Monthly Archives: May 2017

Review of strategy is important for the growth of a construction company

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We often consider planning to be one of the most important components towards the growth of a business but there is something that is equally important and that is reviewing those plans. It makes absolutely no sense to prepare a plan if we do not take care to review it. Things may go haywire and we will not even get to know about it as long as we do not sit to check the ground reality. This is why reviewing the plans is very crucial for the growth of any company. It becomes all the more important when one is take care of his construction business. This form of the business has too many ups and downs in it and one has to go through a lot of hardships to put everything in place. To set things right, a lot of people have to get involved in various sets of planning and knowing the nature of the business which is pretty dynamic and where anything can happen at any moment, one needs to make sure that he keeps on checking if the actual are in sync with the proposed plan and if not take corrective measures to set it right.

Involving all the head of departments for setting the plan:-

When you are building a plan, it is essential that you involve the heads of all the departments so that they can all give their inputs pertaining to the cause of the plan. You can have deep insights from them about how the department can perform and if there will be any requirement of additional workforce in the due span. You can rely on their advices and then go about framing the plan. In this way, they all will be aware of your goals and then it just will not be your goal but will become the goal of the company. It is not just you who will be working hard to realize the goals but your entire team will be with you.

Have a quarterly meeting with all of them to check the actual:-

Reviewing of plans should be conducted once in 3 months. This lets us know the real picture from the proposed one and what needs to be done to get things back on track if at all it is out of place. It also ensures that things do not completely out of hand which is possible if you take up the same meeting after a year. You will probably find that the damage has become irreparable and may have to start all over. That will be a sad part for the management also a question on your leadership quality.

Check area of opportunities and eliminate threats:-

It is only during the review that you get to know the possible threats that exist and can act as a big danger to the project. You can’t get to know the threats while you chalk out the plan. In the same way, while you start working on a plan you also come to know if there are any more opportunities that you can explore. Pick up all the opportunities and try and eliminate the threats.

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Why most construction companies want to use CAT heavy equipment

Among the 33 heavy equipment manufacturing companies present worldwide, it is only Caterpillar Inc (CAT) which is the world leader. It is the leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. It’s construction industries segment’s product portfolio includes more than 300 various machines and related parts, such as backhoe loaders, compact wheel loaders, small track-type tractors, small wheel loaders, track-type loaders, medium track-type tractors, skid steer loaders, mini excavators, select work tools, multi-terrain loaders, small, medium and large track excavators, motor graders, medium wheel loaders, wheel excavators, telehandlers, compact track loaders, pipe layers and mid-tier soil compactors. These are the workhorses of any construction and mining industry and make their job easy and quicker. CAT produces equipment which are embedded with latest technologies for increased safety, comfort, reliability, durability and of good quality with an aim to help customers meet their needs. Customers have found their equipment up to their expectations and are satisfied. Hence, they are popular and widely used in construction industry making CAT a world leader. Further, no competitor company can match with caterpillar’s product range

 

The following are the reasons for construction companies use CAT heavy equipment:

  • Focus on customer satisfaction:
  1. They have more than 300 machines which are durable, innovative and reliable which satisfy customers for the investment that they have made in purchase of the equipment. CAT has ability to see the job from customer’s point of view and meet their needs.
  2. CAT sells both new and used machines. The used machines are sold at a cheaper price than the new products.
  3. CAT gives option to customers to upgrade their equipment. This opportunity allows customer to use the same machine for a long time.
  4. Their products, services, solutions offered by them, help customers to succeed.
  5. They provide solutions for maintenance which minimizes downtime, reduces cost and keeps equipment in run mode during peak performance. In addition, local CAT dealers technician’s have the experience, knowledge and training necessary to troubleshoot problems faced by customers and provide maintenance and repairs of equipments. Thus, efficient service by CAT allows the customers to manage their business effectively.
  • Marketing and Distribution: Its pioneer in exploring new age marketing
  1. They have the best distribution and product support system as compared to any other capital goods industry.
  2. They have dealers which are as old as the company. They have wide and strong network of dealers in different countries.
  3. They have built their brand and improved corporate image. They participate in various marketing channels such as trade shows and participating in technical seminars. Also use of internet has been used for advertising.
  4. Construction boom in Asian countries gave them good opportunity to expand especially in China.

This strategy has increased and made customer base stronger in developed and developing countries.

 

Thus, good marketing strategy along with innovative and durable products has won over the customers, due to which Caterpillar Inc’s equipment and machinery is widely used in construction industry.

Ensure the cooling system of your machine is doing well this summer

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Heavy equipment take quite a beating during the summer. It has been found that mostly the cooling system of the heavy equipment does not remain in order which is why the problem crops up and the entire machine goes out of service. Now after knowing the importance of heavy equipment in the construction business, it very unlikely that the owner of the construction company will take the risk to leave the cooling system of the machine unrepaired. Heavy equipment that work in states like Texas have probably experienced the worst heat and if the engine is not cooled at regular intervals, there are chances that the machine will break down every now and then. You start the engine for a couple of hours and it becomes hot like a volcano waiting to burst at any moment.

