Every construction contractor and subcontractor have an extensive number of plants, equipment, tools and other type of assets that are deployed at the different construction sites as well as the head office, central plants and garages. There is always the need to track the movement of all those assets between those sites. As an absolute minimum, there should be a consolidated register of all those assets detailing where they are located, their condition status, depreciation cost and book value, usage history, due maintenance, maintenance done to date as well as the planned and actual movement of those assets. In addition, those contractors and subcontractors might maintain warehouses to stock the spare parts needed to maintain those plants, equipment, tools and other type of assets for which they need to maintain track of spare parts inventory at those locations.
Using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) that has the functionalities to manage plant, equipment, tools and other type of assets like PMWeb, those contractors and subcontractors can fulfill the two requirements of managing the project delivery as well as manage those assets and their movement. In addition, it provides a solution for managing the spare parts inventory for those assets.
Using PMWeb location module, a unique location will be added for each construction site as well as for the company head office and any other locations for central plant and central garage. For locations that are associated with construction sites, the relevant project will be assigned to the location. In addition, all details that relate to the location such as address, spatial coordinates, pictures of the site among others will be added. Actually, there is no limit to the data that can be added to each location.
PMWeb equipment module will be used to capture the details of every single plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset that the contractor or subcontractor either owns or lease. For each plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset, PMWeb allows capturing all possible details of the assets including manufacturer name, condition status, condition assessment date, date service started, equipment usage reading needed for preventive maintenance, pictures and other needed data. In addition, user defined fields for equipment registration, insurance and other details can be also added.
The plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset brochures, catalogues, manuals, certificates, insurance documents, purchase documents and any other related documents will be uploaded into PMWeb document management repository and then attached to the asset although there is the option of uploading those documents directly into the equipment record.
In addition, PMWeb allows capturing the current book value of each plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset depending on the cost depreciation method used. PMWeb allows capturing the purchase cost, salvage cost and life years. Depending on the selected depreciation method whether it was straight line, double-declining balance or sum of years digits, PMWeb will automatically the annual depreciation cost. In addition, PMWeb allows calculating the Cost to Own and Cost to Operate for each plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset.
For each plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset, PMWeb allows capturing the details of all components of that asset. Those for example could include the hoses, tyres, filters, gear, fan belts and other components that could be part of an asset and which would subject to wear and tear for which they need to replaced when replacement is due. For each component, PMWeb allows capturing the condition status, condition date, last work order number, life remaining, % remaining, services internal usage, installed usage, last service usage, service due usage, life to date usage among other details needed for each component.
For each plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset, PMWeb allows capturing the details of all work orders that were executed to repair an asset or a component of an asset. In addition, PMWeb allows creating preventive maintenance work orders to have those repairs scheduled on their due date. For all work orders, PMWeb allows capturing all required details including pictures of the replaced parts. In addition, it allows creating an estimate for each work order as well as capture the agreed cost for each work order including the cost of labor resources and the material needed to perform the work order. The resource cost will be captured from PMWeb resource database and the material cost will be captured from PMWeb material cost database. In addition, there is the option to pick the material needed for the work order from the PMWeb inventory locations.
All work orders performed at the different construction site locations as well as head office, central plant, central garage and other defined locations in PMWeb be viewed on a map as long as the latitude and longitude attributes had been added to each location. The user can filter what work orders to display based on the period on which the work orders were performed.
PMWeb allows creating unlimited number of inventory locations for the spare parts for the plants, equipment, tools and other type of assets that contractor or subcontractor have. For each inventory location, PMWeb allows creating the locations of where the spare parts will be located.
With all plants, equipment, tools and other type of assets owned or leased by the contractor or subcontractor, PMWeb asset move plans module allows defining the dates where selected assets will be scheduled to be moved in or out of the construction site. The module allows selecting the plants, equipment, tools and other type of assets that will be moved. This is important to ensure proper and timely movement of those assets.
The details of all movement plans will be captured for the relevant plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset owned or leased by the contractor or subcontractor. The movement log will capture the details of the location, scheduled move-in date, actual move-in date, schedule move-out data, actual move-out date and the cost if any for this movement.
The captured plants, equipment, tools and other types of asset details including their movement plans will become available to be reported on in any desired form and format depending on the extent of available data. The report can be designed to allow the report reader to drilldown to the specific plant, equipment, tool and other type of asset included in the report to view additional details. The report could include visuals to better analyze and understand the reported data.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with 40-year service record providing project management, project controls services and project management information system to over than 200 projects with a total value in excess of US $100 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment, Hospitality and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker in topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 40 years he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South America. He has written more than 300 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.