Monthly Archives: December 2016

Construction and drones, how they work together on a jobsite

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Modern technology is the need of the day. The industry and our businesses will not flourish if we do not accept technology as a part of our daily lives and the incorporation of it in our businesses will take it to the next level. The growth of the business is to a larger extent dependent on how open we are in adopting technology in our lives and simultaneously in our business. For people who are owners of big construction companies, they might find it extremely difficult to go to every jobsite that is running parallel in different places of the state. It is virtually impossible for him to make a trip to each of its jobsite if they are located in different cities and states. So what can he/she do to get an updated report?

Well, he/she has 2 options. They can either rely on the reports that are sent to them by their men/women or can put in a camera to check in the status of the work in a timely manner. Now again it is not possible to put cameras all over the site and the cameras will all be stationed at one place. They will not be moving which will not portray the correct picture. This means that installing cameras at different locations on the jobsite will not do any good to them as long as they have something that can move throughout the location and can give live updates to him. Here comes the importance of drones. These flying machines can be used to get live pictures of the work happening on the jobsite. The camera of the drones will be always rolling allowing the business owner to see all the progress that is happening on the site and then compare it with the report he/she has received. It is just that the drones are used to provide ground report which can be then compared with the report he/she has on his table.

Allows you have better control on the project while you are holidaying/vacation:-

It is a fact known to every person in the construction industry that owners of big construction houses do not get to spend quality time with their family. It is always business for them and at the end of the day they are so tired that they have nothing left for the family. Now suppose that you have a long planned holiday/vacation and this time you have decided to finally take your family for a vacation. However, you also have an important project going on whose progress you can’t miss to check. You can make use of drones to catch live pictures and correspond with your employees on the ground. In this way you can spend time with your family holidaying in Hawaii and also keep a close watch on the progress of the project.

Using drones can prevent delays in the project:-

By getting regular live pictures, you will be able to identify mistakes happening on the jobsite. You can jump in straight and point it out to the respective supervisor and ask him to correct that rectified. Had this skipped your attention, it could have taken the project on a ride and have caused delays in its completion.

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Selling heavy equipment can be tedious. Be wise enough and rent it

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We all like to work with heavy equipment that have the latest technology installed in it. It evidently makes the work simpler for the operator who otherwise has to go through a lot of stress to get the job done. But as time passes by and with the ever changing dynamic of the construction industry more technologically advanced heavy equipment take over the market thus making the old ones redundant. So the question is what do one does with the machines that they feel has become redundant.

Sell it as scrap may be one options but not the best one and the other would be to give it on rent as there are always takers ready to take old construction equipment just to get their job done. You might also get a good price if you sell the machine but that can be way too tedious and make take a toll on you. Moreover, when people are investing on heavy equipment, why would they buy something that they know is technologically deprived and not as per the standard that the current machines are built. They would rather take a loan from some financial institution and try to buy the advanced technology machines. However, they won’t mind to take it on rent if you give them a good deal. You only have to reduce the rental amount and you will see people wanting it take it on rent.

If you are sure that you will not be putting the old construction equipment to any use in your company, then you can list it on some heavy equipment rental websites. Try to list it in a site that is known to people so that your machine is viewed often and the chances are higher for someone picking it up at the earliest. All you have to do is register yourself on their website and become their member. Once you are a member, you can buy as well as sell/rent on their website. It is quite likely that you have to pay some money in order to list the item. However, that will not be exponentially high and it should fairly fit in your budget.

On the listing you can mention the rental amount you want on every month and the tenure for which you would like to rent the machine. Try to put all your terms very clearly on the site. Also try to describe the equipment to the fullest. The one who takes the machine has every right to know about the stuff they are going to deal with. It is recommended that you do not hide any information and if you know anything vital then you should definitely disclose that on the listing.

Regarding the payment, you can state your wish of receiving payments. The ideal way is getting the money automatically credited on a given date of every month. However, if you want to receive money through some other means, you can state that there.

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What does low oil pressure mean on your heavy equipment?

