Monthly Archives: January 2015

What are the world’s biggest heavy equipment?

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There are handful famous brand names, when it comes to heavy equipment and other construction machinery. Such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi etc. These are multi-billion dollar companies and massive brand names that usually anything but frequent. The popular International Construction magazine’s yellow table that is released annually ever year is now in its tenth. This magazines current issue digs into how these big companies stand up to each other in the world’s competitive heavy equipment manufacturing markets.

To understand actually how successful these companies are in the markets, we might as well take a look at the 2013 yellow table review issue. It exposed that sales of new heavy equipment went up in 2012 up to 2.6% by the world’s fifth largest manufacturing companies. The sales were reported to be the record high of US$182 billion which was much more than US$168 billion which was the previous record that was set in 2008 (before the global market place crisis happened). Nearly two thirds of this business has been seen to be done by the largest top 10 manufacturers in this field.

For instance, even though the top positions are still held by industry titans like Caterpillar or Komatsu, Chinese brands like Sany and Zoomlion still continue to grow as major players in the heavy equipment industry, with Sany binding into the top five in 2013. According to KHL “In 2003, the first year the yellow table was actually available, China’s manufacturers’ had a share of only 1.6%, which was worth just about US$841 million. But today their 16% share is worth about US$30.6 billion, which is a great improvement.

Let us have a look at the world’s current top 5 heavy equipment manufacturers as stated by the 2013 International Construction Yellow Table:

 

#1 Caterpillar (US): this 85 years old United States’ based organization occupies the first position by holding 21.8% of global heavy construction equipment sales revenue. It has continued to hold the first spot since the time the yellow table was first published in 2003. In the year 2012, Caterpillar reported sales revenues of US$16.445 billion in the heavy machinery market.

#2 Komatsu (Japan): this company reportedly makes the largest bulldozers in the world, namely the D575 super dozer. This Japan based company has been in business since the year 1917. It was reported that Komatsu had a net sales of ¥1.982 trillion in the year 2012 (which is approx. US$24,168 million).

#3 Hitachi (Japan): this alleged world’s third largest construction equipment manufacturer reported 6% hike in their net sales revenue of up to ¥817,143 million (approx. US$8.2 billion). This organization started out as a humble electric motor repair shop in the year 1910.

#4 Volvo (Sweden): Volvo CE is simply just a part of the massive Volvo group of industries. It is claimed to be the world’s largest manufacturer of articulated haulers and wheel loaders. In 2012, Volvo CE had reported sales revenue of SEK 63,558 million (which is approx. US$9.9 billion as per current exchange rates) by a record selling of more than seventy eight thousand machines.

#5 Sany (China): In the year 2011, this company reported sales revenues of 80.2 billion RMB. (This is approx. US$12.9 billion at current exchange rates). Sany bumped the crane giant Liebherr from its top five, into the 7th position.

 

 

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Learning The Tricks Of The Trade Will Help You To Make Money In The Construction Industry

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You are in whatever business or industry, the first thing that you need to do is learn the work well. You can’t expect yourself to perform or to outperform before having learned the tricks of the trade. For instance, we take up the profession of a doctor. A guy has to study for years in medicine and then invest another good number of years in practicing. Only after that, he can claim himself to be a good doctor. Or let’s put it in this way that after investing so much of time learning his profession, he can become good in his work and that good work of his will be seen by others which will then make him a good doctor. This was just an example of a noble profession, now if we consider a business; it is no different from the first example.

Construction business is a huge business and it may take one his entire lifetime to know about everything, however not completely. It is important to know how to work things out and also how things work in this industry. If you start from the basics of it and then develop your knowledge, you will not miss anything but if you skip the basics and feel that they are not important, you might not understand things as they are all so interconnected with the basics.

We would be discussing few things that are instrumental to grow as a person in this industry.

Develop the curiosity to learn:-  Let’s start this by saying “Keep your eyes and ears open all the time”. You get to learn a lot of things if you simply keep your basic senses to see and to hear wide open. You will come across people who talk about how to complete a particular project or what kind of heavy equipment is needed to get the work done. They may talk about ideas which you have never heard of or felt that can even work in such a situation. You may even want to discuss things with them and show that you are curious enough to know things which will allow them to let you accompany them in critical assignments. Once you become a part of any critical assignment, you will come across multiple chances of developing your knowledge and also learning to deal with different kind of situations.

