Monthly Archives: November 2017

New and Looking for Advice in the Construction Industry

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Before you begin any journey you first prepare yourself for that. Your career is also one such journey of life where you got to be pretty sure that you have made all the preparation for a smooth sail. Though you will experience challenges as you move ahead you will also learn to overcome those obstacles and will head for higher in life. The most important part of the preparation to begin your career will be to seek right advices from the right people and follow them. People who choose a career path and are new to that industry will have to go through some bit of hardships but if they seek right advice then things will slowly and steadily fall in place. There are few industries that are quite volatile and one has to be cautious enough when they put their foot inside it. Construction industry is one such sector which is considered to be highly volatile with a lot of ups and downs that might sneak into your business without giving any prior intimation.

Choose your genre wisely:-

In the construction business one needs to select the genre that he wants to work in. For instance, a person can choose to become an operator of heavy equipment. For this he needs to know how to operate heavy machineries and which machine to be used for what kind of work. The work of an engineer is completely different. They are the ones who design the plan and then check if the implementation is being worked as per the plan. Likewise there are other segments within the industry and one need to first understand the kind of work he wants to get into. If he is confused with it, then he can try working with a construction company for some months and check what genre of work suits his interests and accordingly can take that as his profession.

Upgrade your knowing on the working of the business:-

Once you have identified the line of business that suits your interests you should then try to learn as much as you can about the various functions of the business. There is certainly more than one way to work a work and that is what a person should learn. If for some reason one of the way to work things out is impeded then you know the other way round. It is all about alternatives and how effectively you can apply them in your business is the crux.

Generate confidence amongst the veterans:-

Your work speaks a lot about yourself and your character. It reflects how serious you are when it comes to your career. When you are new you are observed by many and if your work is of high quality then it generates a level of confidence amongst the veterans who in turn will keep you in their good books and will teach you work that not many knows in the industry. This is how you will be able to ultimately shape up your career in the construction industry.

Sell your old, dilapidated heavy equipment to a workshop

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The chance to get a good price for an item that has turned into a junk is pretty low. You also will not find many takers who would want to buy the item. It does not take much of an effort for someone to realize that he should not pay for a commodity that is old and not in a good state. The owner of the item will have to sell it in a shop that deals with all sorts of junk items as he will not find anybody else who would be interested in buying it. Owners of heavy equipment have often experienced enormous trouble to sell old machines to a new buyer. Contractors are ready to buy old machines but certainly not those machines that will turn out as a liability when they put it to use on the site. Hence a person who possesses a decade old or probably older than that has a problem selling it.

Workshops can pay you more:-

You may have come across certain heavy equipment workshops that repair heavy equipment and also sells them to prospective customer who can’t shell out a lot of money in buying machines. These guys work really smart. They buy really old heavy equipment at a nominal price and then refurbish it by installing latest gadgets and technology. They paint it and give it a new life so that buyers who are not rich enough to afford branded heavy equipment can easily buy it from them. The only problem is you can encounter some or the other problem with the machine at any given point in time. It is absolutely not a reliable piece but it does not mean that there are no takers for the machine. These workshops sell with an assurance that id anything goes wrong with the stuff the owner can bring it back to them and they will repair it for free.

They do not pay you a meager amount:-

If you wonder the price they will pay you for the old metal you can be assured that you will get more than what you will get from a junkshop. The guys in the junkshop will eventually sell it to them. They will just keep aside the profit which can be yours if you directly approach these guys. Start with a higher amount and do not be surprised if they say no. You are just beginning a negotiation and therefore try to begin it on a higher note. They will try to bring down the price to an amount that may not be acceptable to you. This will be the test of your skill where you need to hold your price or let it come go down by few dollars. Remember, it is completely up to you to fix the price that sound to be acceptable to you.

Locating such workshops is not a tough task. What you need to do is visit a few of them before you nail the price.

Shortage of Workers a Problem for Construction Company

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For the success of a business, there are a number of factors that need to be taken care of. These factors include loyal and happy employees, good suppliers as well as skilled workers. There are some industries or businesses that are exceptionally dependent on manual labour or workers and one such industry is the construction industry.