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A lot of care needs to be taken when it comes to construction equipments as it is often considered to be the backbone of the industry in any jobsite. If your heavy equipments cease to work your entire project comes to a standstill and a construction company will never want that to happen. This is the reason why they must ensure that the overall health of the heavy equipment is in order. Now something that plays a crucial role in determining the good health of heavy equipment is the lubricant that is used on it. The machine will perform smoothly as long as the lubricants are doing their job but one also needs to ensure to change the oil which if not done can cause immense problem to the machine to perform. This can simply not be ignored and if done then the owner should be ready to bear exponential cost to get the machine fixed.

In most of the modern day heavy equipment that all construction companies and contractors possess have something known as “oil pressure warning light” installed in the machine which will flicker the moment the machine comprehends a problem that is causing due to low oil pressure. They can also get a low oil pressure reading on the dash gauge which also acts as a warning indicating a problem is expected to arrive at your doorstep. The owner/operator should not take this warning lightly. Action needs to be taken immediately. However, it has been observed that people tend to neglect and ignore such warnings which later become the reason of the non-functioning of the machine. Since normal wear increases the engine bearing clearances, engines are bound to lose a certain degree of oil pressure. But when you indentify low oil pressure in an engine you should take it as an indication that there is something really wrong which if not worked on can throw up severe consequences.

One also needs to understand what causes low oil pressure. It is often caused due to worn main and rod bearings. The oil pump produced flow and any sort of resistance to this flow causes low pressure. So who causes resistance? It is the orifices in the engine block that causes the resistance. The oil flows through the engine block and between the bearings and crankshaft journals. So when the bearings wear it just increases the flow of oil which ultimately results in low pressure. Other parts of the machine such as the overhead cam engines can also suffer due to low oil pressure. Increase in the bearing clearance can also lead to noisy engine and pounding which should be enough indication for the owner to act immediately on the machine or be ready to shell out good chunk of money to fix the problem.

Other than rod bearing if there is an excessive flow of oil through any other means is also a cause of worry. This can obviously not be checked every now and then and which is why the best option is to get the problem resolved at the first stance when you see the oil pressure warning light flickering.

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Used heavy equipment tires

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It is just not the heavy equipment that has a market value attached to it after being used for years. The tire of the machine equally carries good value in the market and there are more takers than one can even expect. We are ideally of the opinion that heavy equipment tires once used on a machine is of no use later but that is history now. We can make good use of the used heavy equipment tires as well. There are small companies that deals with buying and selling of used heavy equipment tires and also give a good price for them. What one needs to know is how to approach them. They are probably not as widely known as an authorized heavy equipment dealer. You might find a dealer in almost every state but finding a guy who deals with used machine’s tires is somewhat difficult.

Let us first understand what does these companies do out of used tires. The modus operandi is quite simple. You give the tires that have lost its grip and they will work on it. They will revive the tire and make it look as completely new and then will eventually sell it off. In this way they make money by selling repaired tires after making them look new. Companies that exclusively deal with selling tires are also into this business. However, they will inform the buyer if they are selling them used tires or new ones. It has also been noticed that companies that deals with selling only new tires ideally do not get into used ones but then there are always some exceptions. There has been a rising trend of these tire selling companies selling used equipment tires as well as they claim that people prefer going for used tires as it cost less to them.

But is cost the only factor? It may not be. It seems that the quality of the used tires after being repaired becomes better and come in close competition with the new ones. This gives them a cutting edge over their competitors. Added with it is the cost of the tires that is pretty low and this is what draws more and more people towards used tires. It is indeed a no brainer that people will buy something that is less expensive and stands equal in terms of quality.

Finding the companies that deals with used heavy equipment tires can be a bit difficult as they are not more in numbers. However, they can be searched on the net. So just in case if you want to sell your used tires to them as you see no need of theirs in your machine, you have to do a search and take the tires. You can even call them at your jobsite so that they can dismantle the tires from the machine and take the tires along with them. They do pay you a good price for the used tires. However, the amount differs from companies to companies as they do not have any fixed price. More to it, the price is dependent on the quality of the tire that you are willing to sell.

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Heavy Construction Equipment fuel consumption per hour

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Fuel consumption has always been a matter of worry amongst almost every construction companies. They have to spend more on fuel than perhaps on the maintenance of the machine. It is believed that the overall operating cost of a construction project involves a good portion of money spent in the fuel consumption of the machine. The construction companies try hard to get the figures down but they can only do that when the fuel rate in the global market is down. This means that they suffer a lot as the machines they owe do not consume anything less than gallons of fuel for a couple of days work. Well it is not that there is no solution to it but it can be expensive. Heavy equipment companies have recently come up with many such machines that are low on fuel consumption. However, their prices are pretty high as compared to the conventional machines. This is why construction companies are reluctant to invest on heavy equipment that consume less fuel.

