Managing your tool park can be extremely time-consuming and complicated, especially for businesses with lots of equipment, warehouses and systems. Even if your tool park is relatively small, the regular movement of equipment between workers and sites can make inventory management a laborious task. Wasting time can also lead to reduced productivity and increased costs, which can make a huge difference in terms of a company’s profitability.
Fortunately, there are a number of measures you can take to help save time when managing your tool park. Let's take a look...
Construction companies should perform an internal audit at least once a year, but many may choose to undertake one bi-annually, quarterly, monthly or even weekly. While the frequency of audits depends on your own needs and requirements, it's important to ensure you perform one regularly.
An internal audit can consist of several small inventory checks across your locations, including workers’ vans where tools are often stored during jobs. Performing these audits frequently helps you know where your tools are and ensures they stay in good working order.
While audits can help save time on-site, they are of course time-consuming in themselves - particularly if you use a manual system. A digital asset management system, such as Hilti ON!Track, can greatly reduce this by automating long processes and reducing human error.
Performing regular audits can help you identify excess and broken equipment that can be removed from your tool park, ensuring workers are always equipped with fully functional tools that are suitable for the job.
Those in charge of managing and maintaining your tool park will also have a constant, up-to-date record of what equipment is available and its status, without having to manually check every time. In turn, this helps increase efficiency and improve productivity.
We all know that downtime costs money, but do you actually know how much it's costing your business?
Calculating the cost of downtime can be quite revealing. While cost is relatively quantifiable in terms of lost productivity, when you factor in the various processes and people involved (such as admin time and the travel associated with tool repair) the costs can quickly spiral.
According to Construction Equipment magazine, once these associated resources are taken into account, the cost of downtime can add up to hundreds of pounds per hour. Downtime on site can vary from around 5-10 minutes to 2-3 hours, with these longer bouts potentially resulting in serious financial implications.
The cost of downtime is often difficult to calculate, so why not get in touch about Hilti's productivity analysis?
Ensuring workers are trained to an appropriate standard can definitely help save time on jobsites. Workers who have a better technical knowledge of their tools may be able to perform minor repairs and services, without having to send them out for repair. This can save considerable time - both in terms of maintenance and downtime.
More importantly, if your employees are trained in preventative measures and understand how to use the equipment correctly, the lifecycle of the tools can be prolonged - reducing services and increasing jobsite productivity.
Preventative maintenance is regular, routine maintenance that helps keep equipment running smoothly - reducing unplanned downtime through unanticipated equipment failure. It works by identifying problems before they happen and requires accurate record keeping of past inspections and service reports.
While this process requires careful planning and scheduling, it can be a highly beneficial time-saving measure - allowing maintenance to take place during scheduled low-value time instead of high-value time on site. Preventative maintenance also has other benefits, including:
Prolonging the life of equipment
Fewer errors in day-to-day operations
Improved equipment reliability and performance
Reduced risk of injury
An effective way to implement all of these time-saving measures is to utilise some form of asset management software. Asset management software helps you to control your tool inventory, record and track maintenance schedules, and know where your tools are at any given time. This type of digital system can save considerable administrative time by automating and simplifying various time-consuming processes.
You won't have to call different sites to locate tools either, or manually count tools and update the number on a spreadsheet.
In the construction industry, time is money, and tool parks are extremely adept at eating up valuable time. By investing in these various methods, not only will you be able to claw back the hours, but you'll have more pennies in the bank too.
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