If you run a construction business or company, it is a must that you are always equipped with all the necessary construction equipment that can make the work faster and easier, as well as adequate workers. Though construction industry is one of those that have experienced amazing hike over the past few years, due to the constantly growing need for new constructions, worker shortage is also a problem that they have to face.

Causes of labour or worker shortage in construction companies:

There is always a need for skilled workers in every industry. Workers or labour is available in abundance, but skilled ones are really minimal in number. Hence, there is always a shortage of these skilled workers in every industry. However, before you come up with a solution for these, it is a must that you know about the causes behind the worker shortage problem in a construction business.

  • Lack of safety and security:

 

In most cases, the inhibition against the blue-collared works is the lack of safety and security from these construction projects. Young labours fear from joining these construction companies due to the fear of meeting with accidents that are caused by a lack of safety measures.

  • Financial insecurity:

 

Often, the workers consider the college education and a good job prospect as their only way to financial security. Therefore, they do not want to join the construction industries.

  • Cultural inhibitions:

 

Doing construction jobs is still considered by many as “dirty work”. Hence, they are more drawn towards joining a full-time educational course with a huge debt and then end up searching for jobs that would help them in repaying the huge debt.

These are the most common causes behind the worker shortage problem in construction companies.

How to solve the problem?

If you have a construction company and if you too are met with this problem of worker shortage, it is a must that you take care of the problem at once. Otherwise, the performance and functionality of the business will be affected a great deal.

To manage the worker shortage problems, most of the company owners make the mistake of filling the shortage with unskilled labours. However, this only wastes more time in training them, completing the administrative work, giving them high wages without receiving the desired skill and also in providing the drug tests, safety training etc. Hence, increasing the productivity of your existing workers is always a great idea.

The amount of money that you save from this can be invested on uplifting the standard of the existing labours or workers. In case of a construction business, there is the additional facility of depending more on the construction equipment or heavy duty machineries that will save you time and money, as well as increase productivity. This will reduce the necessity or dependence on manual labour to a great extent.

Take every possible step to minimize construction cost

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The moment you set your foot into the construction industry, you got to think like any businessman does. Well, you do not have to think like a miser but need to think like a wiser. Well, you only need to become more matured when it comes to construction costs and sideline things that are not important for your business. People who belonged to the construction industry often advices that one needs to make his choices correct when it comes to spending on construction equipment. But is it only the construction equipment that forms major part of the business spending. There are many other costs that incurs in this segment of business and the owner needs to ensure that he keeps proper control on the spending. There are both recurring and non-recurring expenses that are needed to be met every month and if the company does not minimize its costs on things that are not so important then it will find itself in a comparatively tougher position.

Follow a stringent budget:-

Once you have a new project in hand, you tend to make lot of spending on things that you feel will be required for the project. However, the truth is on the total spending you actually require just half of it. The rest remains unutilized. This is not a good sign for any business house whose motto should be to reduce the cost of construction and not over spending on things. Therefore, it is important that the moment you bag a project, you start preparing a plan on things that you need and the amount of money you are ready to spend on it. You need to prepare a solid budget that has to be realistic. Also give proper instructions throughout all departments to strictly adhere to the budget and if they have to overstep the budget, they take prior approval from you. Other than that, under no given circumstance that they should go beyond the amount allocated to them.

Your planning should be absolutely bang-on:-

Before you start working on the project, give some time to plan things up. It is very crucial that you have a proper plan in place and you work according to it. Frame the plan by discussing things with the architect, contractors, the guy who looks after the finance of the company and other important people who can help you in streamlining things and set things right for you. Try to have precise estimates of raw materials and if the price will grow or come down in near future. Have a talk with the trade contractor about it and try to sense the situation of the market. On the basis of these info you should plan out things and while planning, pay stress on minimizing the cost of construction in every possible manner.

Check the actual with the estimates:-

It is important that you match the actual cost with the estimated cost and see if there is any overspending happening. If the actual are slightly on the higher side, it means things are in control but if you find that there is a good difference then you got to take charge of the situation and fix things immediately.

Heavy equipment required for construction of dam

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Dam construction is one of the most important constructions in this world. Channelizing water supply and to store water, as well as to prevent flood, dams play a huge role. Sometimes, the dams are so beautifully structured and constructed that they can afford to bear rails and bridges for communication.