There is one more way by which you can make your construction equipment fuel efficient and that is through regular servicing the machine. It is important to keep the engine and other important components of the heavy equipment clean so that when it functions it functions without any hindrances. So when you have an excavator working for you with a diesel engine it consumes anything between 0,21 to 0,26 kg/(kWh). Other than that the fuel consumption also depends to a larger extent on the type of engine installed in the machine. Better the quality of the engine less will be the fuel consumption. The size of the engine also matters a lot when it comes to fuel consumption and its efficiency.

There are few people who in order to increase the fuel efficiency changes the engine to a much better one. They believe in upgrading the machine without having to change it completely. So you got to just call your mechanic and talk to him about the kind of engine that can be installed to achieve higher fuel efficiency. They mostly do all the work for you. This is what many small construction companies and contractors have been doing. They see this to be a wise move where they do not have to spend a bomb in buying new construction equipment and can still have a fuel efficient machine.

Different heavy equipment react differently to the work conditions. For a CAT excavator, it consumes anything between 2.1 to 2.6 GPH (Gallons Per Hour) under low load factor. Under medium load factor, its consumption increases to around 2.6 to 3.1 GPH and when the load is to its maximum, the fuel consumption is 3.1 to 3.8 GPH. One can’t give a clear answer on the fuel consumption per hour of a particular machine as it depends upon a lot of factors. However, what can be done to know the machine’s fuel efficiency is fill the tank in full and make a note of the meter reading. Use it the whole day and take the reading. You can also take the reading on an hourly basis giving you a much better picture of the fuel consumption.

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Start picking up star performers in your company and reward them to keep them retained

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The top performers are called as the ‘Star’ or ‘A’ performers, are the most important assets of any company. They possess the most valuable skills and move the business forward. Hence, it is necessary for any company to identify them, understand their career goals and reward them suitably. This approach will enable to retain the best talent which in turn will ensure stability of organization and allow its rapid growth

 

Star performers can be identified possessing the following characteristics:

  1. Capability of taking a responsibility in short span of time: They volunteer for handling new assignments. They are professionals who deliver strong and high quality results by means of an efficient teamwork.
  2. Unquenchable thirst for knowledge: They like to know how the things work. This quality gives them an advantage of improving troubleshooting skills. They master new types of expertise.
  3. Good communication skills: This ability allows them to deliver their ideas in an effective way. There is very little misinterpretation which avoids failures.
  4. Trustworthy and reliable: Senior managers and colleagues seek star performer’s advice and they are considered as good confidantes. They forge strong relationships and their opinions are always valued.
  5. Willing to take calculated risks:They weigh ups and down of a particular situation and take their decisions.
  6. Exhibits a well rounded effort: They are good both personally and professionally. If they are good at home, or at sports, they will undoubtedly be good at the workplace too. They serve as role model and mentor for others. Thus, they achieve excellence in most of the spheres of life.

 

Losing high performers is painful, both personally and professionally. Hence, it is very important that they be retained by the employer in the following ways:

  1. Give them opportunity to head or control a project: They need to take the core responsibility of a project where they get chance to present their ideas and they can take their decisions.
  2.  Leaders should interact with high performers and understand their passion and career goals.
  3.  Present them with challenges: High performers always like challenging projects. Hence the company should entrust them with interesting and difficult projects to keep these performers motivated to work.
  4.  The managers should ensure that the star performers trust their leadership capabilities
  5. Offer regular feedback : Weekly meetings should be held to let them know about their work performance and areas of improvement.
  6. Reward for great work : To recognition their efforts that have made a significant contribution to goals and objectives.  a.  Recognition memo from the Manager  b.  Send out a weekly email of the employee’s achievement to the entire company.  c.  Award the employee of the assignment they were interested in working.  d. If they are very outstanding in their work then to reward them handsomely as An Award to be given, Letter of Appreciation, Announcement as Employee of the week/month in Town hall meetings

 

When the top performers feel respected, honored and recognized for their efforts that their performance and confidence increases. This enables to retain the top most talent for a long time ensuring success of that organization.

