IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT DOWNTIME ON CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Abstract

Equipment plays a very important role in construction industry as it allows for speedy completion of project. As sites are becoming more and more equipment intensive, it is necessary to have an equipment management policy which keeps the equipment in acceptable condition. Breakdown of equipment can cause huge cost to the contractors and delay the schedule. Literature review on breakdown of equipment and its impact has brought out lot of issues in construction industry. Concreting process at residential tower site was observed to understand the working of equipment. Batching plant and Concrete pump were identified as two of the critical equipment at site. Concrete pump had a very high breakdown rate in comparison to other concreting equipment. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) on equipment breakdown showed that failure of electrical nature posed higher risk than any other failure in batching plant. Similarly, in concrete pump choking of concrete in steel pipes were given a high risk priority. Analysis of working hours of equipment showed that transit mixer and pumping equipment worked in a specific proportion to the batching plant working hours in a given site. Consequential cost for breakdown of batching plant was found to be twenty four times the cost re- ported at site. Maintenance policy of equipment was analysed to understand issues in data collection and accounting methods at site.