However, many people do not know how the dams are constructed on the rivers. Have you ever thought of the sort of engineering that might be engaged into constructing a dam? Without the support of the heavy construction equipment, it would be extremely difficult for the engineers to make the huge dams that hold such a huge amount of water pressure.

Types of dams:

Before you understand what it takes to build a dam, you need to understand the purposes that a dam might serve. Dams are constructed for various reasons. The most common ones are –

  • Providing protection from flood, by channelizing water supply
  • Reserving water or making water reservoirs at the backwater dams
  • Creating shipping channels as lateral dams
  • Producing hydroelectricity.

Whatever the type of dam may be, the construction equipment that is used is almost the same.

Heavy Construction Equipment Needed for Dam Construction:

  • Excavators:

 

The first step for dam construction is the diversion of the river. For that the excavators are used to dig the ground. Once the river is diverted on another side, the ground on which the dam needs to be made is excavated.

  • Loaders:

 

The debris from the excavated ground needs to be removed from the area. Hence, loaders are used to remove the debris from the ground. It is removed and taken to some other area, so that the area is completely cleared off the debris.

Once the loaders remove the debris, high power pumps are used to remove the water from the area. The entire area that is given a boundary with scaffold is dried up for further construction.

  • Compactors:

 

After the construction of the ground, the compactors help in making the area suitable for further construction. There are different kinds of compactors that can be used for making the site suitable for the construction of dam.

The ground is then filled with the concrete materials. Large volume of concrete is filled into this gap and then let to dry. Ready-mix trucks are used to fill the concrete into the structure of the dam. In case of huge large constructions, sometimes mixing plants are established right at the place of construction. This helps in supplying the concrete mix to the place of the construction.

The engineers make plans for the dam construction in such a way that it can hold the huge pressure of the water from the river. Some dams are smaller in size and some are larger. The gates are installed into the dam, so that water can be passed when needed. As the concrete is dried up entirely, the water path is again channelized into its original flow. It is then ready for storing water, holding water and also for generating hydro-electricity as needed.

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New CAT heavy equipment to cost slightly more

Heavy equipment are also known for their stupendous prices which is one of the major reason why not many contractors are able to own them. They have to depend on else’s machines that they procure by paying a rent or they buy those used heavy equipment which are old enough and may generate any type of complication while you have them working on the site. This can turn out to be quite a problem for the guy who is currently taken up the project and has deployed heavy equipment just with the hope that it will run till the time he needs them. However, the problem is you do not know when the machine will have issues while you are working on it. This is the reason why experts suggest to go for heavy equipment that are new and also that they belong to a known brand.

CAT has been a pioneer in the heavy equipment sector and most construction companies like to use machines made by them. They believe that heavy equipment produced by companies like CAT are more reliable and lasts really long. They want to invest their money into machines that has a good lifespan and also that are more productive that the earlier models or the machine that they currently own. Market research have indicated that CAT heavy equipment are slightly expensive that heavy equipment manufactured by other players. The reason is simple. They invest good sum of money in doing a lot of research before they come out with a final product.

They begin by taking a survey in the construction arena. They try to collect feedback from people engaged in different genres of construction work and then they start with their endeavor to give shape to the final product. CAT gets its engineers and designers on the job and on the basis of the feedback they try to come up with something that really matters. While designing heavy equipment they keep in view few facts; which are to build a machine that is better than what they have made. Add more features that make it different from what others are selling and make no compromise as far as the quality of the machine is concerned.

It becomes quite obvious that when a heavy equipment manufacturing company is spending a fortune to gather people’s opinion about what they are looking for and then invoking all their resources to come up with a product that suits people’s requirements they will undoubtedly charge a premium for that. Most of the construction companies are even ready to pay this premium as they believe that in order to possess a quality product you have to pay its right price. All they need is 100% satisfaction and real good returns of their investment. The customer service of CAT is phenomenal when it comes to dealing with irate or unsatisfied clients. They try to provide class service and ensure that any issue pertaining to the CAT heavy equipment is resolved without the client having to lose much of his business.

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Bonuses can bring cheer on the faces of construction workers

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In every industry, the workers play a very crucial role in the growth of the business. With happy employees and workers, the business will see constant and continuous growth. But, with unhappy workers, there is always the trouble of companies and businesses suddenly being faced by a strike, labour shortage and many other associated problems. Hence, it is a must that you keep your workers always happy.

