Are you struggling to maximize the efficiency of your crawler excavator? Poor utilization can result in wasted resources and increased costs. Learn how properly utilizing operations and maintenance can help
transform your projects and increase productivity and profitability.
pressure to optimize the utilization of your crawler excavator. To do that, you focus on regular maintenance, operator training, and project management; monitor the data and make adjustments accordingly; and select the right attachment for the job. Implement these tactics and you will improve the efficiency and utilization of the machine, minimize downtime, and reduce the cost of doing business, resulting in a successful project conclusion.
Let’s explore ten expert tips that will help you fully leverage your crawler excavator’s capabilities.
What Are the Key Features of Crawler Excavators?
Understanding the various features and functions of crawler excavators is critical for an operator or project manager. These machines are unique in design and purpose which allows them to operate in various different environments effectively.
Stability and Traction
Crawler excavators are designed with tracks instead of wheels, providing a lower center of gravity and more surface area. This design creates excellent stability, especially on the rough, uneven terrain found
on most construction sites. The improved traction allows these machines to perform heavy lifting and digging operations without overturning or getting stuck.
Versatility
The versatility of crawler excavators is one of their biggest benefits. They can be equipped with a variety of attachments such as buckets, hammers, and grapples to perform different tasks. As a result, these machines can be used in a wide variety of applications such as construction, demolition, landscaping, and material handling.
Hydraulic Power
Crawler excavators contain a massive hydraulic system that allows precise manipulation and control of the movements and functions of the machine. This precision allows the operator to be efficient at performing whatever task the machine needs to do, whether it’s digging a trench or lifting a heavy object. Understanding how this hydraulic system works can also help troubleshoot issues in the field.
Enhanced Technology
Crawler excavators today are equipped with technology such as GPS tracking and telematics. This technology provides real-time data on the performance of the machine, allowing an operator to monitor fuel efficiency and hours on the machine, all of which can be critical when making decisions on a job site.
How Important Is Regular Maintenance for Crawler Excavators?
Regular maintenance is critical to ensure the longevity and efficiency of a crawler excavator. Regularly maintained machines last longer, cost less to operate, and have fewer breakdowns than machines that are not properly maintained.
Daily Inspections
Pre-Operation Inspection: Before you start the machine every day, you need to inspect it. While every manufacturer’s machine is a little bit different, here are some standard inspection items: Check the hydraulic fluid levels. Look for oil leaks in the hoses or around the hydraulic cylinders. Look at the tracks to make sure they aren’t loose and there is enough meat left on them. None of the bolts are loose. No broken hoses. Look at the hydraulic hoses.
If any of the lines have nick’s in them, replace them right away. When you or your operators get comfortable operating heavy equipment, it’s easy to overlook doing a proper inspection if nothing has gone wrong recently. But if you do a daily inspection, you should be able to catch these problems earlier rather than later. Running a machine low on hydraulic oil will toast a hydraulic pump which can cost you thousands of dollars to replace.
Scheduled Maintenance:
Most manufacturers will provide a recommended maintenance schedule. Check the mileage and service reach points in your operation and see if the maintenance intervals are starting to come due. This will typically include things like regular oil changes, replace filters, and check the hydraulic system operation. There is a true value in keeping detailed maintenance records. Most machines today have a digital tracking system that will notify you when maintenance is required.
However, keeping detailed and accurate maintenance records through the life of the machine will help keep you on track with these intervals. More importantly, it will make all the lives easier for the folks that are trying to maintain and repair the machine when it is not working right. Second, we can start seeing patterns. If we do have a reoccurring problem with the machine every hundred hours, it might be related to a maintenance issue.
Maintenance Training:
Offering maintenance training to the operators can also be beneficial. For example, teaching them some
basic maintenance and troubleshooting skills that would allow them to recognize if something was wrong and how to resolve the issue (or at least verify that a technician is warranted) could save time, money, and
keep the machine operational.Documentation: Keeping documentation of all maintenance performed is key.
The better the documentation, the more helpful it will be in the long run. If you keep detailed maintenance records, it will only do one thing: help you. It can be beneficial in the case you need warranty repairs on your machine. The bottom line is: the more documentation you have, the better. This can turn into money for you when it comes time to resell the equipment. If I am going to buy a used machine, the chronic record keeper that has an organized maintenance routine is going to charge more than a guy who show’s up and says, “I don’t know when it was serviced last!”
Why Should You Invest in Operator Training?