Take initiatives at different levels:-  This is perhaps the most important characteristic one must possess. Many people simply do their work and leave. They are never in hunt of any opportunities which sort of rusts their capabilities. Therefore, it is important that you take up initiatives to do things which others may find to be difficult or time consuming. Taking initiatives not only prove that you are not afraid of taking additional responsibilities but also display your ability to learn new things pertaining to your domain.

Learning these little things with time will eventually help you to know much of the things which are absent in others and will make you a better employee or a businessman than the rest.

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How can one become heavy equipment operator

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Not everyone can run a business successfully and therefore many people have to seek to do a job and live their livelihood. The important question is what sort of job can make a person with average education qualification rich and permit him/her to lead a descent lifestyle. If one ponder on this question, he/she may come up with several options right from working from home or selling stuffs in the mall or becoming a sales person but in order to achieve success in this segment, one needs to possess certain specific skill set and in absence of those skill set, it may be very difficult for him/her to sustain in the environment for long. Similarly, a person who knows a little about heavy equipment can’t find a place for himself/herself in the sales or marketing for that matter in the finance stream. They have to settle themselves in doing something that they can do best that is to be in the heavy equipment segment.

For people who like to be in the heavy equipment stream, the avenues they have is to study about machines and become a mechanical engineer or if he/she feels that he/she has a knack for sales too, then he/she can try his luck in the marketing segment of heavy equipment. However, if he/she feels that he/she would like to enjoy driving the machine to his/her tunes, he/she also has a place to suit himself. For such people, becoming a heavy equipment operator is the best option. The question now is how one can become an operator and what skill sets he needs to have to become an operator.

Knowledge about the machine:-

When we talk about working as a heavy equipment operator, it doesn’t mean that the person should only know to drive the machine and get the work done. A construction company or for that matter any company that uses heavy equipment and require services of operators want more than just driving the machine. They want the operator to know more about the machine. For instance, to know a bit about the engine of the machine, the oil/grease it uses to lubricate, have a brief knowledge about the hydraulic brakes and things thereon. The operator should know about these little things because it may come to his/her use at any given point of time. There may be instances when there will be no mechanic around and the machine has stopped working due to some technical difficulties. In such cases, if the operator knows how to get the problem fixed, he/she will not wait for help to come and will start working to resolve the problem.

Join a reputed institute:-

It is imperative that one joins a good institute which is competent in imparting knowledge pertaining to heavy equipment. Before one joins any institute, a research of the institute is a must. The reputation of the institute plays a very important role in the making of operators. Simultaneously, if you know someone who works as an operator, you can certainly take some guidance from such people.

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Plans of Hyundai for the year 2015

The year 2014 has been a big pain for all the heavy equipment manufacturing companies. They were all left complaining about slow growth rate and decline in the sales volume. Due to unrest in the Middle East and other parts of the globe, customers were reluctant to make further purchases. Another reason that adds to the misery is delay in starting a project. Due to many reasons, projects are unable to take off and that results in decline in the demand for heavy equipment. Therefore, it also does not make any sense to produce innovative machine as it makes no difference in a stagnant market. Like all other companies, Hyundai is also going through the same rough phase and is struggling hard to come out of it. The think tankers are working hard to find a solution to this issue and are also waiting for the market to correct. If the issues in the Middle East are put to rest, then things might start catching speed from there. However, that is just a matter of some time and needs patience. It is therefore important for companies to find an alternative and check other potential markets rather than simply sticking to countries that are of not much importance for the time being.

Having said that, it does not imply that construction equipment manufacturing companies should simply wind up their businesses from such countries. They can reduce their labor force and ensure that they do not end up spending their capital in units that may not yield much to them. If we check the last few years’ performance of Hyundai, we find that there has been a consistent fall in their sales volume. It is simply not picking up. In this way, they are only lowering their performance bar and are expecting that it will get to see some green pasture sooner.

Hyundai is in no mood to continue with its sick units or the units that are not performing. The year 2015 will be the year of corrections for them. They have to identify the units that is not performing and then also need to check the possibility of it remaining in that condition for the next few months. If they are convinced that there are no signs of revival, then it will be prudent to close such units and save the company from incurring further financial loses. The next thing that they can do is lay off few employees from units that are performing but not as per the company’s projections. It makes no sense to have a workforce that is not delivering. Other than this, they can also move their back office staff to sales department or can cross train them to perform duties at various levels.

