How Technology Helps Manage Equipment Maintenance

The cost of downtime is expensive. Resources are available to help contractors keep better track of their equipment maintenance needs.

E.K. Services uses technology to track and manage more than 700 pieces of equipment, including asphalt rollers, pavers, milling machines, crushing equipment, excavators, backhoes, wheel loaders, skid loaders, lowboys, a fleet of sweeper trucks and tri-axles.
E.K. Services uses technology to track and manage more than 700 pieces of equipment, including asphalt rollers, pavers, milling machines, crushing equipment, excavators, backhoes, wheel loaders, skid loaders, lowboys, a fleet of sweeper trucks and tri-axles.
HCSS

E.K. Services, Inc. is a woman-owned, full-service utility, excavating and paving construction contractor offering commercial and residential services throughout central Pennsylvania and beyond. From the beginning, the Beinhower family has never wavered from their vision of how they want to conduct business by treating both their customers and their employees with the utmost respect and honoring their commitment to performing quality work.

In 1976, Elaine and Ken Beinhower Sr. took a leap of faith to start their own business from their house with a handful of dedicated employees. Elaine and Ken’s passion for the construction industry guided the business through difficult economic times in the late 1980’s to the successful company E.K. is today. 

In 1991, E.K. Services was born as a result of the hard work of the employees and with the leadership of Elaine and Ken. The name E.K. was chosen to represent both Elaine and Ken’s first names. As the majority owner, Elaine was determined to make E.K. a success for not just her family but the employees too. As a woman in business, Elaine did what often seemed impossible; she built, maintained, and cultivated a strong leadership role within a traditionally male-dominated industry. Elaine and Ken’s ultimate vision and the end goal was to develop a business their three sons, Ken Jr., David, and Shawn would grow up in and one day run as part of their family legacy. 

Together Elaine and Ken bring over 80 years of professional experience necessary to run a successful, well-established construction business. E.K. Services is proud to be a second-generation family business with each of their three sons presently working to help craft culture and drive aggressive growth. All with the hope of a third- generation who will follow in their dad’s footsteps. 

Equipment Management and Maintenance

E.K. Services has lots of equipment to manage. “We have more than 700 pieces of equipment—including about 200 pieces of off-road yellow iron,” says Shawn Beinhower, CIO. “We have to track and manage asphalt rollers, pavers, milling machines, crushing equipment, excavators, backhoes, wheel loaders, skid loaders, lowboys, a fleet of sweeper trucks and tri-axles.” 

All E.K. Services’ more than 700 pieces of equipment are managed through HCSS Equipment360. The company uses Equipment360 across two shops and for its road mechanics working in the field. Beinhower also uses the wealth of data collected by Equipment360 for costing and other reporting and analytics. 

Greater Efficiency for Mechanics

Mechanics in the shop and in the field are enjoying greater efficiency because all the information they need about a piece of equipment can be found on the Equipment360 mobile application on their iPad. 

“When we buy a piece of equipment, we put all the specs into Equipment360, load all the warranty information in, insurance data, and set up alerts for all preventive maintenance and servicing,” Beinhower says. “We even set up our depreciation for it.” This means that as a mechanic prepares to work on a piece of equipment, they have immediate access to part numbers, diagrams, and technical specifications. 

“Knowing the warranty information in the field can save you a lot of money when a mechanic identifies a problem that is covered,” Beinhower says. “They have all of the information at their fingertips, including contact information.” 

Beinhower notes that repair data is complete and accurate, because mechanics are entering it themselves as they work, rather than submitting a handwritten paper form later, which would have to be deciphered by someone else to enter into the record. 

“Our mechanics can also be more efficient, as they can see all of the work orders in advance before heading out to a site,” Beinhower says. “This means the mechanic addresses several problems while on site, instead of just the one that they were called about.” 

Software Helps Avoid Breakdowns

E.K. Services is enjoying increased uptime since deploying their shop management solution. Beinhower attributes the configurable alerts for preventive maintenance and the ease and efficiency in which maintenance issues get reported. 

“The software makes it easy to submit a maintenance request from our teams in the field,” Beinhower says. “This helps make sure that small problems don’t get overlooked and then become big problems. This also makes it more efficient for scheduling work in the shop. When a piece of equipment is coming in for an oil change, for example, we can schedule time in advance to handle any other issues that have been identified through the reports from the field.” 

Using Equipment360 alerts for preventive maintenance has also proven its value. “Prior to Equipment360, I know there were times when preventive maintenance on a piece of machinery might have been missed—especially during our busy season,” Beinhower says. “If you miss more than one of those in a row, you can end up with a problem. With Equipment360, that would never happen.” 

The cost of downtime can be expensive. 