We will be speaking about some very generic cooling techniques that should be used to keep the machine going under any summer season.

The coolant technology should be checked regularly:-

Different heavy equipment companies have installed different types and different qualities of coolants in their machines. These coolants have an expire date and if they are not checked regularly then it only shortens the expiry date. Contractors are not even aware of any expire dates of the coolants and they believe that giving it to the mechanic means results to end of any and every problem related to the heavy equipment. Well, that is not the case. A mechanic only services the machine and if he finds anything that has gone wrong, he will inform you about it and only if you say so he changes the parts. Some mechanics do not bother to check the quality of the coolant as long as they are not asked to. Therefore, you should take the initiative and ask him to check if the cooling system in the heavy equipment is in place.

Make use of the right machine to complete the task:-

Though nowadays heavy equipment are multifaceted and are expected to do work that does not fall in its line of business. This has been a boon to the construction companies but at the same time when they try to make use of this boon more regularly, it may back fire. You can’t use a grader to demolish structures. Though you can use attachments to get some temporary work done but do not make it a routine. Other than that, the terrain where you want your machine to work can also be an issue. Not all heavy equipment are equipped to work on every terrain and incline. If you compel it to work where it is not meant to, then the chances of the engine heating up increases manifolds. You have to keep that in mind and ensure that you do not use your machine in places where it can’t work.

Do not overwork the heavy equipment:-

Heavy equipment has certain capacity to work and if it moves beyond the capacity the problem begins. You need to stop the machine right at the very stage where you see it can’t take any further. Also instruct the operator about it that you do not want the machine to be overworked at any cost.

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Related articles across the web

Heavy Equipment Maintenance Tips – Increase its Life and Performance

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Let’s be clear on one thing and face the reality – heavy equipment does not come for a flimsy price. They are expensive and when you decide to invest on something as expensive as a fleet of heavy construction equipment, it is important that you take all the necessary measures to increase its life. If you want to see great returns, you must follow these maintenance tips.

Maintenance is the very basic of all the necessary measures that you need to take in order to take care of your heavy equipment. Usually owners think that hiring trained professionals and installing one or two anti-theft protocols would do the job. That will not! Here is what you need to do.

  • Cleaning:

 

Heavy construction equipment often has to work in extreme working conditions and environment such as dust storm, dirt and mud. Hence, it requires a regular cleaning routine in order to keep its appearance as well as function proper. In fact, dirt and dust can damage the machinery and engine. Therefore, cleaning is a must.

  • Engine Oil Changing:

 

Changing the engine oil is one of the most important maintenance factors that you need to keep in mind. Engine oil loses its liquidity and becomes like sludge with time. This is because the engine oil accumulates the carbon and other elements from the engine and reduces the chances of explosion as well as the heat that is generated from friction of the engine. Hence, to make sure that the engine is in complete working condition, the engine oil is important. The instruction manual always guides you about how frequently the engine oil needs to be changed.

  • Servicing:

 

Servicing the heavy equipment regularly is crucial. Changing the damaged parts and replacing them with new ones in case any of the parts loses its functionality, are some of the most important maintenance tasks that you need to do.

  • Check for Leaks:

 

Leaks are possible in the heavy construction equipment. Always check for the leaks from the valves. If any, have them repaired at once.

  • Check Tires and Axles:

 

Since the heavy equipment works on mud, dust and dirt, the tires and axles can get damaged. If they stop working, the machine will not move. Hence, they need to be checked regularly.

  • Monitor Usage:

 

Overuse of the machine is one of the main reasons that the equipment becomes wearied. That is why, it is important that you keep an eye on the usage.

  • Safety Training:

 

Just as hiring professional workers and heavy equipment operators is important, it is equally important that you have your operators go through safety training. This will help the operators to operate the equipment safely and thus, the longevity will be increased.

If you follow these maintenance tips, it will surely help your heavy equipment to be operating for long. The owner must always keep in mind that maintaining heavy equipment and its functionality is less expensive than repairing its damages, once done. Hence, it is a must that you take your heavy equipment to professional service centres.

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Ensure that you pay the monthly dues of your heavy equipment

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Buying heavy equipment by paying hard cash has now become almost obsolete. No one wants to invest all their reserves into buying heavy equipment and keep their money locked there. They know that by paying hard cash to buy heavy equipment, they will not be able to meet other financial obligations which would be perhaps more important than anything else. Therefore there is no point in keeping the money tied where you have options to take loans from financial institutions to buy construction machines and pay them every month. Contractors big or small have now made this as a mandate of their business. They do not invest their reserves into buying heavy machinery and rely on financial institutions to lend them money to buy machines. This is the reason why almost every contractor as well as owners of construction companies tries to keep their credit rating healthy. This will enable them to get loans without any hassles.

