Top tips to increase productivity

Improve training
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Throughout 2009 we have spoken to the leading machinery experts in the region. Here, in no particular order we print some of the best nuggets of advice given

1 Improve training

There is a heightened interest in improving training facilities at the moment, as firms realize the link between product knowledge and productivity.

One such firm to do this is the recently opened delivery centre owned and operated by Scania in the far side of the Jebel Ali freezone extension. What is most interesting is that the centre has invested in a training room, that dealers, suppliers, mechanics and salesman from all over the wider region can use.

At the heart of the new room, there is a cutaway cabin surrounded on three sides with metal walls onto which a fascinating array of items, including solenoids motors and even headlamps are mounted – representing the entire electrical system of a truck. Benny Johansson, training manager at Scania explained: “It makes it easier for us, because we can bring in non-technical staff such as salespeople, so they can understand what is going on. If they are confident – they will be more effective.”

2 Consider machine automation

Machine automation is a subject often talked about in our circles, but there seems to be some confusion about what exactly it is, and more importantly, what benefit it can bring to a job. Simply put, a total control system is where a site is first staked using GPS rovers. These devices consist of a rod, a receiver and a computer. There is also usually a handheld device, which tells the surveyor what the whole system is doing. A base station is set somewhere on site and used as a reference point, marking out a site in it’s own digital 3D map, which supersedes the use of string, chains or any other old way of staking out the ground. Now that this is done, the accurate measurements can be passed wirelessly into the computer on board the heavy equipment, usually bulldozers and motor-graders.

The operator just had to keep the blade within the ‘green’ line on the screen, or if the machine has been quipped with ‘total control’, the sut needs to drive it and the computer will sort out the elevation of the blade. Can this kind of sophistication really save a worksite money? Walid Daher, operations manager for Bin Nawi Contracting, a firm who have bought the system said: “On this system you just need to teach the operator how to use it – and then he can do the job of both supervisor as well as foreman.”

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It’s a strange thing, but in this age of outsourcing and sub-contracting it can actually make sense to start doing things yourself again. Tom Nauwelarts from Al Futtaim Logistics certainly found so, when he started looking at options for his outsourced road truck fleet. “The service was not that fantastic and the capacity constraints meant that some providers gave rather poor service” he said.

This wasn’t the only driver for change though. Many providers had used the diesel price spike in 2008 to increase the price of the contracts, which they had presumed to be unassailable. “One of the transport companies said they were going to increase fuel costs by up to 50% as the oil price was going up, as was the equipment and labour costs,” said Nauwelarts. Given that the company has among its many divisions two well known truck brands, it was a simple decision to train some more drivers and fit out a fleet of new trucks and trailers suitable for the jobs that they were used for. “It is all about optimising the back haul - that’s when you are cost effective without giving in your margins. That way you get a happy customer – and make money” Nauwelarts concluded.

4 Consider new inventions

Anyone who knows about trenching will tell you of the condition known as ‘backhoe fade’. This occurs typically when a bucket on a small excavator gets put through a utility pipe, and then suddenly it is ‘pffzt’ and lights out for everybody in the street.

Not only can disrupting a gas, water or electricity pipe be dangerous, but it can obviously be extremely expensive. “We had a fibre-optic cable broken by a backhoe recently” said Joe Chappel, operations director of Action Int. Services. “Obviously, you can’t just ‘twist’ an optical cable back together, it involves a lot of extra time and expense – It cost AED 36,000 to repair.” To this end, the company purchased a machine that has not been seen in the region before – a suction excavator. Using a pair of enormous fans powered from the truck’s hydraulic systems the machine is capable of moving an enormous volume of air. To be slightly more technical, the suction excavator uses air as the transport agent. “The key feature of this machine is that it only sucks up what is loose – it won’t break anything” Chappel explained. This is no domestic vacuum cleaner though – when we saw it in action, the great nozzle snorted up solid ground to a meter in depth in about a minute.