Tony Weber, contributing editor, Food Service, Equipment and Supplies noted that many food companies are repairing rather than replace their food service equipment, and as a result maintenance agreements are becoming more important in the sector.
In a recent report Weber quoted Wayne Stoutner, president and co-owner of US-based Appliance Installation and Service, who advises that operational benefits form the biggest advantages to a planned maintenance deal.
By signing a planned maintenance contract with a local service agent, “you get to control your downtime. You’ll be down for a few hours that you chose,” Stoutner said. Service agencies, Stoutner added, will be able to work with operators’ schedules, finding times for planned maintenance that are most convenient to them.
“Planned maintenance agreements will almost certainly reduce the number of emergency service calls operations need, meaning they are less likely to have a key piece of cooking equipment fail during the busiest time of the week, for example, or have a refrigeration unit break down, resulting in thousands of dollars worth of spoiled food or multiple labour hours spent unloading a malfunctioning unit,” according to Weber.
The Food Service Equipment and Supplies report added that Stoutner pointed out that, if a piece of equipment does break down unexpectedly, having a standing relationship with an equipment service agency should result in better, faster service. If the service agency is familiar with the equipment used in an operation, it will be more likely that they have necessary replacement parts on the truck and ready for installation on the first visit.
“Stoutner recommends operators visit the websites of their equipment manufacturers to find the factory authorised service agents in their area, almost all of which will also be members of the Commercial Food Equipment Service Association (CFESA). Such firms, he said, know the ins-and-outs of the equipment they are authorized to service and are more likely to have replacement parts in stock,” the report noted.
“While these companies may charge somewhat more on a per-hour basis than non-CFESA, non-factory authorised firms, Stoutner noted that partnering with them will often actually save an operator money.”
“Don’t always get hung up on the money. If you take a situation where you have a factory-authorised service agent with the proper parts in the warehouse and on the truck, the per-hour rate may be a little more but it will get fixed more quickly. The overall bill will be a lot less and you’re actually getting better service,” Stoutner added.