“When a piece goes down, there’s downtime in just figuring out what is wrong, and then more downtime on the repair,” Beinhower says. “If it's an excavator on a pipe crew, then your whole crew's just sitting there waiting to be fixed. And if it can't be fixed, then, you incur the cost of getting a rental piece in, as well as the lost time waiting for it to be delivered. So, we value the way Equipment360 helps us do all that we can to avoid such situations.” 

Efficiency Boosted by Integrated Applications 

Equipment360 integrates with the other HCSS software that E.K. Services has deployed, like HeavyJob, which means that a foreman in the field has the option of entering maintenance requests directly from HeavyJob. From HeavyJob the request goes to the manager’s Equipment360 dashboard, where the job can be prioritized or combined with existing work orders for the piece of equipment. 

Dispatcher Sarah Hanes likes the fact that whatever equipment updates she makes while working in HCSS Dispatcher are updated to Equipment360. 

“If I’m dealing with a backhoe, for example, I enter all the information into Dispatcher, as far as the make, model, year, the serial number, a description, the status of the machine, what job site it’s located at, what foreman it’s assigned to, and also the backhoe’s history,” Hanes says. “All of that information will also be displayed in Equipment360. It’s critically important that the information I use while working in HCSS Dispatcher is the same information that someone else sees while working in Equipment360.” 

Hanes also values the fact that HCSS Telematics integrates with the other applications, sending hours and odometer readings to Equipment360, for example, and equipment location to HCSS Dispatcher. 

For Beinhower, application integration was one of the top selling points when looking at Equipment360. “Integration with other applications was one of the main reasons we went with Equipment360, the way it ties into all the other HCSS products we have,” Beinhower says. “Our previous application lacked integration. It was kind of a stand-alone, which reduced its value.” 

Asset Management and Visibility into Equipment Costs

Beinhower especially likes the Asset Management report within Equipment360. “Asset Management is one of my go-to reports,” he says. “I like to use Asset Management when making business decisions.” 

Equipment360 reporting makes it easy to analyze the work codes, which mechanics use when documenting the maintenance and repair tasks they perform. 

“Equipment360 reporting allows you to see exactly what a piece of equipment is costing you an hour to run,” Beinhower says. “All of the item codes are there. You can look at all your excavators, for example, and see which pieces are costing more than the others to operate; which ones are requiring more maintenance or burning more fuel. You can do the same with any of your fleet—get an overall view, and a per-unit view.” 

“We can do our equipment costing with the click of a button.” 

Beinhower adds: “In addition to helping make decisions on when to retire a piece of equipment, this data on a fleet level provides great costing information to use in building our bids. We can do our equipment costing with the click of a button.” 

Exact Equipment Tracking with HCSS Telematics & Geofencing

In addition to automatically reporting hours and mileage, HCSS Telematics provides exact location data helpful to the company’s dispatcher, as well as to its field mechanics. 

“We really value the way Equipment360 integrates with HCSS Telematics,” Beinhower says. “When our field mechanic is preparing to go out for a job, he can not only see what other pieces of equipment are on the jobsite, but also check out equipment on other sites within the area. This really helps him plan his day with the greatest efficiency. He can load up all the parts he needs and take care of maybe five issues, instead of just one and having to be sent back out to the field.” 

HCSS Telematics reduces lost time and the frustrations of trying to locate a specific piece of equipment on a large job site. 

“Some of our sites are pretty big, especially when working in a town where we might be working a pavement project along a three-mile strip, with equipment parked on all of these different streets,” Beinhower says. “Whether it’s the fuel truck driver, the lowboy driver, or the mechanic, they can pinpoint exactly where the equipment is that needs their attention.” 

HCSS Telematics also helps the dispatcher when double-checking on equipment locations. 

“Being in charge of dispatch, it’s my job to know where all equipment is at all times,” Hanes says. “And with so many pieces of equipment and so many employees and getting so many phone calls a day, I will know that I have already assigned a piece of equipment in Dispatcher, but will sometimes check myself, just to make sure that it is where it is supposed to be.” 

It also helps the dispatcher check on driver location. Hanes notes: “If I’ve got drivers out there on the same project and one is doing six trips, and the other just two, I can check with HCSS Telematics to see what has caused the delays.” 

Administrative Benefits of Equipment360

While the shop foreman assigns work orders to the mechanics, Hanes uses Equipment360 to set up scheduled preventive maintenance, including alerts to ensure an item isn’t missed. 

In addition, Hanes uses Equipment360 to move a rented piece of equipment into inventory, complete with ID number, and meter readings, and then removes it from inventory when it is returned. Hanes also uses Equipment360 to issue alerts for vehicle registrations and to track inventory levels. 

“The alerts mean that I don’t have to look at equipment one at a time checking for when preventive maintenance is due,” Hanes says. “And alerts also let me know when we are getting low on any of our tracked supplies, which has freed me from having to do spot checks.” 


Tom Webb, is VP of Strategic Initiatives & Customer Relations at HCSS

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