Heavy machinery breakdowns are some of the most common causes of construction and building delays. If you manage a construction site or company, you should learn from your experiences and find ways to prevent breakdowns and delays in the future. Here are some tips for reducing downtime on construction sites and how you can get more use out of your equipment in the future.

Keep Up With Machinery Maintenance

Keeping up with regular equipment inspections and maintenance is the number one way to prevent equipment breakdowns and downtime on the job site. After daily use, you should always clean and inspect all your equipment. You can also train employees in machinery maintenance so that they can spot when equipment needs maintenance or repairs. Keep a log of all maintenance and repairs on each piece of equipment. Doing this will give you a better idea of when to schedule maintenance in the future. This also helps you get a better idea of which pieces you may need to upgrade or swap out—equipment that sees frequent breakdowns and repairs might be at the end of its lifespan.

Create Back-Ups for Equipment Failure

While proper maintenance and inspections can help minimize breakdowns and downtime on the job, equipment failure is still bound to happen. In cases like these, you must have a backup plan to follow when you experience equipment breakdowns on a construction site. First, ensure your employees’ safety by shutting down the machine and preventing anyone from using it further. Next, plan a way to address the lack of equipment on the construction site. This could include sending a backup machine from your warehouse or renting another piece of equipment. Planning for these cases ahead of time helps you find rental sources so that you can make up for downtime as soon as possible.

Schedule Planned Downtime

Consider investing in more pieces of heavy equipment than you need and only running a certain number of machines on a job site. For example, if you have multiple skid steers, don’t send all of them to a construction site at once. The extra equipment can help you be more efficient on the job. However, running your equipment until it breaks down will quickly reduce that efficiency.

If your business can spare it, keep one or multiple models at your warehouse. You can use this time to inspect these extra models and schedule them for any needed repairs while the rest of your fleet is on the job. For your next job, swap these tuned-up machines with equipment that your team previously used. Cycling through your extra equipment like this helps ensure all your machines see equal use and that you catch issues before they lead to on-site downtime.

Remember these tips for reducing equipment downtime on construction sites for future jobs. Having extra heavy machinery parts for repairs can help you get your equipment back up and running faster with the right installation. Browse our selection of equipment parts for all your construction gear here at Tractor Zone.