Planned Maintenance Can Help Prevent Unplanned Breakdowns
Service Contracts Can Help Avoid Costly Repairs and New Equipment Purchases
In the current economy, it's all about saving money. Many foodservice operations are tightening their budgets, scrutinizing expenses and keeping cost-cutting top of mind. Repairing equipment can be a significant expense, and having to close down or cancel an event as a result of equip-ment failure that could have been prevented can be catastrophic. The financial impacts go far beyond parts, labor and downtime. Imagine the reputation hit if your client is a restaurant that has to close for breakfast or a school that is not able to serve students a healthy lunch due to an equipment outage. Or, what would the consequences be for a hotel if a warewasher breaks down during a $200-per-person wedding reception? The real cost is immeasurable.
Properly maintaining the equipment an operation has can help reduce the occurrence of expensive repairs or worse, equipment replacement costs. Service contracts offer a way for foodservice operations to save on expenses and help keep their equipment is running smoothly.
Many foodservice operations have in-house service staff or onsite engineers to keep their equipment humming, but these employees often times are responsible for operation-wide maintenance, not just kitchen equipment maintenance. For a large hospital foodservice operation, in-house service staff might work on a piece of foodservice equipment one day and then repair air conditioning equipment or light fixtures the next.
Access to a dedicated, factory-trained service resource is one of the reasons Lexington Medical Center has a service contract with Hobart. Lexington Medical center is a 392 bed acute care hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. The hospital has five kitchens in total including a doctor's lounge, three retail outlets and a main cafeteria.
"A partnership is the best way to describe the relationship between our engineering team and Hobart Service," says Steve Howell, director of nutrition services for Lexington Medical Center. "Our engineering team is constantly tending to all parts of the hospital and the kitchen is just one piece of the pie. Through our Hobart Service contract, when something goes wrong, we know we can rely on them to properly diagnose the problem and our engineering team can continue tending to other issues. The Hobart Service technicians knowledge base, as far as the many types of equipment they know how to service, is amazing."
Aside from helping keep valuable foodservice equipment in working order, another benefit of having a service contract is that maintenance becomes a fixed cost.
Costs are predictable and easily budgeted compared to the unexpected expenses as a result of purchasing and shipping replacement parts and paying for a service technician. Howell estimates his service contract with Hobart costs his company no more than it would pay for replacement parts and probably even saves his company money.
Your clients invested in quality equipment that is vital to their business—and service contracts represent a smart way to protect that investment. Properly maintained equipment will last years longer and experience less downtime—leading to increased operator profits and enhanced productivity. Having a preventative maintenance contract ensures equipment is properly maintained and minimizes the risk of small problems having a chance to become large ones.
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