Why proper machine operation must hurt and bleed at first.
In 2006-2007, I worked for a while in Norway. I was engaged in various simple cleaning, finishing, house painting and similar work. At that time in Norway, my salary was 50 PLN to hand for each hour. In Poland at that time there were still jobs that were “remunerated” at a rate of 5 zloty per hour (yes, five zloty!), and there was no shortage of artists who were able to cheat workers at such a rate and not pay them their due wages. At a rate 10 times the minimum, any work was light and pleasant… I encountered many phenomena at that time that were unthinkable to me, but were already standard in Norway.
One situation was particularly memorable for me and is already sure to stay with me for the rest of my professional life. On one of the jobs, while washing brushes and rollers, the Norwegian I was working for came over and scolded me for what I was doing. He stated that the time I spend washing tools costs him more than the tools I use and that next time I should take new ones and throw away the used ones. For a young man who had it instilled in him from the beginning that tools needed to be taken care of more like himself, it was an unbelievable collision with an alternative reality. The clash of lack of technical culture with economics in its purest form. Now I know that this was a kind of very short-sighted economics, but in fact at that time, the opposite of Norway, the work of professionals in Poland was priced much lower than the material and tools that professionals used. In Poland, we only came to the logic I collided with then a few years ago, and now, after a period of pandemonium, we are entering a whole new stage of economic development, when labor is expensive and tools can be abstractly expensive.
In 2015, an Atlas two-way excavator cost about one million net with basic attachments. In 2019 about 1.4 million, and in 2024, the same machine (without going into cosmetics) costs at least 1.8 million net, and with good equipment we can safely reach two million net. This means that, assuming an excavator’s resourse of 20,000 motor hours, the depreciation rate alone in labor hours should be 100 PLN/hour! Has this caused construction companies to treat their machines as treasures to be meticulously cared for and hawked like chickens laying golden eggs? Not likely, and we should start getting used to the idea that for a construction company, any equipment whose work we later invoice is more important than anything else, including the CEO’s car, phone and computer.
For today’s contract and works managers, equipment is just another item in an excel table statistic. It works – good, it doesn’t work – not good, and nothing in the middle. This is not conducive to technical culture and taking care of its condition. Maintaining equipment is particularly troublesome for companies that do not have their own technical and service facilities. This is due to the fact that external service providers are concerned with troubleshooting and revitalizing the machine, and not necessarily with its proper maintenance in terms of trouble-free operation and ensuring good visual condition. As a result, the equipment bought with hard money is operated from breakdown to breakdown, and after a few years we find that we are left with an ugly and neglected piece of junk that everyone complains about, and its value and resale possibility is located on the first floor of a ten-story block of flats.
A particular representative of this way of dealing with machinery, are the equipment appearing at post-lease auctions, given away or taken back from the customer, in a condition indicative of cathartic work, and often with defects whose removal is no longer economically justified. Real bargains at such auctions are really rare, and when they do appear, the bidding resembles a fire fight.
How the equipment should be operated and why the beginnings will be painful.
We should approach any damage to a machine that does not result from normal operation as if it were a real cost to be incurred here and now. A broken lamp? 1000zł to buy a new one, plus 200zł replacement cost. A dented hatch on an excavator? Dismantling, repairing, painting, quietly can collect several thousand zlotys. A seized compactor because no one checked for oil in the engine when it started? Another several thousand zlotys, plus often the cost of a replacement machine from a rental company. And each such event should be recorded, scheduled for removal, and reported after removal (e.g., in the excess cost journal). And those involved should be aware of what the consequences are and should see that they do not go unanswered. Discussing the costs involved in maintaining equipment should be part of a good work culture, especially when the discussion of such an issue with employees, is contained in no more than a 5-minute meeting.
At first, this approach may be a sign of hysteria for some, but the purpose of such action is much more long-term than it may seem. First of all, your employees from the “it happened and in 10min no one will remember it anymore” approach, will start to treat the damage personally. And I guarantee everyone that the next time a machine operator plans to “pack” the machine into a place where it should never be, they will stop and think of a better solution than the simplest, but not necessarily optimal one.
Another consequence of such a service culture will be that 10 years from now we will have equipment on the yard that is still earning good money for itself and the company, is a showcase of the technical culture, and if we decide to sell it, it will represent a real value and a nice bite on the used equipment market. The operating costs incurred over time will certainly pay off with a solid return. Particularly good support for this thesis, is the systematic increase in the price of used machinery. Well-maintained 10-15 year old machines are definitely more expensive today than, say, 5 years ago, despite being 5 years older at the same time.
An excellent example of the high technical culture of machine maintenance are farmers. My neighbors have an eye-popping 40-year-old Bizon combine that still looks dignified, is mostly in its original paint, and season after season does the job it was made for. This is the result of the care it has been given since its inception. During the off-season, it rests under a shelter, before harvest it is meticulously inspected and prepared for work. And after the harvest cleaned, inspected and maintained. Someone may conclude that he doesn’t work much because the harvest doesn’t last long. He should then look at the John Deere of another of my neighbors. The tractor is a dozen years old, driven in the field year-round, and still looks like it came out of the factory maybe a month ago. Sometimes I wonder if before each trip it undergoes detailing in the form of polishing and applying a new layer of ceramic, which no red Maranello car would be ashamed of.
It is important to remember in all this that it is not an art to focus, only on punishing employees for damage to equipment. This approach completely fails. The trick is to create a system where employees are and feel real appreciation for taking care of their employer’s property. A system where they will have equipment that is rewarding to operate and not a sense of perpetual struggle with pitchforks and manure.
Take care of your machines as if they were chickens laying golden eggs, tenderly stroke them, change the bedding, feed them regularly with decent feed. If you’re not already doing it, it will be hard and expensive at first, but over time the benefits will pile up high above the costs. Your equipment will be the best testimony of professionalism for your partners.