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Volume-7, Issue-2, March-April 2017

International Journal of Engineering and Management Research
Page Number: 18-23

Analysis of Equipment Maintenance Operation and Repair in a

Construction Industry
Premjith.S.P1, Monisha Manoharan2
1
PG Student, Sivaji College of Engineering and Technology, Manivila, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
2
Assistant Professor, Sivaji College of Engineering and Technology, Manivila, Tamil Nadu, INDIA

ABSTRACT of the construction cost in a project (in tune of 10 to 30

Machinery and equipment which have become an percent of total project cost depending upon the extent of
integral part of any construction activity and plants and mechanization), has to be maintained to turn the project
machinery now constitute a substantial portion of the into a profit making center for any organization. And also
construction cost in a project(in tune of 10 to 30 percentage of because the cost of maintenance of any equipment is in
total project cost depending up on the extent of
tune of 200 to 250 percent of cost of equipment it has
mechanization), has to be maintained to turn the project in to
a profit making centre for any organization And also because become imperative for going in for maintaining the
the cost of maintenance of any equipment is in tune of 200 to equipment during its expected life cycle.
250 percentage of cost of equipment it has become imperative Equipment maintenance is a science because it
for going in for maintaining the equipment during its involves scientific and technical knowhow of different
expected life cycle. Equipment maintenance is a science machineries involved, and it is an art because for identical
because it involves scientific and technical know how of problem it may require different treatment or action or
different machineries involved, and it is an art because for process. We need equipment’s for technical and speedy
identical problem it may require different treatment or action construction and at the same time for economical.
or process. We need equipment for technical and speedy
construction and at the same time for economical and timely
Reactive maintenance
completion of project. The objective of this thesis is to study Reactive maintenance is basically the "run it till it
the various maintenance management practices that are breaks" maintenance mode. No actions or efforts are taken
currently being employed by large construction sector and to to maintain the equipment as the designer originally
identify the best practices for effective maintenance intended, either to prevent failure or to ensure that the
management. This study will help to understand the designed life of the equipment is reached. Reactive
maintenance phenomenon and factors responsible for better maintenance is still predominant mode of maintenance in
efficiency and less operating cost of owning and operating by the Indian construction scenario.
reducing the down time of equipment. The breakdown of the maintenance program as
followed in India:
Keywords-- Profit, Machinery, Software a) 67 percent Reactive
b) 31 percent Preventive
c) 2 percent Predictive
I. INTRODUCTION The advantages are
o Has lower initial costs
With the advent of heavy construction o Requires Fewer Staff
equipment and the approach of large construction company
The disadvantages are
of converting the construction sector to a more mechanized
o Increases costs due to unplanned downtime of
and in turn an organized sector has made it mandatory for
equipment
maintaining the fleet of equipment to perform to its
o Increases labor costs, especially if overtime is needed
optimum.
Since machinery and equipment which have for untimely repairs or replacement
become an integral part of any construction activity and o May increase costs associated with repair or
plants and machinery now constitute a substantial portion replacement of equipment

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o May result in possible secondary equipment or process MODEL

