What Gets Measured Can Be Controlled and Managed

Realizing the needs for sustainability efforts and plans to reduce CO2 footprints are guiding the construction industry toward new ways to optimize job execution, resulting in higher competitiveness. Asset management and equipment used in the construction industry – along with their associated running requirements, utilization, and health and fuel consumption – are major governing factors in sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions.

CCC commitments are leading to the development and implementation of progressive technical skills, as projects are being executed in a more environmentally responsible manner. CCC embraces this responsibility and has developed many internal programs and processes that go beyond what is described in this article. Some of our achievements are described below.

Centralization

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for CCC on “asset-intensive” projects is how to effectively manage different types of assets without creating a huge management workload that erodes the bottom line. So, maximizing the availability and performance of assets is more critical to success than ever before.

Decentralized operations contribute to delays in collecting data and increase errors. Automation and centralized databases are essential for timely, big data manipulation and applying analytics, consequently enriching the management by changing the paradigm from “react” to “anticipate.”

Today, CCC fleet managers and maintenance officers are making immediate and strategic decisions thanks to effective data analysis capabilities and reporting and are able to get asset management information into the hands of maintenance technicians and storeroom personnel rapidly. CCC has advanced considerably in reinventing the way we manage our fleet and in providing leading solutions to converge operational technologies and IT through the deployment of our in-house, nearreal-time control systems (CCC Cloud: iFalcon) and IBM Asset Management system (Maximo) to handle, manage, and control timely maintenance, repairs, job cards, spare-parts stocks, availability, and fuel consumption during the full lifecycle of each asset.

Equipment idling time

Excessive idling can be very expensive and harmful in terms of emissions; equipment running hours should be associated with certain production, otherwise fuel is burnt unnecessarily. This can be reduced by motivating the operators to change their behavior to avoid running the equipment unnecessarily when not in use, except in very few applications. In an idling state, an engine may not generate enough heat to achieve proper combustion, leading to rapid oil contamination and engine wear, hence excessive exhaust emissions. The key component of any effort to reduce idling time is proper planning and performance measurement; that is where CCC started adopting telematics.

Maintenance

When a machine starts its production shift, it should work without interruption. CCC’s goal is to have a minimum number of on-shift failures.

Due to the present centralization of information and controls, maintenance programs are uncompromisingly thorough; repairs and rebuilds are performed to strict quality standards; and replacement decisions are well-timed to ensure that the fleet is as reliable as possible and emissions do not exceed the manufacturer’s norms.

Unplanned and excessive equipment breakdowns are mostly the product of a lack of preventive maintenance. Such events directly alter the job execution plan, which in many cases cannot be revised, resulting in an increase in imposed idling time.

Collateral costs, delays, and associated increases in emissions are extremely difficult to measure. They do not appear in cost reports and are often the subject of bitter debate. Regardless, there is no doubt that they exist and that they have a huge impact on costs, productivity, and sustainability.

Fuel and CO2

CCC recognizes that one of our major environmental impacts is the air pollution related to construction machinery, transportation equipment, and vehicles. The global growth in CCC’s business sectors inevitably intensifies or reduces total fuel consumption across our operations – where the bottom line figures reach hundreds of millions of liters – and proportionally affects our CO2 impact.

As such, the importance of the fuel economy to the successful operation of construction sites cannot be understated. Fuel is one of the largest variable costs, and while no operation can control the cost and the supply quality of fuel, CCC has been able to find at least some control over the following:

• Adopting tight selection criteria during equipment acquisitions, giving priority
to low HP ratings, low-emission options, exhaust treatment options drag improvement gadgets, efficient system designs, smart engine shutdowns during prolonged idling, and recyclable units and components;
• Applying timely and proper preventive maintenance;
• Disposing of old equipment and renewing the fleet to improve on the average fleet age and increase the population of regulated engines;
• Monitoring tires for wear, pressure, alignment, etc.;
• Buying, handling and using the right fuel;
• Introducing advanced automation in the fuel distribution process and control;
• Monitoring and control of individual and cumulative idle time by using nearreal-time data-capturing systems;
• Improving operator efficiency and job knowledge and awareness through regular training schemes.

Telematics

When used through CCC cloud data (iFalcon) on idle time, telematics alone can help managers save thousands of dollars from fuel burnt during the life of a machine, preserve vital warranty hours, and determine best practices in each application. iFalcon Telematics can be used to capture, analyze, and document a baseline for idling time, utilization, maintenance requirements, fuel consumption, load factors, and an extensive list of other operational attributes as well as look for ways to get the right data, at the right time, to the right people through intelligent KPI’s.

Challenges

• Building up and maintaining proper awareness of sustainability and energy conservation within the operating teams while copping with their in- and outflows;
• Guaranteeing a viable high “technical condition” of every operating plant to ensure good performance of equipment on site without compromising the timely project execution milestones;
• Imposing limitations on equipment owners according to the global status of diesel fuel sulfur levels. This is a direct restriction on deployment of low-emission
engines in many countries of operation;
• Diversity and distribution dilemma and the effect on availability, types, and models of equipment, which renders standardization impossible in many cases;
• Management decentralization;
• Fleet mobilization and demobilization considering limitations from local regulations;
• Technical resources and skills availability;
• When / where / what to invest;
• Political instability in some countries;
• Environmental constraints and social responsibility.