Construction only grows more complex each passing year, if not each quarter. As these complexities increase and timelines grow tighter, the management of resources becomes increasingly important. Equipment makes up some of the most valuable assets in this category. These items are not only expensive to purchase but also to maintain. Studies show that the maintenance of construction equipment plays a role in about 40% of total project overrun costs.

Broken equipment has a domino effect on projects, leading to downtime, additional expenses, and frustrated owners. Putting more effort into planning the management of your equipment and its maintenance can improve project and financial outcomes. 

Fortunately, prioritizing construction equipment management has proven to pay off. Today, we’ll take a look at what successful equipment management looks like and the innovations to make the management process much more efficient. 

What Is Construction Equipment Management?

As you probably guessed, construction equipment management refers to the administration of equipment used on construction projects. At a more detailed level, the practice encompasses the review of the equipment, its costs, and usage. 

Construction managers want to ensure that the cost of the equipment pays off in the long run. Besides the cost of the equipment itself, there are expenses associated with operation, maintenance, usage, and storage. Construction managers study this information alongside upcoming and current projects to inform decision-making. Ultimately, the goal of these decisions is to generate the highest possible ROI. 

Tips for Effective Equipment Management

Your construction equipment management system will vary depending on your needs. However, here are some key tips to making your system a success::

Determine the Right Tracking Workflows

To manage construction equipment successfully, start by establishing the right tracking workflows. This information should be used to drive decisions made by project managers, professional engineers, superintendents, owners, inspectors, etc. 

Basically, you need insights to determine in real time if:

• The right equipment has been delivered
• The equipment has been installed
• The equipment has been inspected
• The appropriate data has been collected

With the right tracking workflows in place, this information can also be harnessed for more efficient handover and operations. 

Set Up a Preventative Maintenance Program

Next, prioritize maintenance. Preventative maintenance is essential to extending the life of your equipment and avoiding costly repairs. As MacAllister puts it, “Preventive maintenance is more than regular maintenance like lubricating moving parts and changing filters. A proper preventive maintenance (PM) program is all-inclusive. It’s an intentional approach to equipment management from the time equipment is purchased until the end of its useful life.”

PM programs take action before wear and tear lead to major expenses or equipment failure. Through regular inspections, part replacement, testing, and analysis, you can improve the reliability, performance, and resale value of your fleet. 

Create Collaborative Communications Plans for Equipment

Your frontline workers are the ones most likely to identify issues with equipment or delivery. For optimal usage, your team needs to be notified when equipment is on-site, on its way, or if any changes take place. By creating a collaborative communications plan, this information can get in the right hands at the right time. 

The benefits of this type of plan for construction equipment management include:

• Proactively addressing damages, repairs, and delays
• Preventing people from using inoperable or damaged equipment
• Facilitating ordering of parts

Be sure to integrate cloud-based construction technology into your communications plan; that way, you can collaborate with stakeholders in real time and have a single source of information. 

Monitor Your Equipment Smartly

Managing a fleet can make it difficult to know where your equipment is at all times. The same is true for scheduling maintenance across multiple items. IoT sensors can help to reduce the manual nature of monitoring equipment and planning maintenance.

According to Leverege, construction equipment managers can leverage IoT technology to:

• Track equipment status and utilization
• Identify the location and status of equipment in real time
• Get instant notifications when equipment is moved off-site
• Monitor engine runtime

Benefits of Successful Construction Equipment Management 

Setting up an equipment management system takes time. You might be wondering, “Is it really worth the effort?”

The answer, of course, depends on the benefits received by the system. You can expect to achieve the following advantages from successful equipment management:

• Better visibility into where equipment is located, its status, and how it’s being used.
• Fewer delays and cost overruns. With real-time information at their fingertips, teams can make quick decisions about how to use equipment. 
• Better safety standards as the equipment is kept up-to-date and maintained.
• Less downtime as equipment can be used as soon as it’s available. 
• Reduced expenses in the form of costly repairs and project overtime. 
• Cohesive data to help inform decisions about retiring, selling, or upgrading assets. 

The Top Technology for Construction Equipment Management 

As managers look for ways to improve the efficiency of their construction equipment, new innovations are coming to the forefront. Here are some solutions to keep in mind while building your system:

Intelliwave: With their SiteSense platform, you can manage all of your owned and rented assets in one single location. The software makes it easy to locate, maintain, and track the utilization of equipment.

Atlas RFID from Jovix: Atlas RFID  is an award-winning Material Readiness application from Jovix. Atlas RFID provides real-time visibility to all stakeholders throughout the supply chain. Employing a combination of web-based server software, mobile devices, and smart RFID tags and barcode labels, Atlas RFID removes impediments to productivity and ensures workers have the materials they need to spend more time on tools.