damage from equipment failures Mechanical equipment used on process plants can
o Is an inefficient use of staff resources? be categorized into two main types, namely static and
Predictive Maintenance rotating equipment. A brief survey at a number of
A predictive maintenance approach strives to chemical process plants indicated that a number of
detect the onset of equipment degradation and to address maintenance strategies exist and are used for rotating
the problems as they are identified. This allows casual equipment. However, some of these strategies are not
stressors to be eliminated or controlled, prior to any directly applicable to static equipment, although the risk-
significant deterioration in the physical state of the based inspection (RBI) methodology has been developed
component or equipment. This leads to both current and for pressure vessels. A generalized risk-based maintenance
future functional capabilities. strategy for all types of static equipment does not currently
Predictive maintenance techniques provide data exist. This paper describes the development of an
that define required servicing and inspection periods so optimized model of inspection methodologies,
that maintenance departments can determine in advance maintenance strategies, and risk management principles
when equipment must be shut down for overhaul. Statistics that are generically applicable for static equipment. It
are proving that these programs, when properly enables maintenance managers and engineers to select an
implemented, can minimize equipment and system applicable maintenance strategy and inspection
breakdowns, resulting in a major reduction in total methodology, based on the operational and business risks
maintenance and operating costs. posed by the individual pieces of equipment.
Six major diagnostic tools in predictive- Based on the results obtained from the case
maintenance program on a regularly scheduled basis. studies, it is concluded that the newly-developed model
o Oil and Wear Particle Analysis can be applied to static equipment to establish an
o Vibration Analysis applicable maintenance strategy and approach, as well as
o Infrared Thermograph applicable inspection methodologies
o Electrical Testing 2.2 SELECTION CRITERIA FOR EQUIPMENT
Today’s construction projects are highly
o Ultrasonic/Acoustic
mechanized and becoming more so every day. With the
o Process Variables/Inspection/Non-Destructive
growing industrialization of construction work, the role of
The advantages are onsite equipment and machineries is vital in achieving
o Provides increased component operational life and productivity and efficiency. During the construction phase,
availability selection of right equipment has always been a key factor
o Allows for preemptive corrective actions in the success of any construction project. This decision is
o Results in decrease in equipment and/or process typically made by matching equipment available in a fleet
downtime with the tasks at hand. Such analysis accounts for
o Lowers costs for parts and labor equipment productivity, equipment capacity, and cost.
o Provides better product quality However, the emerging notion of sustainability in
o Improves worker and environmental safety construction has emphasized energy conservation,
o Raises worker morale efficiency, green environment, economy and human
o Increases energy savings wellbeing.
The disadvantages are In this context, selecting the most appropriate
o Increases investment in diagnostic equipment equipment from the available options is highly
o Increases investment in staff training challenging. Therefore, this paper aims to determine a
o Savings potential is readily seen by management selection criteria based on the fundamental concept of
Preventive maintenance refers to a series of sustainability and provides an assessment framework. A
actions that are performed on either a time-based schedule questionnaire survey was conducted among a classified
or a schedule based on that of machine-run time. These group of Malaysiance
actions are designed to detect, preclude, or mitigate 2.3 SELECTION OF HILLY ROAD CONSTRUCTION
degradation of a system (or its components). The goal of a EQUIPMENTS
preventive maintenance approach is to minimize system Major Virender Singh Phogat, AjitPratap Singh
and component degradation and thus sustain or extend the Planning and construction of a road in hilly region is very
useful challenging which involves complex processes such as
reconnaissance and survey to fix the alignment, formation
work and construction of various layers of pavement. It
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE has always been a daunting task for implementing agencies
to select proper equipments effectively during construction
2.1 DIFFERENT MAINTAINANCE STRATEGY of a road by taking into consideration of both tangible and

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intangible factors so as to maximize the benefits of the Advantages of using machines

