Resource - Equipment Fleet Management for Contractors

Mike Vorster is the best in the construction industry when it comes to teaching, coaching, and advising contractors on all aspects of owning and operating an equipment fleet.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Construction Equipment Economics is "The Bible" of fleet management and should be required reading for all owners, senior leadership, and managers of estimating, operations, equipment, and accounting for contractors with equipment fair market value (FMV) exceeding $1M. 

Even if you have the old book, version 2 is still a must read organized into five parts:

  1. Build Your Organization
  2. Know Your Costs
  3. Manager Your Fleet Average Age
  4. Ensure Utilization
  5. Be Proactive

 

Michael Kelley, the President of Slivertrek Systems has put together a great series of discussions with Mike Vorster covering every aspect of Construction Equipment Economics v2 including lots of application case studies and additional information.

Yellow Iron, Black Smoke can be found on Audible, Apple, Spotify and several other platforms. Every episode has great information. Those focused directly on the book and Mike Vorster are below:

  1. Professors, Books, and Yellow Iron (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  2. Equipment and People Processes (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  3. Costing Insights: Owning and Operating Costs (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  4. Profit Centers, Capital, Responsibility, and Accounting (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  5. Owning and Operating Costs: Understanding the Curve (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  6. Rate Calculations (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  7. Budgeting and Cost Management (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  8. Fleet Age Management - The Optimum Ownership Period (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  9. Thinking Like an Investor - Rebuilds, Replacements, Rentals, and CAPEX (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  10. Utilization - Making Sure Your Asset is an Asset (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  11. Decision Making - Asking Why 5X and Building Consensus (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  12. Reliability: The Granddaddy of All Equipment Metrics (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  13. Be Proactive! Solving Equipment Problems Before They Are Problems (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  14. Utilization - Case Studies in Strategies and Tactics (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  15. Visualization - How to Look at Data (Audible, Apple, Spotify)
  16. All About Mike Vorster and C.E.M.P. (Audible, Apple, Spotify)

 

 

 




The Average Field Day in Detail (Craft Labor + Foreman)
Labor is often the biggest cost variable on a construction project. Just over half the field hours are related to actual installation. Understanding how time is spent on average in the field is the first step to improving field productivity.
Clear Installation Information
For a contractor to maximize their labor productivity, they need to start with clear information provided to the crews doing the actual installation. Good information is the first of the six pillars of productivity and means several things:
Changes - Early Identification is Always Better
Early identification of changes and conflicts is the first key to success. The capability to identify changes and conflicts early in the process is a combination of organizational structure, systems, management, training, and coaching.