on track. This is a massive waste of resources. While in transit, the equipment is not providing economic value. Instead, as the project stalls, monetary value is being destroyed.
- Incomplete Financial Reporting
Businesses must assess whether their resources might be better invested elsewhere. However, with inefficient construction equipment fleet management, this is extremely difficult to determine.
Attaching and tracking the cost of ownership of equipment is an important element of asset management. This enables businesses to make informed decisions on equipment scheduling and further investments.
Practices To Further Leverage Your Heavy Equipment Management Software
- Analyze Depreciation
Not all instruments function in the same way. As a result, they require personalized attention in order to function at their best. To guarantee that your organization gets the most out of its funding, create a plan for tracking tool depreciation. This is simple to accomplish with the assistance of heavy equipment fleet management software.
This program will allow you to capture depreciation rates so that scheduling service sessions is easier. Precautionary techniques allow you to reduce the likelihood of unexpected breakdowns while increasing the overall effectiveness of work operations.
- Information Database
The majority of businesses underestimate the value of a database. When large sums of capital are at stake, it is absolutely critical that you save and record all business activity. This is possible with heavy machinery maintenance software. This program, as a beneficial addition to your organization, allows you to produce service tickets for all of your maintenance events.
This essentially implies that you can keep track of any additional information required to plan repair and servicing appointments. To operate effective management processes, use a single source of information to access a wide range of data!
- Forecast Maintenance Schedules
Having heavy equipment maintenance software makes this easier because it allows you to record the history of all maintenance-related tasks. Assume you performed a service session for some assets. If you constantly update your system on comparable incidents, you will have created a thorough database by the end of the year.
This database can then be edited to generate a report on changes in equipment service trends. Such proactive activities enable your firm to supplement its strengths in order to boost efficiency.
FAQ
How to build a heavy equipment maintenance checklist?
There could be more than one sort of a checklist in your maintenance plan. You may discover that you have everyday checklists, bimonthly checklists, pre-start checklists, closure checklists, and usage-based checklists. Your routine maintenance checklist must always be built around the instructions in your equipment’s manual.
What features does the best construction equipment management software have?
The best construction equipment management software must have the following features:
- Sole focus on providing construction-related solutions
- Ensure all your assets are supported on the platform
- Maintenance alerts and schedules must be available
What is an equipment fleet?
A fleet consisting of heavy equipment is usually referred to as an equipment fleet.