limited resources. An application of five multi-criteria O Use of machines helps in speedy construction
decision making (MCDM) techniques to a typical selection and thereby the project facility starts to give returns earlier
of equipment’s used for hilly road construction is as compared to manual construction, which consumes
presented. Three criteria representing earthwork much more time.
operations, operational efficiency and convenience of o Economic considerations of early completion such as
manager have been considered with six sub criteria each reduction in overheads, less escalation etc.
for selection of seven different 13 o Machines are capable of handling tough work and can be
Construction equipment alternatives .Five MCDM expected with a fair degree of effectiveness.
techniques: o Where the work involved includes large quantities to be
handled for long distances, machines work out to be
III. METHODOLOGY cheaper.
o Machine’s performance can be assessed more accurately
1. site visit than that of
2. Preparation of data the human resource and thereby adherence to schedules is
3. Conducting Interview easier.
4. Analysis of data o Use of mechanical equipment has long range benefit in
5. Compoison of required data creating technical know-how and skilled workmen who
6. Result and Conclusion could prove assets in the country’s technical development.
o Use of indigenous machines reflects on the
IV. EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT IN manufacturing industry and faster industrialization of the
country.
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Disadvantages of using machines
o Use of equipment results in dependence for supply of
Equipments are main assets of a company in spare parts and specialists services of manufacturers. The
today’s scenario with increase in infrastructure, heavy non-availability of these things causes downtime and
demand with increase in complexity of construction plant financial losses by way of lost working time.
and equipment has become integral part of every project. o Often the overall cost of working of machines has been
In construction, plant and equipment contribute a great found to be more than the first estimates showed. Some
deal towards speed, quality, safety and efficiency of a machines consume spare parts costing as much as 200
project. percent of original estimates.
The mechanization began to show up in the o Sometimes the delay caused in procurement, trans-
1960's in construction projects. Initially, government shipment, installation and commissioning may be more
bodies such as Ministry of Surface Transport (MOST) and than offset the gain in time expected as a result of using
Public Works Department (PWD) imported equipments equipment.
and hired them out to contractors for execution of works. o The disposal of the equipment profitably after
The market was accordingly limited in scope. In the completion of a project may prove difficult, resulting in
1980's, the projects began to be increasingly granted on capital loss to the project. Similarly, disposal of large
turnkey basis. Project sizes also became larger and external quantities of spare parts for obsolete models may pose
funding agencies started mandating the use of appropriate serious problems.
equipments for works funded by them. Gradually, one of
the criteria for pre-qualification of contractors became the
ownership of equipments. Faster project execution IV. GROWTH OF CONSTRUCTION
required state-of-the-art equipment. The average unit cost EQUIPMENTS IN INDIA
of construction equipment in the construction works
became around 15 to 20 percent. India had only a few construction equipment, in
the pre-independence period. The equipment was used for
V. ADVANTAGES AND the first time in construction in India in 1913 and it was a
steam driven crane. Later equipment like draglines and
DISADVANTAGES OF USING shovels were used in the construction of Sind Barrage
EQUIPMENTS Canal System. A gasoline tractor was used as a hauling
unit in the year 1930-33. The first known ownership of
The construction planning and execution is a construction equipment by a contractor was in 1937. There
synthesis if speed, safety, efficiency economy, and the use were only 23 machines of total value of Rs.25.28 lakhs
of equipment offer some advantages. However there are with Irrigation Department and contractors all over India.
some severe handicaps with the usage of equipment, The gross value of equipment used in India also increased
especially in developing countries. since independence. In 1950, India had 95 machines
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valued at Rs.0.421 cores, in 1960 it had 934machines Equipment selection analysis considers various
valued at Rs.12 cores, in 1970 it went up to 643 machines factors but not necessarily limited to the above mentioned.
valued Rs.21 cores and in 1979 it was 16048 machines It leads to alternatives for acquiring the required
valued Rs.297.5 cores. Of these l6048 machines, 1494 equipment. It is then for the management to make decision
numbers valued at Rs.26.35 cores were owned by private after careful consideration of all the facts. In most cases
companies, 7134 machines valued Rs.132.73 cores were the final equipment selection decision is likely to be a
owned by State Governments and the remaining by the compromise between what is ideally required and what can
Central Government. Out of the total stock of equipment in actually be obtained economically.
1979, 74 percent of equipment by value was imported and
these were mostly excavators, tractors, dumpers, scrapers, VII. DATA COLLECTION AND
graders and loaders. Equipment like cranes, locomotives, ANALYSIS
belt conveyors, vibratory rollers, forklifts and pile driving
equipment were imported even though indigenous stock DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
was in hand. Some equipment like cableways, rocker PLANNING FOR CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
