Plant Manager software article - Contract Journal

JOYCE PUTS PLANT ONLINE Joyce saves thousands by designing computer system to trace whereabouts and status of plant equipment.

Building contractor Joyce Construction has developed its own computer system to keep track of all items of plant that it owns or has on hire. The system is now available for third party leasing.

It allows each item of plant to be allocated to a particular site and contains details of all supplier daily rates, equipment details and dates when the item was hired and when the hire period ends.

When a company is looking to hire an item, the system will first alert the user if any of the company’s own units are Idle and, if not, will show a list of suppliers ranked in order of preference along with the hire rates.

A few days before the item is due to be returned from hire it will be flagged up so the site foreman can be contacted to ensure the unit will no longer be required.

Having been programmed with the daily rate along with bank holiday and weekend arrangements, the system will calculate the amount owed to the hire company enabling it to cross check invoices later.

In trailing the system in house, Joyce, which can hire upto 100 items a day, said it had saved more than £10,000 by picking up overcharging, with a further £6,800 in outstanding queries, in the first year.

According to the company, the savings made through ensuring items are not left unused on site after they should have been returned from hire are “incalculable”. It also said there are considerable savings in manpower as well, compared with manual checking.

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