Milwaukee OneKey: As the industry’s largest tracking network, ONE-KEY streamlines everything from tool tracking to maintenance planning for Milwaukee tools and products. The solution includes asset ID tagging, equipment trackers, barcode scanning, and geofencing capabilities.

Linxup: Linxup helps you track data points for visibility into your fleet’s location in real time, driver and operator behavior, maintenance, electronic driver logs, and more. Its devices use vehicle power, solar power, or rechargeable batteries to tell you where your assets are, where they’re going, and how they’re getting there. 

TruckIt: TruckIt is a dispatching and electronic ticketing cloud-based platform. The dispatch side gives insights into owned and rented assets for optimal utilization. Its ticketing system automates paper tickets, time sheets, billing, and payments. This data can then be used for material delivery verification, driver performance insights, project yield, and ticket reconciliation.

Enhance Equipment Management Processes

Construction equipment management will help you reduce downtime and delays. In the event that you do encounter some downtime, you can use your time effectively based on the information gathered through your management system. That may look like scheduling maintenance, moving equipment into storage, or swapping out parts. As you refine your system, you’ll discover ways to optimize the processes around construction equipment management. 

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Engineering design consultancy Independent Design House (IDH) has expanded with the launch of IDH Bahrain in the Middle East.

IDH Bahrain is based in the Gulf, and will also service markets in nearby Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.  

IDH provides both temporary and permanent works design, with full 2D draughting and 3D modelling services along with all BIM requirements. Clients include ISG and Laing O’Rourk.

The Bahrain office will be run by Hany Ibrahim who brings with him 20 years of industry experience.

He said: “Middle East is presenting excellent business opportunities this year and even more in the next few years. Mega projects are set to come live and some of these projects include those in alignment with Vision 2030 plans that Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have in place, which aim to help create a thriving post-hydrocarbon economy for the region.

“Our vision is not only to establish the business in Bahrain but to expand it to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE.”

IDH CEO, Tim Burt, added “I am extremely excited about the opportunities opening IDH Bahrain will generate for us, and I believe it will take us to the next level as a business. We foresee continued growth over the coming months as IDH North and IDH Bahrain come on-stream, and we are genuinely forming an international business.” 

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Staying on top of construction resource management is an absolute must. With today’s increasingly complex projects and tighter-than-ever timelines you simply can’t afford to misallocate the resources you have at your disposal.

There’s also the issue of labor shortages in construction. Research by the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk revealed that 80% of contractors are having difficulties finding qualified workers. As the industry continues to grapple with manpower challenges, you need to be smart about how you handle and assign labor resources.

This article will cover all that and more. 

We’ll dive into the ins and outs of construction resource management, plus discuss best practices and tools that can help you ensure that all your resources are allocated effectively and are put to good use. 

Let’s get started. 

What is Construction Resource Management?

Construction resource management is the practice of planning and managing the use of construction resources, to ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget. 

Typically done by construction managers or project managers, construction resource management involves many tasks, including the following.

• Monitoring the amount of resources available — everything from time and manpower to equipment, materials, and facilities.
• Allocating and reallocating resources based on project needs and timelines.
• Tracking and optimizing the use of resources.

The goal of construction resource management is to maximize the utilization of resources and reduce waste, ultimately meeting the project’s objectives in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. 

Why Workforce Planning is Essential

Workforce planning — which is a key component of construction resource management — involves monitoring and allocating team members across projects. 

Effective workforce planning entails monitoring schedules, team bandwidth, and jobsite capacities. Managers need to balance all these components to ensure that each project is well-staffed and that team members aren’t over- or under-allocated. It also involves reviewing the company’s manpower resources and forecasting workforce needs, so the firm can recruit accordingly. 

Workforce planning is critical, particularly amidst issues like labor shortages. When you have limited manpower available, it’s even more important to keep a tight handle on your workforce. 

There’s also the matter of labor logistics. The world is starting to open back up and everyone is eager to put the pandemic behind us, but some of the issues brought about by COVID-19 will linger well into 2021. 

Some jobsites may continue to have limited capacity, so it’s essential to map out how teams are distributed in the field. Being mindful of capacity limits will keep construction sites safe and ultimately prevent any pandemic or health-related issues and delays. 

Benefits of Construction Resource Management

Now that you know the fundamentals of construction resource management, let’s discuss the benefits that you’ll gain from the practice. 

Lower Construction Costs

When you don’t have a handle on how much resources you need for your projects, you may end up allocating either too much or little to certain activities. This leads to double-work, wasted time, and delays — all of which add more costs to the project. For instance, the mismanagement of equipment or materials can result in excess spend that can be better used elsewhere. 

