Equipment downtime is the enemy in foodservice, and it’s every operator’s goal to keep it to a minimum whenever possible.
When issues arise, as they tend to do during the busiest time of the day or during the most inopportune moments, you’ll require the full attention of your service technician to execute a repair as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, reactive repairs are not only unexpected, but can be costly, with most annual budgets taking quite the hit.
A good service technician can help minimize the financial impact and stress by not just meeting, but exceeding your expectations. This partnership is crucial to your business’ overall success, as it adds value and insight to your equipment’s use, service and life cycle.
There are essential steps you can take to ensure, when maintenance or repairs are needed, a service technician can accomplish this as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Whether you have an in-house service technician or work with an outside company, here are valuable takeaways to minimize downtime and get up and running in a more timely manner:
- There is no substitute for following manufacturers’ recommended equipment maintenance from the get go. It’s important to reinforce this on all equipment with the entire staff so nothing gets overlooked, or there’s an opportunity for significant failure in the future. Following manufacturer’s guidelines also maximizes warranty coverage.
- Preparatory measures for your equipment prior to night cleaning service will help guarantee it will be up and running the next day.
- Creating a checklist or logging it in a database like Heritage Parts’ My Equipment360™ on what the issue is, when it happened and as many other details as possible prior to a service tech visit can help make the visit as efficient as possible.
- In communicating with the service tech, set clear expectations for service, avoid times, site access and safety protocol.
- Identification of equipment by tagging or keeping it logged in a database by location supports efficient service call requests, asset management and capital expenditure planning.
- For equipment identification, it also helps to take photos of the unit,defective part and serial number, while letting the service tech know how long it has been in service and/or its age.
- For operations with multiple locations, it helps to keep a record as to the repair time at each location. This provides added insight if the maintenance and/or cleaning routine is lacking or if there are different equipment models that may not be up to the task and experiencing frequent breakdowns.
- With both internal and external technicians, providing detailed information and feedback on the equipment, whether making repairs or performing preventative maintenance, helps expedite the process. This includes specifying what error codes are shown, the specific issue with a unit and its important daily use within the operation.
- Conduct an annual business review with service techs, and ask them to provide a service spend report and discuss this during the review. Invite their input to contribute to your capital expenditure planning for equipment
- Make sure there is a shared understanding of repairing versus replacing a piece of equipment. Discuss the value and ROI of planned maintenance on critical equipment with both staff and service techs.
Keeping equipment up and running and expediting service is always the goal, so it helps if staff and service techs fully understand the value each piece of equipment delivers to your organization. Being aware of how much time your internal team is spending cleaning and maintaining equipment, while also doing a thorough business review to fully understand the full impact when issues occur, is key to minimizing downtime and maximizing profits.