Not paying your dues can lead to repo:-

If you think that non-payment of the monthly dues can only affect your credit score, then you will be rather alarmed to know that the banks have the authority to claim the machine back citing the reason as non-payment of monthly dues. Though they do not take such stringent actions immediately and allow the borrower to arrange for funds. Normally, borrower who has the intention to clear the debts but for some reason is unable to pay the due for a particular month can inform the bank well in advance. This results in increasing the chance for the bank to waive off any late payment fees. The borrower will have to pay the interest of the due but that is still manageable. However, for borrower who just does not want to pay the dues, the banks do not have any option other than to repo the heavy equipment.

One fine morning your machine is gone:-

Your bank might send you several notices to pay the due but if you ignore them and do not communicate with the bank, the bank will contact the repossession team who will just come to your construction site or the place where you have the machine and will tow it away. The repo team may or may not inform you about their arrival. Generally, they do not inform the borrower about their arrival and they will slyly tow the machine and bring it in their possession. You can’t complain the policy as the bank has first lien on the machine and since you have failed to pay installments for months they have every right to repo your machine. Therefore, it is recommended that you allocate some funds out of your business to pay your monthly dues rather than facing the music.

Business will suffer:-

Once the heavy equipment is taken by the bank and you do not have machine to work, your business will suffer severely. Construction companies never take this risk. It only makes matter worse for them.

 

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Marketing your construction business on a small budget

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To survive in any form of an industry one needs to know to market his product well. It is absolutely important for a new set up to create his brand value in the market and that can be done only through ways of proper marketing. In order to market your brand you need to do some amount of spending. No marketing can be for free. You got to shell some amount of money behind the purpose and at times people spend a good chunk on it. But not every company can afford to spend a lot of money on marketing and therefore they have to fix a budget for that. There has to be a systematic planning to market your brand which also talks about how constructively you can set a cap on the marketing expenditure. It simply means that you can’t over budget your marketing expenses and if at all you got to do so then there should be a separate contingent plan available.

Construction business in particular has to be very cautious when it comes to marketing. You never know when the overall expenses reach the tilt and you gasp for more money. Therefore it is imperative for a construction business owner to frame a plan to market his business on a tight small budget. It may be a difficult task to market the construction business on a small budget but definitely not an impossible task. There are few ways and means that one can adopt if they want to market the business on a relatively small budget.

Promote your business online:-

Make a website of your own. Every company irrespective of whatever industry they belong to does have a website of their company. This is where the put all the information about their company and mentions the recent launches. Now what you need to do is try to make your website as attractive as you can but remember that it should not look awkward that people find it to be funny. Try to keep the professionalism of your company in place while you are designing your website. You got to mention about the existing projects and the one that is up your sleeves. You can also talk about the projects that you have completed and also the kind of projects that you work on. It is evident that not all construction houses take up any project that they get. They have their expertise and prefer to work in that domain.

Market it in social media:-

Social media has given you the option to market anything to a relatively larger section of the population and that too at a much lesser cost. You do not have to shell perhaps anything to reach out to people. All they need to do is like your website and all their friends can also get to see you. You have plenty of social media websites where you can promote your business by paying a meager sum of money.

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Avoid making poor investments that can cost you your company

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Taking right decision and making good investments are both quite crucial for the success of any business and when it is about construction, you got to be sharper with your thinking skills. Any poor decision can cost your business a lot and simultaneously any bad investment can have a drastic impact on your business. When you are dealing with investments in the construction sector, you are ideally dealing with lot of money and you got to be doubly sure that the plan will not backfire before you go ahead with the decision of making some big investments. For instance, you plan to hire some men for a new project that you foresee to bag. You are somehow confident of the fact that you will be able to get the project and have therefore allocated capital to pay salary for the additional workforce. In this scenario, you are heavily investing on human resources. So as long as you are not completely sure about the project, you should hold up your plan to hire any further resource.

People have lost millions in their business after having made the mistake of making poor investments. They were not aware that situation will take a downturn and they will have a hard time to come up with it and will lose a major chunk of their business capital. Even the most powerful in the construction sector have to face the music at times and they learn their lessons the hard way. There have been cases where the head of the departments had to resign for taking callous investment decisions that has cost the company a bomb. Mighty construction companies at still able to take the blow of bad investments but it is irreparable loss to small construction houses and contractors who vie for every small project.

Buying heavy equipment has been one of the most common poor investments by big as well as small construction companies. For some reason they could not figure out the kind of heavy equipment they need and they end up buying machines that were not required in the first place. They realize it later that the machine they have bought was capable of doing multiple tasks and they need not buy more machines. Since they have already invested in heavy equipment, they are left with not many options. They either sell it off at a lesser price or let it out to others.