Proper construction resource management can prevent such issues from happening. When you’re closely tracking the use of resources and reallocating them based on the project’s needs, you can ensure that time and money are always well-spent. 

Higher Productivity

By implementing construction resource management, you can see to it that team members are assigned to the right place and they have what they need (i.e., equipment, materials, and supplies) to do their jobs well. 

As such, teams are able to be more productive. There’s less downtime or waiting around, plus they can do their best work because they have the necessary resources at the right time.

Increased Visibility into Your Resources

Construction resource management gives you better visibility into your resources. The practice involves closely monitoring resource utilization, so you always know what you have at any given time.

This, in turn, helps you make well-informed decisions on how to use and allocate construction resources. 

Ability to Be More Agile and Adaptable

It’s not uncommon for projects to run into sudden changes. If you’re not prepared, you may end up with inadequate resources to cover unexpected needs. 

You can avoid these situations by implementing proper construction resource management. When you constantly stay on top of how your budget, manpower, equipment, and materials are used, it’s much easier to re-evaluate and reallocate resources to cope with unforeseen project changes.

Creating a Resource Management Plan

One of the first steps to effective construction resource management is mapping out a plan for how resources will be allocated and used. While the specifics of this process will vary depending on your teams and projects, here are some general steps and considerations to keep in mind when crafting your construction resource management plan.

Determine the project timeline and all activities associated with it. Iron out all the necessary details involved in the project. Itemize the tasks and activities that need to be completed and specify the deadlines for each milestone. 

Determine the resources you need and the right allocations. Use the information from the previous step to figure out the right resource allocations for the project. At this stage, you’ll need to calculate the amount of resources required, assign them to the appropriate activities and project phases, and indicate when you’ll need them.

One thing you could do at this stage is to tap into your experience as well industry standards and previous project data to figure out the best allocations. 

Secure the necessary approvals. The next step is to get approval for the resources that you’re planning to use. Coordinate with the necessary parties and decision makers and ensure that you have the authorization to use the resources at the appropriate time. Be sure to complete this step before the project kicks off. 

Optimize and retool your plan when necessary. Your construction resource plan shouldn’t be set in stone. Keep an eye on it, even when the project is underway and don’t be afraid to pivot or launch a plan B if unforeseen issues arise. 

Top Innovations for Construction Resource Planning

Construction resource management shouldn’t be done manually. Equip yourself and your team with construction technologies that streamline the process of planning and allocating resources. 

Consider the following.

BIM 360 Plan

BIM 360 Plan offers robust capabilities to help you view and monitor supply chain and jobsite resources. The software’s customizable project views enable you to see work plans in List, Ganntt, or Swimplane view, so whether you’re looking for an itemized list of resources and activities or prefer to get a high level view of the project, you can do so easily with BIM 360 Plan. 

Bridgit

Bridgit is a leading workforce intelligence solution for construction pros. An excellent tool for planning and allocating manpower resources, Bridgit makes it easy to view which project roles are unfilled, so you can plan accordingly. It also has detailed reporting that offers insights into workforce utilization and project pipelines, enabling you to plan for your manpower needs.

Triax

Construction sites have many moving parts—including workers, equipment, and other materials—that need monitoring. However, the dynamic and fast-paced nature of jobsites make it difficult to do so. Enter Triax’s IoT solution designed for rugged working environments, Spot-r Mesh provides real-time visibility into all the resources you have on site. It’s low power requirements and easily deployable hardware give you actionable insights into your workforce and equipment on the construction site, making it simple to know resource location, utilization, and more.

Kwant.ai

Need detailed insights into workforce activities? Kwant.ai has you covered. The solution uses AI and IoT to monitor worker location and activities, giving you powerful intel for planning and allocating manpower. With Kwant.ai, you can easily see how workers are spending their time, which then helps you identify inefficiencies or areas that need to be optimized.

SkillSmart

SkillSmart’s compliance reporting and tracking software has excellent data and analytics tools to help you plan and manage project resources. SkillSmart InSight not only lets you track labor and compliance, it also provides real-time reports that cover payroll, contractor wage rates, and supplier tracking, among others. 

LaborChart

Another useful tool for labor allocation, LaborChart has several features for managing your construction workforce. One particularly helpful tool is the software’s Labor Allocation feature, which gives you a visual representation of your labor pool based on projects, trades, regions, and more. 

Proper Construction Resource Management is a Must

You can’t complete projects without the right workers, equipment, and facilities, which is why it’s critical to plan and allocate your resources effectively. So, take the time to understand each project’s needs then figure out the right resource allocation. To make things easier, use technology to automate various tasks and generate the necessary reports. 

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