Comparative study of Conventional Road Construction Earth Moving Equipment Operation Training and Simulator Based Training: The Case of Ethiopian Roads Authority (Alemgena Machine Based Technology Training Center)
Creators: name: Tewodros Kassaye Kebede
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2020
Subjects: Construction equipment, Conventional training, Simulator based training, comparative study, training cost

description: Earth moving equipment is consisting of mainly Dozers, Loaders, Excavators, and Graders.<br> These machines require skillful operators to run and upgrading the level and skill of operators<br> through training plays paramount importance. But there are many problems during operators<br> training. The problems are: increased machine failure, fuel and oil consumption, accident,<br> emission ... etc. To reduce the training expense like fuel and oil, machine failure, training time<br> ...etc, the organization decides to buy new simulator machines to deliver advanced training by<br> combining conventional construction equipment with simulator base training. But to what level<br> does the simulator base training supports conventional training is unknown. This study is focused<br> on the comparative study of conventional road construction earth moving equipment operation<br> training and simulator based training in Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) at Alemgena Machine<br> Based Technology Training Center (AMBTTC). The research approach was mixed. The required<br> data for this study was collected by preparing survey questionnaires using a Likert- scale in both<br> types of trainings from total of 158 distributed 133 trainees and 20 trainers was correctly rated<br> and returned; interview and observation were taken as primary source of data. Data related to<br> amount of fuel and oil consumption of the equipment were taken from fuel and oil distribution<br> record office, as a secondary data. Statistics package for social sciences (SPSS, v-20) was used to<br> process the data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage,<br> mean and standard deviations. The finding of this study shows that, the simulator based training<br> helps trainees to operate the actual machine in short period of time, but it has less transferability<br> of skill and knowledge than conventional training due to low capacity of simulator scenario<br> design in meeting the training objectives. Also it has weakness in maintenance due to lack of<br> spare part and experts. The finding of this study also shows that the conventional training is<br> better in knowledge and skill transferability and in effectiveness of evaluating trainees‘<br> performance than simulator based training .But it is exposed to frequent failure due to lack of<br> proper maintenance and extended service life time of equipment. Regarding the fuel and engine<br> oil consumption of conventional training for one round was 55,230L and 735.92L respectively.<br> And in simulator-based training was 36,846L &amp; 439.29L respectively. As a result, this reduction<br> in consumption was the profit of training center. Accordingly, this research recommends the<br> simulator based training can give higher value, if the capacity of simulator scenario design is<br> upgraded; it helps in meeting the training objectives in short period of time and reduction of cost