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Starting an excavation company

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There are not many industries where you need not have a thorough knowledge about your subject and still can earn lot while you work. Experience teaches one everything and hence you will also learn once you step in. Having a basic knowledge on the subject is sufficient. But if you are looking to speed up the business then you need to learn more and work harder to gain more knowledge. Just depending upon the basics will not help you to augment your business plans. For instance, starters who want to try their hand in the construction sector can take up work like excavation where they need to know how to operate heavy equipment and particularly an excavator. You may not know a lot of technical jargons that is related to the machine. You just need to know how to work on the machine and that will be it to help you survive.

Working for an excavation company and starting an excavation company are however two different things and therefore in the later one you may not be able to proceed any further if you fail to have expert knowledge in your domain. The operator that you have employed to excavate earth may not necessarily know stuffs about the business but you on the other hand who is responsible for the growth and sustainability of the business is required to know as much as you can about probably every possible aspect that is connected to the business. Therefore when it comes to starting an excavation company the first thing that you should be doing is some research work. The research work may involve things right from knowing about different kinds of heavy equipment required in an excavation company to getting more businesses. You also should know the kind of staff you need to run the business. So you got to have some experience in dealing with your employees as well.

Government permissions and paper work is another big task that you have to take care of. You can’t function or conduct any business without the approval of the government of your state; however small the business may be. So before you start working to set up an excavation company you should keep your papers ready. You have to register your company with the government so that they know the type of business that you are in. Now in order to get legal approval, you will have to hire an attorney who will work for you and try to get all the legal documents in place. You only have to provide him with the documents that he seeks. In case, you do not have them then you have to get them or check if there can be any alternative.

Once you are done with the paper work, move to acquiring heavy equipment for the excavation work. You can buy or take machines on rent. It completely depends upon your financial position and stability. You can consult that with people whom you trust and who have been a part of this industry for long.

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Importance of the construction signs in a job site

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In the current era, construction is one of the most important aspects of growth. With more and more buildings, roads and other constructions, the civilization will grow stronger. Over the years, the style and type of construction have hugely changed. Along with the regular constructions, large scale constructions of huge buildings, bridges, roads and highways are also being constructed every day.

In such construction sites, you will often come across the usage of heavy equipment and tools such as the cranes, the haulers, the bulldozers etc. However, there is yet another thing that is very important in a construction site and must be used by the workers. These are the construction signs.

What are the construction signs?

When you pass by a site of construction, building or repairing of an existing property, road or construction, you will often find sign boards that indicate or warn you about something. They are signs that consist of certain images or certain text information that helps you to understand

  • What is going on in an area
  • Whether there is any danger or hazard that needs to be avoided
  • The instruction that one has to follow.

Importance of using the signs in a construction site:

Whether a building is being renovated, whether a new building is being constructed, whether some repair works are taking place, there are always certain possibilities of danger. The danger lurks not only on the passers-by, but also for the employees. The construction signs can be of great help in such a case.

Safety measure – following the laws:

For every construction site, it is a law to use safety signs. Whether there is any danger in a particular area or site, whether an employee or a visitor has to follow a certain instruction, must be mentioned in that sign. The signs should be –

  • Concise
  • Clear to understand
  • Eye-catching with use of bright colours
  • Durable, so that it can be visible and last long during a project.

Anybody should understand the signs and follow the instructions, if any.

Types of construction signs:

Usually, the construction signs are made up of bright orange coloured, diamond shaped sign boards with black coloured texts and images for clear reading. In some cases, roll-up signs are also used that are spread on the roads to give warning or instruction and once the construction task is complete, the sign is rolled up and removed. The colour of the sign boards may greatly vary from time to time, depending on the type of sign that is used. It can be yellow or even white in colour.

Common signs that are used in a construction site:

  • Danger – Construction Area – Keep Out
  • Danger – Construction Area – Authorized Personnel Only
  • Danger – Hard Hat Area
  • Warning – Do Not Enter
  • Caution – Men Working Above
  • Danger – Open Pit
  • Danger – Open Hole.