Proper training is the best investment you will make in the proper use of a crawler excavator. A well-trained operator will be safer and more productive than someone thrown into the seat with no training. Any way you can increase the job site productivity of this machine will flow right to the bottom line of the project’s profit.
Comprehensive Training Programs
Investing in comprehensive training programs can equip operators with the necessary skills to optimize machine performance. These programs should cover various topics, including:
Example 3: If I’m buying a software program like Microsoft Office, I want to know how to load it onto my computer, how to open it, use it, and close it. You can teach any of these topics with an outcome of understanding, but if you describe a class as “Take our class and you will be competent in Machine Operations, Safety Protocols, and Troubleshooting Techniques for quickly addressing production and quality losses,” those are actionable definitions.
Enhanced Safety
Training is Key to Safety and Efficiency Training plays a huge role in the safety and security of everyone that works with or around this machinery. Educated operators are more likely to stay alert and follow safety protocols, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries. Daily safety reminders help keep this training in the top of everyone’s mind. As a result, you create a culture of safety with the people who see the equipment up close more often than anyone else–the operators.
Train to Increase Efficiency Train operators on how to make good decisions that will help get the project done more effectively. Train your operators to set up the machine correctly the first time. Teach them how to adjust the machine for the task at hand, and how these machines have the capability to do certain tasks without burning up as much fuel or causing as much wear if those adjustments are made.
Teach operators to vary their techniques based upon conditions, and to maximize what they can accomplish in the course of an eight- or ten-hour shift. Train to Reduce Liability Training your operators can actually save you money by reducing liability.
In the event of an honest accident, proving that an operator is fully trained may protect your company from a costly lawsuit and settlement.
How Can You Plan Work Efficiently with Crawler Excavators?
Proper Planning The more efficiently you plan your work, the better you can optimize the use of a crawler excavator. You’ll reduce the odds of having it sit idle. Organization is the key to helping these guys be as productive as possible.
Project Assessment
Considerations Before Starting Before they even start working on a project, site assessment is critical. Before they start a job with a crawler excavator, guys should completely understand what is required and anticipated. Think about removing any obstacles that may cause production loss (don’t worry; you can do this at the same time you read the next chapters, I’m just encouraging you to think about this right now).
Here are three of many things you should look at before starting your excavator job. If you are renting an excavator to dig a pond, you’ll want to know if the ground is hard pan. You need to think about how you’ll set your machine to dig a pond. If you can’t get your machine into tight spots or from point A to point B, find a way to fix that or don’t get started in the first place!
Utilizing Project Management Tools
Use software to manage your work. There are all kinds of project management programs available that will help you schedule work and allocate your resources, including your machinery. A little forethought
and a good plan ensure that your excavator is working every minute you intended to be working.
Workflows and Scheduling The more you can plan and manage flows, the more work you will
accomplish. Your organization of operations often takes random work times and makes it more consistent.
For example, choreograph the act of digging a hole with the delivery of gravel. The last bit you dig is where you will stockpile your dirt and gravel. Now you’ve got the hole dug and material sitting at the bottom at the same time. You just planned and figured out a way to keep your excavator working, and to get the filling of the hole finished today instead of spreading it out over several days
because you didn’t pay attention to how it all fit together.
Flexibility in Planning While you should have a plan, sometimes you must change that plan. Weather or other conditions on the job site may require you rethink when you do what. If the ground thaws quicker than you anticipated, you need a plan for the excavator operator to move to a different location and get some work done there. You always need to be thinking three steps ahead.
What Technology Can Help Monitor Excavator Performance?
In today’s world, technology plays a key role in how well these machines perform. Most manufacturers offer advanced systems on their machines, many of which are standard equipment or available as options.
Telematics Systems
Telematics Nearly all newer excavators come with some form of telematics (where the machine sends information through a wireless connection back to the manufacturer’s server as well as back to your company). This system of wireless connectivity might seem scary because you don’t want some weirdo tracking you, but the information telematics systems provide is extremely helpful and will save you money. Telematics systems can help you answer continuously over time the following questions:
How’s my machine being used? Who’s using it? How much fuel was burned per hour in total or by tasks?
How many gallons of diesel was burned and what did it cost to get the dirt out of that hole?
Predictive Maintenance
Telematics systems also have the wonderful ability to perform preventive maintenance. With the data collected and analyzed, you may see a trend in the data that indicates it’s time for a maintenance interval. For example, some telematics systems will tell you that the cooling system of your machine is starting to get less efficient. The data trend may clearly indicate an increasing water temperature to do the same job day-to-day. The telematics system tells you it’s time to have the system checked out. By simply analyzing the data these systems provide, you can prevent expensive breakdowns and associated downtime by addressing problems before they cause catastrophic failure.
