Discover how to use software to track your construction equipment.
Managing equipment, attachments and tools becomes a full-time job for many companies. And in some cases, it requires two or three full-time jobs.
With today’s technology, managing assets should never require dedicated administrative staff. Sophisticated software solutions allow everyone in the company to view and update equipment-related information in real-time from the field or the office. These solutions help construction business owners maximize efficiency in today’s competitive business environment.
Asset Tracking
Over the last decade, the need for asset management solutions has increased greatly. Rather than have several workers perform a task, contractors use equipment to do the job because labor has gotten more expensive. As a result, contractors have to keep track of more equipment and assets than they did 10 years ago. The current economy also demands that contractors streamline their processes, including asset management, to become more efficient. Those who do not adapt will struggle.
For some construction companies, managing assets means assigning a team of administrative staff to update whiteboards with notes about each piece of equipment. For others, asset management means creating multiple Excel spreadsheets that include a variety of information. All too often, each spreadsheet showcases someone’s customized color-coding system that no one else in the company can understand.
Other products have been developed specifically to help contractors keep track of their tools, such as systems that assign bar codes to each tool in a contractor’s inventory. When the bar code is scanned, the user receives information about that particular tool, mostly for maintenance schedule purposes.
The current trend calls for fully integrated asset management solutions with capabilities far beyond any whiteboard, spreadsheet or tool tracker. These important features could be the difference between getting a job or losing it to the competition.
Timesaver
Whiteboards, Excel spreadsheets and other stand-alone solutions often require dedicated administrative staff to keep information updated. If a change has been made to a piece of equipment in the field, someone in the office has to update their notes. Many times, a change requires office personnel to update multiple databases—the redundant data entry wastes many hours throughout the course of a year.
An efficient asset management system will not require administrative staff to update equipment records. Instead, all employees have access to one database that contains information on the entire fleet. If a worker moves a backhoe from one jobsite to another, he or she can update the system from a wireless device. If someone from the shop completes an oil change on a pickup truck, he or she can make a record of that. With real-time information, everyone can see the latest updates.
New software has also made it easier to enter new equipment into the database. For example, if a contractor purchases multiple machines of the same model, the specifications will automatically populate for multiple entries, which reduces redundant work.
With new asset management software, companies can also record the features and capabilities of fleet equipment and use the information to make smarter dispatching decisions. For example, a backhoe record will indicate the machine’s digging depth, its available attachments and other similar information. An aerial lift entry will document its maximum reach, weight limit and whether it is electric-powered, gas-powered, etc. With this information in the system, workers can perform quick searches to identify a machine that most closely matches their job specs.
As equipment moves from the inventory list to the jobsite, a worker can log where the equipment will be, the expected return date and the job specifications, among other things. This information will be helpful for others who may require similar equipment on a different jobsite. For example, a worker may need to dig a 12-foot-deep trench, but the only backhoe currently available has an 18-foot digging depth. Therefore, the worker borrows the 18-foot backhoe and flags the unit as oversized equipment in the database. Weeks later, another worker needs to dig an 18-foot trench, but at this time, the largest backhoe in inventory has a 12-foot digging depth. Instead of renting an 18-foot backhoe, he can identify the oversized machine on the first job and ask his co-worker to swap equipment.
The ability to match equipment with a proper jobsite greatly increases the equipment’s life because it reduces the amount of time a machine spends in the equipment yard. It also saves money by preventing unnecessary equipment rentals. Far too often, workers will rent a machine when they can easily borrow one from another jobsite or wait a few days for the equipment to become available.
Some contractors have started extending the capabilities of asset management software with compatible GPS devices. The GPS devices can be installed on the most valuable and mobile equipment in the fleet to monitor real-time GPS coordinates of the machines, and the location of the assets can be viewed on a Bing or Google map. Currently, this feature is not widely used among contractors, but it will gain momentum in the coming years and will eventually become commonplace.
Increased Revenue
Many asset management solutions now have an asset costing functionality that helps contractors make more money from their equipment. The software weighs multiple factors, such as depreciation, insurance, repairs, rust time, etc., to determine the exact equipment costs to incorporate the correct rates in a bid.
This can help contractors analyze the profitability of various machines in their fleet. For example, a contractor may realize one machine sits in the yard for 10 months out of the year. Using the asset management software, he can determine if it would be more cost-effective to sell the machine and rent it. In another scenario, a machine may be so old that it makes less money in a year than what it costs to repair the machine.
Some contractors have started allowing non-competing contractors to rent their unused equipment. Today’s software solutions can help with this process, from tracking the rentals to creating invoices.
Flexibility
To provide all of these benefits, an asset management solution must be integrated with a company’s business management software rather than work as a standalone solution. This provides employees with one platform instead of multiple databases to find and update all important business information.
Flexibility is another important consideration. An asset management solution should be built to work on a platform that a company cannot outgrow. Also, built-in multi-currency and multilingual capabilities allow companies to go global.
To accommodate any company’s IT strategy, some of today’s asset management systems are available in-house or in the cloud. Some companies choose a combination of both, using the cloud initially to ensure the solution works and then moving it in-house to their own servers. This gives companies flexibility and prevents them from locking into a certain business model for years.
Throughout the last several years, the industry has seen asset management along with job costing, work order management and other business functions become more tied in with sales. Many asset management systems have been built on customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, fostering a more sales-driven business model. This trend originated when the economy slipped into recession. Asset management will only become more integral to a company’s success.
