Construction plant breakdown criticality analysis – part 1:UAE perspective

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper to develop a novel strategic approach to handle corrective maintenance procedure in the event of a breakdown/disruption of service. A proposal to minimize the recovery time and the breakdown cost in the system in construction plant is presented.

Design/methodology/approach

The past plant breakdown records of a construction organization are considered for the analysis. From the previous breakdown records, a high level metric using Pareto analysis and the cause effect analysis is used to identify the main breakdown main codes (BMC) and the subsequent breakdown sub codes (BSC). Prioritized BMC and BSCs are used to formulate dedicated breakdown maintenance teams, which act swiftly in the event of the breakdown with the modified methods.

Findings

The study was conducted, on four different types of heavy lifting/earth moving/material handling system equipment, which are used to load/unload/haul and transport construction materials. Failure due to tyre puncture and allied problems contribute to maximum failure. A strategy plan to minimize this type of failure is proposed. With the identification of the most contributing BMCs and BSCs, it is further proposed to develop an “overall breakdown maintenance management”.

Research limitations/implications

The collected data pertains to the construction plant located in a particular region, namely the Middle East, and hence the proposed solution is dedicated/relatively applicable to similar plant from the same region. A more robust model can be suggested considering the work environment in the other regions.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology is highly adaptable by similar industries operating in the Middle East region.

Social implications

Construction plant and equipment contribute to the success of construction organizations, by providing enhanced output, reduced manpower requirement, ease of work and timely completion of the project. Delays in completion of projects generally have both social and economical impact on the contractors and the buyers. The proposed model will bring down the lead‐time of the project and enable the contractors to crash down their project completion time.

Originality/value

Numerous studies on preventive maintenance models and procedures are available for a system and in particular to construction plant maintenance in the literature. This model attempts to handle the issues of unpredictable breakdowns in the construction plant to minimise the breakdown time. The proposed model is a novel approach which enables a quick recovery of the construction plant, attributed from the breakdown parameters derived from the previous history of the work records/environment.

Citation

Ahamed Mohideen, P.B., Ramachandran, M. and Ramasamy Narasimmalu, R. (2011), "Construction plant breakdown criticality analysis – part 1:UAE perspective", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 472-489. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771111147597