shovels, ditchers and trenchers, asphalt distribution, paver Equipment planning on major construction
finishers and spreaders were totally imported. Thus, the projects includes besides its selection, the decision about
import component of construction equipment in India working shifts, number and size of machines, the matching
remained high till 1979. Rapid indigenization took place of units working in a team, procurement schedule and the
thereafter. The domestic production of construction arrangement of necessary technical staff to operate, service
equipment reached nearly USD 1.9 billion in 2000, from and repair of the equipment. Planning of workshop and
the previous year's output of USD 1.6 billion. store facilities is also an important aspect of equipment
The expanding construction market is pushing up planning.
the production of technologically advanced machinery in The type of equipment selected for removal of
India. Currently Indian firms manufacture a limited range soil usually depends upon soil and valley conditions and
of construction equipment. Major construction equipment upon the characteristics of material to be handled. The
manufacturing companies are Bharat Earth Movers number and size of machines selected depend upon the
Limited (BEML), Heavy Engineering Corporation, magnitude of work, working days available and number of
Hindustan Motors (HM), Larsen and Turbo (L & T), shifts worked in a day. Size matching of all equipments
Escorts JCB, Ingersoll Rand etc. Other prominent working in a group is vital. The procurement plan must be
manufacturers of construction equipment in the mid in line with the construction schedule. Also, planned with
segment are Condequip, Alien Build well, Gujarat equipment procurement should be the spare parts for it and
Apollo, Ashok Engineering, Leo Road Equipment, and supplies of fuels, oils, lubricants etc. for its operation.
Jaypee etc. Many of these companies have technical Suitable service facilities are vital to realize the planned
collaboration with foreign firms. The growth of output rate of equipments. Availability of operation and
construction equipment by values during the period 1940- maintenance staff having adequate quality and number for
2000 is taken from ―Construction Equipment Industry in the operation of equipment is essential to obtain full
India‖ production. The use of mathematical models of the
o Maintainability: operation of equipment can be used for planning and
o Ease of repair and maintenance. selection of construction equipment
o Vendors after sales and service, repairs, spares and Equipment planning shall include the following
maintenance. aspects.
o Availability of spare parts. o Selection of equipment.
o Standardization consideration. o Number and sizes of units.
Economic Considerations o Matching capacities.
o Owning costs. o Schedule of procurement.
o Operating costs. o Arrangement of skilled staff for operation and
o Re-sale or residual value after use. maintenance.
o Replacement costs of existing equipment. o Establishment of service and repair facilities.
o Unit cost of production. o Maintenance of spare parts inventory.
Commercial Considerations o Decision regarding number of shifts per operation.
o Use of available equipment. A systematic approach in respect of planning for
o Buy second-hand or new equipment. equipment is necessary, incorporating all the factors
o Rent equipment. detailed above. In addition an important factor to be
o Hire-purchase equipment. considered is the necessary inter-disciplinary acceptance of
o Purchase or lease. the planning for equipment. In a majority of the cases a
Civil Engineer may head project whereas the construction
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equipment management will demand close liaison with IX. FAILURE MODE EFFECT
mechanical and electrical engineers. It will be prudent to ANALYSIS (FMEA) AS A TOOL
have detailed consultations among the disciplines before
the final choice of the equipment. FORCARRYING OUT MAINTENANCE
COST
VIII. SELECTION OF EQUIPMENT
INTRODUCTION TO FAILURE MODE EFFECTS
A contractor is frequently confronted with the ANALY
problem of the selection of the most suitable equipment as Create severity, occurrence, and detection ratings.
he plans to execute the project. Once the failure mode has been defined and the
potential effects of failure have been determined, the team
LIST OF EQUIPMENTS IN THE CORDIAL GROUP must assess the severity, occurrence and detection of
failures and give those aspects numeric ratings. Severity
means how serious the failure will be. Give it a rating from
one to ten, where ten is the most severe failure.
In the same way, you rate the occurrence of
failure - how frequently you see the failure. Detection
indicates how easily that fault or failure can be detected.
The detection scale is the reverse of the other 2 scales,
with 1 being the easiest or most detected and 10 being the
hardest or most difficult to detect. Obviously, for this
rating system to work, its vital that all team members
understand what constitutes a failure. Each potential effect
of failure is given a severity, occurrence and detection
rating. Those numbers are multiplied to produce a Risk
Priority Number (RPN).
Example: One potential failure is that a worker
gets his arm cut off in a 60 A FMEA is a stable and
seasoned design tool, Often called a Failure Mode Study,
this design and maintenance engineering tool has existed
and matured for some time, as engineers try to figure out
why a machine unexpectedly broke down or how a part
slowly came out of tolerance.
By contrast, FMEA is a formal process that
allows in-house experts to concentrate on failures and fix
them. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is important
because it focuses on failures and potential problems. If it's
done early enough in the process, we can anticipate
LIST OF EQUIPMENTS IN THE TRINITY GROUP problems and engineer them out of the system. And the
earlier you catch potential failures, the more money you
save.