The current scenario:

Every single business or industry requires skilled employees. However, despite the high demand, there is a scarcity of availability of skilled labours. Businesses, therefore, often encounter huge losses. But, many company owners are thinking of hiring new set or labours; rather than keeping the existing ones. They consider the cheap wages that they will have to pay for the new and inexperienced labours. However, the fact is that the amount of money that it will cost the companies in training the new labours will be huge. Hence, keeping the skilled and experienced existing workers is always something that one must do.

Having happy workers:

As already mentioned, it is always a good idea to keep the existing and experienced workers with your construction business than hiring new ones; a business owner needs to come up with ideas that will help them in keeping the workers happy. This is because; it is only by providing satisfaction that one can manage to hold the existing staff. And one of the most effective ways of holding existing skilled workers is to give them enough bonuses.

  • Bonus increases performance:

 

Everybody likes a little added bonus. Bonuses bring cheer to the faces of the workers. As you give your construction workers bonus, they will feel encouraged to work even harder and better.

  • Bonus increases loyalty:

 

For a successful business, it is a must that the workers or employees are loyal to your business. Bonuses yield an emotional impact on the workers and become more loyal to your construction company. This results in better performance at work. Moreover, satisfied workers wouldn’t resign from the job, creating a scarcity of workers.

  • Creating a healthy environment:

 

Undoubtedly, construction work is a strenuous one and always requires skill and the extra input to complete a task. When you hand out the bonus to the workers, it is quite likely that the happy and satisfied workers will give their input in the work. During the time, when there is an urgency of workers, your happy construction workers may forfeit their leaves and contribute in completing the task.

Conclusion:

Since bonuses can bring so many benefits for the construction business just for a small amount of investment on the skilled staff and get great returns, it is quite imperative that this factor is paid much attention to. After the successful completion of a project or even yearly or half-yearly, adding bonus to the wages of the workers will only add to the benefits of the construction business. The bonus does not necessarily have to be monetary at all times, it can be other benefits as well that would suit the need of the workers.

Heavy Equipment used for tree logging

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Cutting trees require skills and to load the logs inside the truck is quite a challenge for the operator who does this job. While picking the log, he needs to be pretty sure that the heavy equipment has held the log tightly and there is no chance for it to lose it while the log is hanging in the air. Now this part of the job is quite a tough one because if you go wrong and for some reason the machine could not hold the log, it will fall straight on the ground and can cause harm to men or materials close to the site. Operators who do this job are specially trained and they use special kind of heavy equipment. You can’t use a construction machine for forestry work like tree logging. You can only do the job with those special machines. As we have seen an evolution in heavy equipments used for construction purposes, we have also seen a similar kind of evolution in the heavy equipments used for forestry work.

Earlier people used chainsaws which has new been replaced with modern equipment like feller bunchers, harvesters etc. These machines are usually manufactured keeping into consideration the weight of the machine and its changing area. It is crucial to keep a note of these things as the soil where the machines will function will be soft. Therefore the equipments can’t exert more pressure. There are few widely used heavy equipments without which the forestry sector could have never reached its helm.

Feller Buncher:-

A Feller Buncher is heavy equipment that is widely used for tree logging work. It has an attachment at the top of the machine through which it cuts the trees and also gathers them before they fall on the ground. It is installed with a tree grabbing equipment that holds the tree once it has been cut. Once the tree is cut, it is then put on a stack used for a skidder for further processing works.

Forwarder:-

Forwarder is heavy equipment that is used to pick the cut tree logs from the ground and place it on its back. It is more like a skeleton truck which has barriers on all the 4 sides so that the log does not fall off while the vehicle is moving on the road. It uses its arm to pick the log lying on the ground and then places it all on the truck. The only limitation is that it can’t load big logs due to size constraints and therefore while the logs are cut, one needs to ensure that they are cut as per the size that a forwarder can ferry.

Harvester:-

You can use a harvester to cut down big trees and then cut them into logs. A harvester and a forwarder are the most common heavy equipments that one can see in the forestry sector. Once the tree is cut into logs, the forwarder then picks them up and ferry it to a roadside landing.