Predictive maintenance techniques and their relevance to construction plant

The construction industry relies increasingly on profits generated from high utilisation of mechanisation. Interruption of this mechanical supply not only incurs the “tangible” costs of labour, replacement parts and consumables, but also the less tangible costs of delays to contract, possible loss of client goodwill and ultimately, loss of profit. Cumulative costs associated with plant breakdown are therefore significant. Predictive maintenance (PM) techniques have evolved to keep a check on mechanical health, by generating information on machine condition. Such data allow just in time maintenance to be conducted. However, recent developments have witnessed an increased interest in determining “root cause” of failure as opposed to monitoring the time to breakdown once the wear process has begun. This paper reviews condition based monitoring (CBM) technologies and introduces the evolving concept of root cause analysis. Both these could have particular relevance to construction plant and equipment. In summary, the paper presents initial findings of ongoing research, which is the development of a model for predicting construction plant and equipment breakdown.