X. CONCLUSION
Software can be developed to enhance the
efficiency of the Failure model analysis (FMEA). For the
present study only four parameters are considered for
analyzing modes and defects of failure. But software is
used for the analysis more parameters can be used in the
analysis. There by level of risk of failure can be reduced
and more saving in the cost of maintenance can be
achieved
a) Both the companies followed a combination of
preventive maintenance and breakdown maintenance.

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b) On an average ( considering a group of 9 equipments) it [5] Deodhar.S.V, construction equipment and job planning –
is found that utility of Cordial was 13.76 percent more than khanna publishers, 2.
Trinity information modeling) technology’,Automation in
c) On an average (considering a group of 9 equipments) it Construction 35 (2013) 285–295
is found that total expenditure on maintenance of Cordial [6] Ibrahim Motawa, Kate Carter, ‘Sustainable BIM-based
is 33.14 percent more than that Of Trinity. Evaluation of Buildings’.
d) For maintenance of plants such as hot mix ,batching [7] Abdulsame Fazlia, Sajad Fathia, Mohammad
plant, crushing plant rather than simply relying on HadiEnferadi , MayramFazlib, BehroozFathic,’Appraising
preventive maintenance a better option is to effectiveness of Building Information Management (BIM)
go in for a combination of breakdown (minimum, in project management’,Procedia Technology 16 (2014)
percent),preventive predictive(maximum percent) 1116 – 1125
maintenance also known as reliability centered
maintenance.
e) From the analysis it is found that Cordial are in a better
position as compared to Trinity in optimizing equipment
utility, usage and total maintenance cost.

RECOMMENDATIONS
a) Breakdown maintenance should be avoided as far as
possible.
b) A combination of Preventive maintenance and
predictive maintenance will give better results for
equipment.
c) Reliability centered maintenance should be followed for
maintenance of plants.
d) Proper manpower planning and maintenance scheduling
synchronized with optimum utilization should be aimed at
for improving interdepartmental conflicts.
f) FEMA can effectively use to find out in advance the
failure modes and hence precautionary measures can be
taken.
g) In a tower crane risk priority number is more for
improper inspection and improperly trained operator.
h) In a motor grader risk priority number is more for
improperly trained operators, which indicates that the
operator must be trained properly.
i) In a concrete-mixer risk priority number is more for
adjustments and repairs not done by a competent
designated person.
Thus failures vary for each equipment due to RPN value.
Thus RPN plays a vital role for each equipment failures.

REFERENCES
[1] Campbell D. H, Construction Equipment Management,
Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, 1974.
[2] J.K. Visserand J. Jordaan, A maintenance strategy
model for static equipment using inspection methodologies
and risk management
[3] M.Waris, Mohd. ShahirLiew, Mohd. FarisKhamidi,
AraziIdrus, Criteria for the selection of sustainable on site
construction equipment
[4] Chitkara .K.K, construction project management–
planning, scheduling ,controlling Tata McGraw-
Hill,NewDelhi,1997.
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