Though these are the most commonly used and found construction signs, you will also find many other signs in a job site. At times, simple instructions like parking area, entry and exit also used in these sites. Choose the one that is required for your job site.

Heavy equipment companies offering gifts to operators during Christmas

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The month of December is here and it reminds us of nothing but only Christmas. We tend to forget our worries, our hardships and just want to flow with the good time around. We see everyone happy and that definitely has an impact on us and the way we take things. Though it snows in most part of the country, we still find it pleasurable and do not get annoyed of the cold weather. We struggle to move out in the snow but we still do that to bring gifts for our near and dear ones and this joy can’t be compared with any other joy that we get each and every year. We believe that the construction industry is never at rest but probably this is the only time when they do not care a lot about their business. Though work is carried on as usual if it is a very important project which has strict deadlines but other than that, people tend to take leaves and have a good time with their families.

This is also particularly the period when the employees of a construction company receive lot of gifts from all corners and one such entity that showers good number of gifts to the operators is the heavy equipment manufacturing companies. Right from the month of December, they pull out a list of construction companies that have purchased heavy equipment from them and set a margin on the kind of gifts they would be giving. It ideally goes this way. The company that have bought more number of machines will get sort of expensive gifts and the ones who have just given a minor push to their sales figure will be given quality gifts but may not be classy ones.

The heavy equipment manufacturing companies usually grade the operators a lot. They believe that the feedback of the operators does matter a lot and therefore they should be rewarded for their unbiased feedback. This is why they buy gifts particularly for the operators and for the people who are in the upper management. It seems that they are only entitled to offer gifts in kind and not in cash to the operators or else it may also result in bribing and therefore they ensure that they do not get into any sort of problem.

Many heavy equipment companies offer some gift vouchers which can be redeemed at only those restaurants that is defined in the gift voucher. This means that they can’t make use of it in any restaurant in the city and have to selectively go to only those places that are mentioned in the voucher. Some operators are also given vouchers that they use only for shopping. Hence, if they want to use it to eat in a restaurant, they can’t use them. They have to necessarily go and buy some accessories or stuffs that they like from a particular shopping center only. However, it is still worthy to get a gift during Christmas as one can certainly make good use of it.

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Heavy equipment salesman should give some importance to his/her personality

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We have been hearing this famous saying since ages “First impression is the last impression”. Not sure how far this saying is correct but as far as the construction industry is concerned this saying matters a lot. Right from heavy equipment salesperson to the marketing guys who are promoting a construction company. These guys need to carry a pleasing personality and can never manage to look shoddy. There are few mannerisms as well which they are supposed to follow whenever they go out to meet a client.

The client will not entertain them knowing the name of the company they are coming from. The first thing that will catch the attention of the client is the personality of the salesman and the way he is able to carry himself. It matters a lot when you are part of a profession where you have to meet clients in person and talk about your products. Not every successful sale is done by convincing.

You may be a good communicator and can speak real well but at the end of the day if you are not at all presentable then your entire effort can go for a toss. There are few things that can make a good personality and one must consciously follow those things to ensure that they look good and presentable.

Looking presentable is important:-

Imagine if you are approached by a person who is not well shaved, his shirt tucked out and quite casual in his behavior and he tries to pitch a product to buy. The first thing that will come in your mind is “Is he representing his company or came here to meet his friend?” Well, this is what we all will think if we are approached by someone of this kind. We have certain expectation from salesman of reputed companies. They are in fact considered the first ambassador of any company.

You see them and make out the stature of the company. This is why being presentable is so important. It actually reflects the company that you are working for. If you are not presentable enough that will show your company in negative light and once the client has made an impression in his mind, it will then become very difficult for anybody to change that. No matter how good the company is in producing quality heavy equipment, he/she will still have his reservations. Just when he/she hears about your company, he/she will remember you. That kind of impression you will leave if you do not carry a pleasing personality.

You may lose sale:-

Losing a sale for a salesman selling heavy equipment is no less than losing a war. He/she has to spend lot of time and energy with a client to sell one heavy equipment and he/she just can’t let that go for a reason as lame as not having a pleasing personality. It hurts a lot for the guy who has spent so much of his effort on that sale. All you need to do is follow some basic rules like wearing ironed shirt and trouser and should be clean, clean shave and look like a professional.

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