Managing heavy equipment on engineering sites

When it comes to engineering equipments, they often vary in size. While some pieces of equipment are light and portable, most of heavy equipments are massive and not even close to being easily maintained. These equipments are designed to complete the most difficult construction operations, and it is easy to understand that a team of specialists needs to make sure each of these machines will be capable of performing its task without any issues. Heavy equipment management refers to a type of a business which includes selection, optimization, proper usage and overall maintenance of the machinery involved in the project. The main goal of managing equipments is to ensure that the right equipment is selected for any job that needs to be done, as well as to keep it functional at all times. This process begins by identifying and choosing the appropriate equipment for the project.

A heavy equipments manager, the leader of the heavy equipment management team, will start his work by creating a list, which will contain all of the crucial equipment needed to complete a project. A

fter that, he will consult the purchasing personnel in order to establish the company’s standards. His main concern will be choosing the best quality equipment, evaluating its performance, checking to see if it will be durable, and finally, if the price is reasonable. The heavy equipment manager has a duty to offer useful insight when it comes to renting engineering equipments for short term projects. It will be his job to suggest the best quality brands with a detailed explanation. If the heavy equipments in question were not rented, but purchased for a long term use, heavy equipment management teams have a new task: Maintenance. The team needs to organize a schedule to ensure the equipment will be maintained properly and that it will always be in an optimal condition. Their job is to organize inspections, regularly replace any of the liquids the equipment might use (oil, gasoline, etc.) and to check if any components of the machinery need to be replaced. This is a very delicate part of the work and it must be done impeccably. Even the slightest oversight can cause heavy issues with the completion of the project ultimately delaying it because a crucial part of equipment has malfunctioned and needs to be repaired before the work can be continued.

Another vital function of heavy equipment management is allocation. If there are several projects that need to access several machines, and they are located farther from one another, the heavy equipment management team needs to make sure that every project can use the equipment exactly when they need it. This can be difficult, especially if both projects require the same equipment. However, the creativity of the heavy equipment management team is tested in these situations, and they are often coming up with schedules that allow both projects to access the equipment and function without any distractions. Coming up with a schedule which distributes the equipment properly allows multiple projects to be completed on time.