Cross training people will keep the resources intact and will also enable them to perform various duties at different situations. By following few simple things can bring them back in business. However, for the time being the ground situation is grim and it will bounce back only if corrective actions are taken.

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Heavy Equipment appraisal – What is it important to appraise your heavy equipment?

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A construction company has to spend a good sum of money to buy heavy equipment and when it comes to sell the machine, they just can’t afford to sell in scrap value. They will certainly want a good sales value for the item. However, the most important question is how can one come to the conclusion and determine the price of the machine after that being used for let’s say a couple of years. It will be very difficult to decide the correct price of the machine after all the wear and tear it has to undergo, completing projects after projects.

Let us begin this with a scenario. For instance, you advertise for selling equipment on an online auction site and have stated that you have used the machine for 4 years and it is in good order.  Due to some reason, you do not see anybody bidding on your item. You try to look for bidders bidding for the same machine posted by other seller and you find that they are placing successful bids. It rattles your mind pondering why anybody isn’t bidding on your item. To your astonishment, you find out that the starting price that you have placed on the equipment is way high than other sellers. Well, in this entire scenario, you as a seller were doing one terrible mistake. You never bothered to find out the correct price of the item and wanted the starting price of the auction that was not acceptable to buyers.

This one big mistake of yours takes the entire listing for a toss and you make nothing. What you could have done to avoid such a situation is appointing an appraiser who would appraise the price of the item and could inform you the correct price of the item after depreciating its price. It is quite obvious that you can’t put the same price that you paid to buy the equipment and have to depreciate its price for the wear and tear it undergoes to complete your projects.

Other than selling the machine, appraisal of equipment is also done for insurance purposes. You can’t have the insured amount for the equipment same throughout. As years pass, the insured amount decreases. However, if you appraise the equipment, the appraiser will check the equipment and will pass a certificate indicating the correct value of the item. Just in case, your equipment undergoes an accident, you can claim the insured amount as per the appraised value.

It is imperative to appraise the equipment from a certified appraiser. You simply can’t approach to anybody who does not hold a valid certificate to appraise your item; it will simply be a waste of time and money. His appraisal will not hold any good and when you’ll be shown the door if you approach the insurance company to settle any claim. There are many companies who do construction equipment appraisals. You may check about these companies from the people involved in your business and get your machine appraised or can even explore the internet to get this done.

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Online site an option for buying heavy equipment

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It may not be always possible for people to go to the showroom of heavy equipment manufacturing companies to order heavy equipment. The problems that people may encounter are the showroom is far away from their place. Shipping the item could be an issue as shipment is not available in their location. These kinds of logistic issues will always play a role because you may not be able to buy the equipment directly from the manufacturing companies. At times, you may not find their shops available in your city. So you have to compromise by buying the equipment of some other company that you may have never wished to buy. Some people are loyal to one particular brand and they will only buy equipment from that brand. It becomes difficult for such people to get their items at a place where the manufacturing companies do not have any shipment facility.

To avoid a situation like this, it is recommended to buy the machines online. Now the question is, is it reliable and safe to buy heavy equipment online? Well, it is as reliable and safe as buying it from a person you hardly know anything about. It is true that you do not know about the seller nor you know anything about the machine as you are unable to see the machine live in front of you. Nevertheless, the seller makes the necessary description of the machine that the buyer is required to know so that there is no ambiguity left in the minds of the prospects. The seller can state everything that he knows about the machine in the listing for the buyer to make an informed decision and in any case if the buyer feels cheated, he can move to the grievance department and can claim his money.

In order to buy heavy equipment online, the first step is to register with the site. Fill in details like your personal information and your credit card details with them and create your User ID and password. Once you have created your account, you can state the name of the item in the search bar and start hunting for the item. You may see several sellers having listed their items with the price tag on it. You have to click on the item to see the description and its features. After you’re done reading the description and it fits your taste, you can try to establish contact with the seller or can directly click on “Buy Now” option. You can make the payments as prescribed in the site and an email confirmation will reach the seller. It is recommended that you try to contact the seller before buying the item. It is sensible to check the machine by operating it and know everything is in working condition. You may also take an experienced person with you who can give you input about the quality of the machine.

