Comparison of repair costs for small and mid-sizes farm machinery in Malaysian oil palm plantation

Abstract

Farm machinery has been tremendously used to perform laborious tasks and speed-up the in-field operations in Malaysian oil palm plantation. In line with the significant increase in farm machinery usage in Malaysian oil palm plantation, hence, repair costs of farm machinery should be well-managed. Failure to do so may result in the plantations profits will be affected. This study aims to analyze and compare the current data of repair costs for small and mid-sizes farm machinery that are commonly used in Malaysian oil palm plantation. Besides, this study also aims to update and adapt the values of repair factors for cumulative repair and maintenance (Crm) costs model of farm machinery in Malaysian oil palm plantation. The relevant data were collected through a survey that was carried out at several oil palm plantations in Melaka and Negeri Sembilan states of Malaysia. The findings indicated the common sizes of farm machinery used Malaysian oil palm plantation were in the range of small-size (28HP) to mid-size (75HP). It was found that annual average repair costs of mid-size farm machinery were 60.08% higher than the small-size one. Meanwhile, mean ages of mid-size farm machinery were also 80.7 % longer than the small-size one. The values of repairs factors 1 (RF1) and repairs factor 2 (RF2) for cumulative repair and maintenance costs model (Crm) of farm machinery in Malaysian oil palm plantation were 1.4061 and 1.6588, respectively. Conclusively, the findings of the study can give a valuable contribution to the oil palm plantations management in developing their strategic planning concerning the allocation of overall costs of farm machinery.