Keeping your company’s vehicles in top operating condition is critical to the productivity and profitability of your business. Unreliable vehicles can prove costly in terms of unscheduled downtime, expensive repairs and loss of a company’s reputation. MCAA’s latest Management Methods Bulletin—Vehicle Preventative Maintenance Program—provides information on how to establish a program that will ensure your company’s vehicles are available when you need them.

Whether you decide to establish an in-house vehicle maintenance program or work with a dealer, the bulletin provides all the details you’ll need to get started. The bulletin also provides information about web-based fleet management solutions such as a GPS units that provide fleet managers with information about vehicles’ fuel usage, speed and mileage, location and more to help reduce operating costs and increase revenue.

The bulletin also explains the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing versus leasing a vehicle, when to repair or replace a vehicle and the importance of keeping good records on each vehicle and following the schedule for service and maintenance.

MCAA’s Management Methods Committee wishes to thank Team 5 of the Advanced Leadership Institute’s Class 7 for developing the content for this bulletin.

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Find out whether your company is eligible for an MCAA Safety Excellence Certificate of Commendation for its safety performance in 2017.  The program has been expanded to provide awards for zero recordable cases, zero lost workday cases, recordable cases incidence rates that are 25% or more below the industry average, and lost workday cases incidence rates that are 25% or more below the industry average.

To find out whether your company is eligible, complete a simple annual report form and submit it electronically. Regardless of whether your company earned an award for its safety performance last year it will receive a beneficial benchmarking report. The report allows the user to compare company incidence rates with the aggregates of other participating companies in the same size category.

Annual Report Form   (Please submit to MCAA by March 9, 2018)

Value Engineering (VE) is an approach to project management that focuses on increasing the performance or value of each project function at the lowest lifecycle cost. A new Management Method Bulletin—Value Engineering—explains how VE works through collaboration of project team members, the evaluation of function alternatives and the assessment of each project function on the overall project design.

Evaluating VE for a project involves six phases:

1. Information or ensusring all project team members understand the background of the project design
2. Function Analysis or what areas should be considered for VE
3. Creative when project team members brainstorm possible ideas for increasing the project’s value based on the previous analyses
4. Evaluation or narrowing the list of possible VE ideas
5. Development or expansion of the chosen ideas
6. Presentation or the preparation of a report on the VE alternatives

The bulletin also explains how VE works with Design-Bid-Build and Design-Build-Assist projects. The mechanical contractor’s role in the VE collaboration in each approach is discussed along with insights and comparisons regarding VE’s effectiveness in optimizing a project’s value.

As with any project management approach, VE has its advantages and disadvantages, and these are covered in this bulletin as well. Client relationship, market competitiveness, project design and design team impacts, cost reduction cautions and contract provisions should be considered before adopting VE for a project.

MCAA’s Management Methods Committee wishes to thank Team 3 of the Advanced Leadership Institute’s Class 17 for providing the content for this bulletin.

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For the first time ever MCAA presented a Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST) examination preparation workshop in conjunction with its 15th annual Safety Directors’ Conference. The certification is provided by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals to individuals who meet the qualification requirements, and pass the examination. The workshop, which prepares the attendees for an extremely challenging examination, was completely sold out. Thirty six participants attended the three-day workshop to study the disciplines covered by the exam, and to learn the best ways to prepare for it. MCAA will present professional safety certification exam preparations workshops in conjunction with future safety directors’ conferences.