Once you’re content with the item you’re buying, check the available shipping options and get it shipped to your place.

Buy the best pickup trucks for your construction site

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The construction contractors are very professional, as they like to obtain everything perfect for their company. There are many things that a contractor needs to follow to establish their company. It is very important to run a construction company successfully because if you can manage to do so then you can definitely earn huge profit from this work.  Well, to run a construction business successfully it is very important to purchase heavy equipment. Without proper heavy equipment you cannot maintain this business. Most important equipment for construction site is the pickup trucks. Well, if you are searching for a versatile as well as reliable vehicle that you can use in any occasion then you should go with the pickup trucks. It is the best equipment for your business.

You can use this vehicle in your personal or business purpose and as it is very strong equipment so, you can run it in rural areas and also in cities. There are different types of pickup trucks available in the stores. You will get different models of this equipment and each comes with different features. These different types of features actually make them perfect and well suited for different types of jobs. The pickup trucks are very useful as they can perform any kind of heavy works. But before you start to use this vehicle it is very important to know its proper usages.
When you are planning to buy pickup trucks then you should try to understand that which type of truck will be suitable for your work.   There are many new pickup trucks that are designed perfectly. You need to choose the right truck that can help you in your work and give you many advantages. There are models of two or four doors that is attached with bed and cab sizes. You can buy this vehicle from the reputed firm who can ensure highest safety facility. It is very important to maintain the safety of the vehicle because if anything wrong happens then you have to face it. So always try to maintain the safety and security properly of this vehicle.

Well, you can use this vehicle to move heavy items that you cannot move by your arms. So, it is very important that you should buy a good and reliable pickup truck that helps you to move the extra dirt and heavy loads from one place to other. With the help of this truck you can also do many other works in your construction site. So, the contractors always try to buy this vehicle.

You shouldn’t buy it from any place. Give your 100% attention and try to find out the best firm. You will get detail information on this equipment on internet. So, search the internet properly and try to find out the reputed site that offers this vehicle at cheap price.

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Regarding Crane Retirement Laws

Cranes are very important parts of the construction industry. However, the improper maintenance of cranes can lead to devastating accidents. Therefore, according to many regulations in different parts of the world, the fitness of a crane cannot simply be determined by the age of the crane. Jim Wiethon who is the principal and chairman at Haag said that the there are no correlations between accidents and age of the cranes. These were his words at the annual meeting of Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association which was held in Boca Raton. He also added that owing to the acceleration of the building industry in New York City it is important that all manufacturers provide with equipment that are modern and updated.

According to laws stipulated in Singapore all contractors are required to get their machines retired after they have reached appropriate age. This provision could be for twenty to thirty service years that depend on the capacity of the crane. However, one can ho for an extension of the service period provided if the inspection validates that the equipment is still safe for operation. Similar measures have been considered by the jurisdictions of Canada and US.

Vice president and COO of Woodland, Zack Parnell said that a crane does not get weathered by time but application and maintenance can play a big role in damaging the equipment beyond use. President of Cranes, Rob Weiss said that accidents are also very frequent with new cranes. He added that in reports of several recent unfortunate crane events in the New York City the cause of the accident was not the age of the crane but the maintenance.

According to the officials of safety and health in Singapore, the laws have been surfaced on account of the all the accidents that had happened in the region for dysfunctional equipment which have been put to use for prolonged service periods. However, it has also been reported that the age laws of Singapore have been prepared with more focus on curbing foreign competition than the safety concern.

However, the law has not been gladly accepted by all members of the construction industry. It has been said by crane experts that the recent laws are only reactionary. They have also opined that that these laws have been implemented as an attempt to mask other problems like ill maintenance of construction machinery. There have been different rebuttals against the retirement laws passed in this regard.

Some experts are of the belief that time does have an effect on the functionality of a carne. Some of the arguments in favor of the law of crane retirement include that that crane members become much stressed and in fact that could be the most stressed parts of the entire routine engineering. In many cases, cracks are detected only after the occurrence of a major accident. After the detection it is often found that those small cracks have been avoided for a long time only to let it be aggravated to something big.

