I would like to find statistics or estimates of how much a heavy
construction company (e.g. those that build highways) can save by
implementing a preventive maintenance policy for their construction
equipment (earth-moving trucks, skidders, scrappers - Caterpillar is
the best known vendor of such machines).

Savings come from avoiding unplanned stops, cheaper repairs (it is
cheaper to fix before it breaks), planning the purchase of parts,
better resale price etc. All these savings are intuitive, if not
common sense.

What I want is to quantify these savings, supported by hard evidence,
case study or a convincing research.

The idea is to be able to write: "According to ACME (ACME being
something reliable), a heavy construction company can save up to X% of
their investment in equipment by adopting a proper preventive
maintenance process."

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 12 Mar 2005 18:23 PST

Hello Amthees,

Could you please clarify if the following material is the type of
information that you require.

Thanks,
Bobbie7


Thinking Like a CFO: Prevention pays, analysis shows 
A sophisticated financial study of the costs and payoff of preventive
maintenance at one large company reveals a tremendous savings
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/BOM/Dec02/Dec02facilitya.shtml


Maintenance Management Concepts In Construction Equipment 
http://asceditor.unl.edu/archives/1997/rapp97.htm


Equipment Management Plans

?In 1997, a large county-managed landfill operation with multiple
sites was experiencing excessive unscheduled downtime, and their
maintenance and repair costs had exceeded their budget. Fuel,
maintenance and repair records were virtually non-existent. Too much
equipment was being underutilized, while in-house mechanics were held
totally unaccountable. In short, they were in real trouble.

?With assistance from their local equipment dealer, they developed an
aggressive equipment management program.?

?As a result of the program, the site is now saving more than $1
million per year by repairing equipment through planned maintenance
versus repair after failure. The dollars being saved on repairs are
now being used for purchasing new equipment featuring the latest
electronic technology.?
http://www.keepmedia.com/ShowItemDetails.do?item_id=609484&oliID=255&bemID=gCIywxD4Xk+Geh95VbqUWgaa8501
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/ConstructionBulletin/2004/02/13/609484?extID=10026

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Clarification of Question by amthees-ga on 15 Mar 2005 06:52 PST

Bobbie7,

The "Thinking Like a CFO" article describes fairly well what I want to
do. I have no problem with "how" to do it - that's easy.
What I want with this request is actual/statistical hard data SPECIFIC
for heavy construction equipment management. I can't use general
equipment maintenance, nor the same equipment (e.g. a tractor)
operating under differente conditions.

I really need equipment management/maintenance data on "heavy
construction equipment" doing "heavy construction jobs". This is what
I am having a tough time finding...

Thanks,
amthees

You might want to check out http://www.drumlgroup.com.  The founder
has a great deal of experience in the heavy construction industry as
both a CEO and CFO and probably has some statistics that you could
use.