The life of the machine can be extended if you pay attention to theinformation telematics systems provide.Integrating Technology with Training If technology tells you all this neat stuff, you must have people trained to read the data and then have somebody making decisions on how to adjust the operation of your machines to maximize the dollars and material removal per hour. It’s easy to place blame on the costs of removing material, but the prices are what they are. You might be able to make a better decision occasionally about which job you attack first during the day based on the operations in the trenches and the cost calculated by your telematics system.
How Do Different Attachments Affect Excavador Efficiency?
There is a multitude of attachments used to make the excavator more productive. Each attachment has a great purpose to make the excavator more versatile. Learn how the different attachments work to become more valuable to your company and your customers.
Matching Attachments to Tasks
Understand the task; then select the right attachment. Example: Choose the right bucket depending on what type of material you are moving or removing. For example, use a bucket with a larger capacity to move/pile up the dirt during a bulk excavation. Once you’re close to grade, switch to a grading bucket to be more precise.
Attachments deteriorate and can wear out just like the machine they are hooked to. It does you no good to have a nice shiny excavator with a brand new digging bucket and a worn-out grading or trenching bucket. You must carry out regular maintenance on attachments as well as the machine. Attachments must be inspected periodically to ensure the device is in good working order.
Train your operators on how to use the different attachments. An operator should not only be competent in how to use the living daylights out of a bucket, but also understand which bucket they need to use for
which task to get the task accomplished with the best mix of speed, safety, and efficiency Someone once said, “A poor man can’t afford to buy cheap tools.”
You are already getting everything you want out of that pile of dirt using your crew to run this pile of dirt business. How much more can you get out of that same pile of dirt by training your people, watching what they are doing, and getting on top of your production, your equipment, and your material costs?
How Can You Reduce Operational Costs?
How to Best Manage Costs Admittedly, managing equipment costs and production on job sites is
not the sexiest thing in the world. It’s not like bidding work, negotiating a cool schedule with the customer, or writing up a major change order. Managing equipment, operator, and job site costs is one gigantic pain in the neck. It’s something you’ve got to get a handle on or it will bleed you to death. Use systems that help you pay attention so you can stop some of the financial bleeding from under your grease-crusted fingernails.
All these little steps fall under the heading of drip management, meaning you collect what otherwise leaks out of your pockets and disappears, never to return. Cut production and efficiency losses immediately.End of the day fact: If you’re running a trenching business, homeowner excavation business, or drain tile installation business, you suck all the profit out of your projects that you can in the way the tasks are accomplished and the machinery is used to make you as much money as possible.
Every penny you save reducing the cost of removing the pile of dirt so you can drop your pipe is a penny you get to keep and spend on your wife, kids, or a better vacation, boat, or recreational vehicle.
What Role Does Jobsite Organization Play?
Focused men with a specific task made easier by a well-organized site will generally out-produce and out-build anybody who’s flying by the seat of his pants or is just plain disorganized. Build Dump Piles I believe in building dump piles away from the immediate area of site construction work. Now you know where everything should be and where everything should be put away. Run rough machinery from dump piles, offload materials, and store materials and equipment close to dump piles where they are going to be used.
You must have a system for on-going communication: who, what, where, when, why, and how, for all the workers on your job site and especially the people running machinery. Use drawings such as topographical site maps to lay out where everybody is at using the teat marker method. You want all of your people to know what they should do first thing in the morning. You want them to know if they should go to the dump pile or get in their work location, grab their machine, fire it up, and start to work.
Resumen
Result Optimizing the utilization of crawler excavators is critical for achieving success in your projects. When you run your machinery as efficiently as possible, both bottom-line profits and your top-line profits go up. You will maximize the return on the capital dollars you have invested in these expensive machines. Everything will flat out cost you less, make you more, and do it faster, smarter, and more safely.We just tied up the loop on all the major considerations we started at the very beginning.
By investing in understanding the machine, investing in good training for your operators, making a little investment in organizing your job site thoughts, and leveraging a little technology with high-tech stuff like GPS (which isn’t really high-tech anymore), you can whip all that together and help your customers make some money (or beat the daylights out of your competitors who don’t have a pool of good employees learning all this greatness). All of this together will maximize your utilization of your crawler excavators, period!If you need a second-hand excavator, please contactame.
