7 Ways Construction Businesses Can Look After Their Assets

In the construction business, looking after assets is — or should be — an essential part of the company’s operations. After all, ensuring that the assets are well-maintained helps to enhance everything from profitability to employee productivity and morale.

As such, it’s vital that construction businesses of all time take a proactive approach to their asset management. By adopting the strategies that we’ve outlined below, organizations can ensure that their assets are in tip-top condition, are safe and secure, and contribute to the businesses’ long-term success. Let’s take a look.

Invest in Quality

Low-quality tools and machinery may be more appealing from a budget perspective, but they’ll cost you in other ways. Low-quality assets will likely make it more difficult to work, will require more maintenance, and will simply need replacing sooner than better-quality goods.

As such, it’s important to take a deep dive into the pros and cons of each asset before purchasing. Don’t have the option to buy better-quality tools and machinery outright? Then look at leasing. This approach isn’t perfect — you can’t count them as assets, for instance — but can be a handy option when an item is beyond budget.

Asset Tracking

Your high-value assets need protection from both potential thieves and unauthorized use. After all, ensuring that your assets remain a valuable part of your organization for as long as possible is vital for maximizing your return on investment. An effective way to ensure the safety of your assets is to use fleet asset tracking software, which not only shows the location of the asset but also highlights any maintenance or other issues that you and your team need to be aware of. You can also use this software to set up alerts that’ll notify you of critical information such as engine hours, time-on-site, mileage, and the overall condition of the asset, all of which can be used to extend the life of the asset.

Ongoing Maintenance

Even the highest quality assets need a little TLC from time to time. Taking a proactive (rather than reactive) approach to maintenance can both keep your asset-related costs down and ensure that they’re in as good condition as possible. A little bit of preventative maintenance really can make a big difference to the condition of your assets, significantly reducing the chance of experiencing an onsite malfunction that not only impacts job productivity but also puts employees at risk.

Employee Training

Your employees will be the first defense against asset-related issues. After all, one of the most effective ways to prolong the life of an asset is to use it correctly. Providing employees with the training they need to use both little and large tools correctly — even if they have prior experience — can help to enhance productivity while also protecting the asset. Remember: most assets break down due to wear and tear that could have been avoided with correct use.

Secure Storage

It should come as no surprise that construction sites are a prime target for potential thieves. According to one report, construction site theft accounts for losses of more than $1 billion every year. In some cases, criminals simply take parts of an asset rather than the whole thing, which can make them difficult to track down.

Investing in reliable, secure on-site storage is essential for keeping tools of all sizes safe while away from your primary base. Containers are available in a wide variety of sizes, ensuring that even large machinery can be kept on-site during projects. By taking this approach, construction companies can both boost their asset security and enhance productivity, since work can get underway as soon as employees arrive on-site.

Have a Backup Plan

At some point or another, your assets will experience problems that have to be fixed. One common, self-inflicted problem is continuing to use an asset that is beginning to show signs of having issues. This usually happens because there’s no backup plan, and as such, the tool or machinery must be used in order to keep the project’s timeline on track. Having a backup plan, such as having backup equipment available, will ensure that projects continue without putting the asset under unnecessary additional pressure. 

Know When To Replace

Finally, remember that knowing when to place an asset is a key part of sound asset management. In some cases, it’s better to sell an asset and replace it with a newer asset that’s cheaper to operate and maintain. The key to replacing an asset at the right time is to sell it before it has fully depreciated. If it has, then selling for scrap is recommended.