• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.100-109
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• 2012

Large road construction projects are typically partitioned into sections that are then contracted individually to contractors. Each section requires using similar heavy equipment including excavators, dump trucks and pavers, which constitute the highest cost. Normally the equipment is not shared between them, as each contractor wishes to have their equipment readily available. However, such practices result in very low utilization of these equipment. The goal of this research is to develop a programmatic resource sharing system in which contractors can share equipment depending on the changing needs of a multi-sectioned road project. This paper introduces the results of a survey performed to investigate how contractors currently manage the supply and demand of equipment and the equipment that are practical for sharing across a project. More importantly, the paper describes a set of metrics (DPR, nDPR, SDI) needed to quantify the amount of supply/demand variance occurring in each section. The metrics were used on an actual road construction project, and the results show that each section suffers from an imbalance between its monthly planned and actual utilization of equipment. The results also indicate that the sharing of the equipment can lead to potentially large savings as equipment requirements can be met within a project as to short leasing from outside vendors.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.134-145
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• 2013

Road construction projects are parcelled into sub-sections which are then tendered to individual contractors for construction. The type of work and equipments used are similar for each sub-section. However, such equipment are not shared on a regular basis among the contractors and only partially performed in an informal and ad hoc manner. Consequently, road construction equipment suffer from low utilization and increased leasing costs. Lean construction and Program Management approaches stress the importance of collaboration among individual participants in a way that increases the collective cost savings of the entire project. This research attempts to apply such theories with the notion that under utilization of expensive equipment can be improved by formalizing a way to enable the sharing of equipment in large, public sponsored, multi-sectioned road construction projects. A system was developed consisting of a set of criteria and processes that enables automatic allocation of equipment to multiple sites on daily basis, in a way that minimizes equipment costs and improves their individual utility. The system was then applied in allocating three different types of equipment to an actual road construction project with four sub-sections for three months. A new metric, nDPR showed that utilization improved for all equipment and also equipment related costs were decreased by 4.45%. Results also showed that increased shared opportunities of equipment correspond to an increase in utilization and cost savings.