6th October 2022 By andrew gaved
The ‘cost’ of a tool extends well beyond the purchase price alone, manufacturer Hilti tells Andrew Gaved
It goes without saying that contractors in the HVAC sector use a lot of tools: their day-to-day operations depend on it, from making penetrations to fastening to pipe cutting. But ask the contractor how much those tools are costing them and you might get any number of different answers. Some may simply quote the list price from the merchant or the tool hire company, while others might remember to add in the cost of the spare parts and consumables. But what about other factors such as the cost of downtime, the environmental impact or even the cost of operation – a cordless saw will cost less to use than a corded version running on mains electricity or a petrol-driven version, for instance.
The real cost of tools is something that manufacturer Hilti gets particularly worked up about, and has been actively addressing for more than a decade now. It is not surprising that, since the initial outlay for a Hilti tool is higher than some rivals, the manufacturer has long been keen to show potential users that there is much more to factor in than purchase price alone. Hilti national tool hire manager Walid Hussain is forthright about how specifiers of M&E equipment need to look at the practice of tool use holistically, considering all the factors beyond price: “We have long known that the quality of the tool will have an impact on its lifetime and so investing in a tool based just on the purchase price is a false economy. We can show simply how one of our tools will cost less over its lifetime, simply because it lasts longer and requires less maintenance [see graph], so it pays to invest in quality.”
But, he adds, the lifetime cost in financial terms is not the only consideration that the contractor needs to factor in. Because now the importance of sustainability means that the lifetime carbon emissions are another vital element to add to the mix. Even if a client is not yet specifically asking for things like ‘embodied carbon’ calculations from their contractors, the evidence of sustainability good practice will be a benefit when it comes to ESG statements. “The discussion has moved on,” he says. “However, the good news is that even though everyone thinks sustainability it is a cost, we can show that it needn’t cost more.”
In the context of sustainability, Hilti has a two-pronged approach. Firstly, it is determined to be transparent about the carbon emissions of the tools themselves. Carbon emissions for construction tools is a big deal, Mr Hussain notes. For a start, such tools use lots of metal in their construction – whether steel, brass or copper – because they need to be hard-wearing. Raw materials, including their extraction and production, takes up a major proportion of carbon.
Then there is the fact that these tools are extensively used in harsher environments than most other tool types – whether that be the hard materials they are drilling or sawing into or the dust that the operations create. So it follows that they will require more maintenance and spare parts.
Mr Hussain says: “It stands to reason that it will be a carbon benefit if those materials last as long as possible and the number of spares required is reduced.”
Hilti is sufficiently confident about showing its carbon footprint and engages a third-party consultant, IBU, to analyse the footprint of its major tools. The headline results of a typical tool (see graphs below), show the disproportionate contribution of the raw materials to the tool’s footprint.
As a manufacturer, it is now happy to say that it designs with sustainability – and the ability to be repaired – in mind too. Mr Hussain is typically forthright: “We are saying that rather than dump waste on the industry, we will use materials wisely.”
The second prong of the sustainability approach is management of the maintenance. For a monthly fee over the lifetime of the tool, Hilti’s Fleet Management takes care of service, repairs and replacement of each individual tool for up to five years. The offering has evolved in recent years, building on the sustainability element, to the extent that Hilti now undertakes to reuse as many components as possible from tools that have reached the end of their life – and those that it cannot reuse, it will recycle.
Importantly, for those whose clients are moving into the world of tracking circularity for projects, Hilti will also provide a Circularity Report on the tool fleet, showing what has happened to the components once returned. A number of hire companies are also engaged in Fleet Management, so that a hired tool will also often have been subject to those sustainability standards.
Key to the establishment of the Fleet Management contract is something called Tool Park Optimisation, where Hilti sends one of its dedicated team of consultants to audit the existing company fleet, with the aim of optimising the type of tools used and the size of the fleet. “This is an audit at a high level with the owner or finance director, and it seeks to take everything into account,” says Mr Hussain. “This includes where the tools are: are the most right tools available to the right sites? And what they are used for: are they using the most appropriate tool type for the applications?”
Mr Hussain stresses that this audit has on a number of occasions result in a reduction in the contractor’s tool fleet, and there is potential for more with the new Nuron platform, which offers a single battery platform for an unprecedented wide range of bodies. “This is another potential benefit to companies looking to reduce carbon,” he says, “as we are looking to physically reduce the fleet.”
A further benefit of the Fleet Management model is that the maintenance is optimised, reducing potential downtime through speedy return of equipment and cutting the number of spares, he adds. “Quality components are important – some companies seem to buy spare parts like they buy milk!”
The result, Mr Hussain contends, is savings in both cost and in carbon: “Bringing cheap tools from the Far East only adds to the transport carbon burden. The chasing of low initial cost is a false economy both for the contractor and for society.”
For more on Fleet Management, visit the dedicated section.
Tagged with: carbon reduction embodied carbon Hilti Power tools sustainability
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