 

Importance of Restoring Old Heavy Equipment

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Restoration of both new and old heavy equipment is necessary, as it is cheap and controllable. The old heavy equipment’s life can be prolonged by proper restoration. The restoration activities are associated with maintaining a facility’s systems and carry the old heavy equipment in working position. In the industrial area, the cost of production along with the restoration of old equipment stands to 15-40%. Therefore, the big construction companies want to assimilate the old equipment restoration work into the corporate fabric to save both time as well as expenditures related with it by squeezing out maximum efficiency from the property of the company. You either can call a technician to restore the old machine or can do it yourself.

Restoration of old heavy equipment

A practical knowledge of the repairing procedures and welding is required to properly restoring the old equipment. Sometimes, you may have noticed that the old equipment suddenly stops while working or some harsh sounds are coming out of it. These are the indications which are telling you that the right time has come to restore the machine before it damages completely. Professionals who have got welding certification are capable to do the restoration effectively. Education and training on how to become a heavy equipment technician are time consuming. You can hire an individual who has the certificate of welding and has received CNC training to handle the computer work instead of seeking help from a repair company. Some restoration jobs are easy while others may be complicated demanding a clear understanding of how to handle the hydraulics.

Regular greasing the old equipment also enable it to perform smoothly. By regular greasing the old heavy equipment which is a very easy task, you can save at least USD $300 on technicians. Other restoration activities include routine changing of the oil, checking the coolants, inspecting the undercarriage and the hydraulics to find out the wear and tear caused on it due to overuse. As these works are technically challenging and you do not want to take a risk with it, it’s better to contact a technician. It’s quite common due to the heavy pressure of the work, you forget to do the restoration work after every certain interval. That’s why, you can keep a track keeping skills, strong scheduling, accountability system and an operational strategy which will help you to take care of all other works along with the restoration of old heavy equipment.

The restoration routine varies with each old machine. It is based on the latest service notices, service manual’s revisions, redesigning of the parts to be replaced and the coming out of the quirks in the old working machine. In order to find out the magnitude of damage caused in it, you can take a fluid sample and show it to your dealer to analyse its working condition.

If you are careful enough and paying great attention to all the minute details, then you won’t have to go through huge downtime and incredible expenditures required for maintenance of the old heavy equipment.

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Simple steps to boost Construction Equipment Safety

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In industrial automation maintaining the safety of the construction equipment is one of the most crucial factors. Safety is the integral part of machine functionality. Safety systems standards include stopping and stand still, speed of the machine and the direction in which the machine rotates.

Principles to be followed by machine manufacturers:-

  • Construction equipment should be constructed or designed in such a way so as to ensure minimum hazards.
  • Take necessary precautions against accidents that cannot be controlled.
  • Inform the users of the risk that can happen despite all possible precautions being taken.

Tips that are mentioned in the Machinery Directive for functional safety

  • Risk reduction through assessment:-It consists of two parts- Risk analysis and Risk reduction.
  • Determining functionality and safety performance steps to either wipe out the risk or to reduce it to a minimum level.
  • Implementing functional safety by designing the equipment safety system functions.
  • Verifying whether functional safety meet the demarcated requirements.
  • Validating functional safety to ensure the system function is successful in minimizing the risks.
  • Documenting functional safety through user documentation.

 

What are the simple steps to boost construction equipment safety?

  • Establishing systematic procedures for identification, assessment and cleaning the equipment after its use.
  • Clear the work area away of any debris, stone chips and trip hazards.
  • Before kick the equipment on, check for loose bolts, nuts and screws.
  • If the machine does not sound properly then switch off the machine and try to find out what is wrong with it.

 

  • Sometimes some dirt particles get inside the machine bearing of the equipment which is generally caused by use of compressed air to clean the machines.
  • Hiring and giving proper training to the technical team to control the storage of the hazardous substances.
  • Equipment idle reduction and control can minimize the amount of diesel used and thus can prolong the life of the equipment.

 

Some industrial companies make use of the custom software to ensure continuity in the implementation of the preventive maintenance procedures. The only administrative expense to detect the consistency in the maintenance program is the labor time to get a record of maintenance requirements.

An effective program to manage the safety of the construction equipment is very essential. To increase equipment efficiency and life of the engine, periodic replacement of fuel and water filter is necessary. One should replace the battery before it fails. Monitoring fuel consumption and oil consumption help to detect problems. Measuring the viscosity of the oil help to find out the chemical changes that the oil undergoes due to its thermal degradation. And finally the person should apply appropriate lubricant and regularly to boost the construction equipment safety.

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