In case, they have taken loans to buy heavy equipment, things become all the more difficult. They have to pay the bank the entire amount along with the interest or else it might have an impact on their credit rating which is in no ways good for the business. You get investments from private investors who are not necessarily banks and they invest in you by knowing that you have a good credit rating. So any poor investment decision should not be the reason for your credit rating to take a dip. This is perhaps the last thing you would want to happen.

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Running a storm clean-up project using heavy equipment

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Heavy equipment is one of those inventions that have made life way easier. The different types of heavy equipment that are available in the market can take care of any kind of heavy duty work. It can construct, destruct and remove anything from anywhere, without much of a trouble.

Though storms like hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones and even the snow storms are some of the natural forces that cannot be prevented, the damage that is caused by these can well be repaired and managed with the help of the heavy equipment.

Managing the damages:

Storms are sometimes extremely disastrous, resulting in so much of damage and financial losses that it becomes absolutely difficult to overcome the losses. What is an added trouble is that storms simply disconnect the world and this brings the livelihood to a standstill. Even after the storm has stopped, people fail to get back to the normal life to cope. This is because, the roads, the houses and everything else is affected by the storms. In such a case, heavy equipment comes in as a help to remove the debris and to construct the damaged.

  • Managing the railroad damages:

 

Railroads are one of the most important aspects of communication that is often damaged by the storms. There are some areas of the railroads, where it is absolutely difficult for the rail equipment to go in, in order to remove the debris. The nearby forest and woods often get torn apart and block the railroads. In such cases, the mulcher excavators help in removing the debris. These mulchers can mulch down the logs, stems and the huge amount of forest debris within a very short span of time.

  • Repairing roads:

 

Often roads are damaged severely after a storm. The bitumen and asphalt come out of the roads, making it absolutely impossible to drive on and also dangerous. The bulldozers, excavators and motor graders, crawlers as well as chip spreaders can manage the task within a day or two.

What needs to be mentioned here is that reaching the remote areas is a difficult task for many vehicles because of the waterlogging. However, the heavy equipment that is specially designed to manage storm damages, are capable of going through water.

  • Dumping the debris:

 

Along with removing the debris, it is also very important that you take the debris to the dumping grounds. The loaders help in this task. The loaders come in various sizes and they can carry huge amount of loads from one place to the other. You can also hire the dumping trucks for this task of carrying the debris.

Depending on the damages and the type of help that you need, you can choose the heavy equipment. The heavy equipment for storm clean-up can either be hired or purchased. You can decide whether you want to own the equipment or hire it when you need it. There are many suppliers, who offer both brand new and used heavy equipment for various purposes. Choose a good and reputed supplier.

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Heavy equipment safety meeting topics

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Safety of human resources as well as the assets of the company should be given due importance in every industry. This is perhaps one such thing that can’t be ever taken for granted because if you do so then it will always hit you back and it will hit you hard. This is the reason why many companies across several industries spend good amount of money on safety trainings and explaining its employees the importance of following those safety measures.

Industries that are considered to be risky on part of the employees should take special care towards the implementation of the safety trainings and the outcome of those trainings. Construction sector is one such business where employees are prone to accidents if they do not follow what they have been trained on the jobsite. It has been observed that the number of accidents have fallen considerably after people started taking things seriously. You have to make few things mandatory. Not everybody will like when you compel them to follow a certain routine but if it is for their good then you got to do it.

Another important part that we usually take for granted is the safety of heavy equipment. These machines are an integral part of the construction industry and their role in this sector can’t be seen to be minuscule. Therefore it is equally important for the business owner to ensure that the machines are safe both in terms of maintenance and also not falling in the hand of thieves.

It is crucial that the top notch of the companies sit for a while in a month and check the current status of heavy equipment. Are they in good order, what measures have been taken to ensure that the machines do not break down in middle of an important project and if it does is there an alternative available? These topics should be discussed in a meeting and the team present in the meeting should also come up with some form of a solution to an existing problem.

Machines are really old:-

When heavy equipment become very old they tend to have a lot of technical and maintenance issues. In a heavy equipment safety meeting, this topic should be raised. If you have heavy equipment that is being used for the last many years and if you see getting converted into a liability rather than an asset due to increase in maintenance, it should be highlighted because old machines with technical problems are in many ways not safe to use. They may stop following the instructions given by the operator and the chances of an accident thereby increase manifolds.

How frequently heavy equipment are serviced:-

This is another important topic that should be a part of the meeting. Pull the record of the last time when all the heavy equipment were serviced. Check the gaps from that date till today and raise a question if you find the gaps to be more than it should be. A clear instruction should be given to the hierarchy that heavy equipment by all means should follow regular maintenance and any deviation will be strictly dealt with.

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