Summary
¦ The tough market has made people more aware of machinery maintenance.
¦ Servicing companies are adapting to customers’ schedules.
¦ Health and safety regulations increase the need for regular maintenance.
¦ Comprehensive spare parts back-up is vital.
It’s never been more important for wood processors to keep their machinery firing on all cylinders which is why, say repair and maintenance providers, their role has never been more significant.
What’s more, they maintain, by becoming more flexible and responsive and extending their activities beyond simply keeping equipment running, to helping customers get maximum productivity out of their technology, they’ve made their service more valuable still. Some companies said business dipped in the worst depths of the recession, but overall they seem to have come through robustly. In fact, tough market conditions have made customers more aware of the need for machine maintenance.
“We experienced a downturn at the point when companies were reticent to spend money on anything,” said Francis Dalton of machine supplier and service specialist AJ Dalton. “But that passed. I think people realised it was a false economy, particularly as they’re spending less on new equipment and, as a result, are having to keep older machines going. That means more checking and maintenance. It’s like driving an older car. You have to put more into servicing.”
SCM UK’s general service manager John Allenby agreed. “With companies reluctant to commit to capital expenditure, it has become more important to continue to expand our service and maintenance support,” he said.
According to Steve McGloin of Advanced Machinery Services (AMS), the need for its customers to operate at maximum efficiency to compete in such a tough climate puts an even greater onus on squeezing every last drop of productivity out of equipment.
“Businesses can’t afford to run a machine that’s not operating at its peak,” he said. “And, recognising how competitive the market is, we also tailor our service to cause the minimum of disruption. For instance, all our regular servicing work for Arnold Laver is done at weekends – and we also do weekend work for BSW, who we’ve signed a national servicing contract with.”
SCM also adapts to the customer’s schedule. “Not all businesses can guarantee a shutdown period, as they have to react to their customers’ needs, so we can always be flexible,” said Mr Allenby.
Recession also seems to have heightened awareness of the value of preventative maintenance.
“The industry is definitely taking preventative maintenance more seriously and we expect this to increase,” said Paul Cooper, managing director of Homag UK. “Scheduled servicing is better than an ad hoc approach, due to the nature of work these machines do, and the cost of lost production [in the event of breakdown] in most cases far outweighs the cost of planned maintenance work.”
Service providers say they’ve also added to the attraction of planned maintenance contracts in the current climate by offering more bespoke packages.
“Our maintenance agreements are tailored to each user’s requirements, based on the number of machines, throughput and applications and the number of hours worked,” said Weinig UK service manager Shaun Crump.
And with a maintenance contract, he added, customers have the benefit of a relationship with a particular technician who can build up knowledge of their equipment and business.
SCM has also focused on tailoring its service offer. “We have a variety of contractual packages, but also work with clients to create bespoke agreements with new machine sales based on the workload required,” said Mr Allenby.
Working in partnership
Homag describes ongoing service contracts as a “partnership” with the customer, and the relationship extends beyond engineers’ site visits. To illustrate this it points to the maintenance arrangement it has with furniture maker Hammonds. It uses 19 Homag machines and part of the deal is that Homag’s technicians advise it on keeping them at prime pitch between services.
“They give me a heads up on any parts that may reach their operating life expiry before the next service,” said Hammonds’ maintenance manager Adrian Smith. “That makes it more of a predictive maintenance contract.”
New and more strictly enforced health and safety regulations today further elevate the importance of regular maintenance, say service providers.
“Some companies put off taking action in this area, and, with such a volume of new legislation, I have sympathy, but in this day and age you really can’t afford to take this attitude,” said Mr Dalton. “The answer is regular maintenance inspections. These not only ensure your equipment is in the best running order, they’re health and safety checks that give you peace of mind and a piece of evidence that you’ve fulfilled your legal obligations.”
Related to this, he added, Daltons is still upgrading braking on customers’ machines to the latest Provision and Use of Working Equipment Regulations (PUWER).
“On most woodworking machines, these came into force almost five years ago and 18 months ago on moulders, but inevitably some companies get round to complying sooner than others,” he said. “For us it ties in well with our repair, maintenance and machine rebuild work.”
Service companies acknowledge that, even if they’re supported with the most thorough regular maintenance, there will be instances of wood-processing machinery breaking down, sometimes catastrophically. Then they have to be equipped to be, as one company put it, “the woodworking industry’s fourth emergency service” – and a guaranteed 24-hour call out now seems to be the norm in the case of serious problems.
“The priority is to maintain the customer’s productivity,” said Mr Crump.
Mr McGloin agreed and said that, occasionally, the response had to be even quicker. “A customer in Ireland recently called us at 8.30am saying they really needed a piece of equipment back on line,” he said. “We got an engineer on a flight out of Birmingham International at midday and the problem fixed that afternoon.”
An effective maintenance and repair operation also has to be underpinned by comprehensive spare parts back-up and service providers say they’re holding larger stocks than ever. Weinig UK, for instance, has £1m of parts for despatch same day from its Abingdon HQ, while others can be ordered next day from Germany.
AMS holds 132,000 parts at its Leicester site and also offers an alternative spares approach.
“Some customers ask us to keep a buffer stock of key parts so they’re readily available when our engineers visit,” said Mr McGloin. “It saves that extra bit of time.”
In the event of a more serious repair or bigger overhaul that requires taking the machine off site, most maintenance companies say they will also try to provide a temporary replacement. For Daltons, this service recently really put the pressure on.
“A customer needed a six-head moulder while theirs was repaired, but the only one we had needed refurbishing itself,” said Mr Dalton. “So, in very short order, we had to do that, get it to site and installed before we could take the other away.”
Daltons now also offers customers the option of accessing its computer database to check their own service history online.
“This is not for everyone, but some find it a useful option,” said Mr Dalton. “They can instantly see their service record and use the information for production planning and health and safety checks.”
AMS is introducing a similar web-based option: “We’ve invested in a new software system and will be able to offer online checking soon,” said Mr McGloin. “It will complement our rapid reporting service, which gets the results of engineers’ inspections to customers in 24-hours.”
Weinig, meanwhile, is continuing to see increasing take-up of its diagnostic tele service, where engineers talk customers through solving technical glitches on the phone. In fact, 70% of problems are now dealt with this way. In addition, on higher specification equipment, a modem can be used so its technicians in Germany can control the machine and fix problems remotely.
Operator training
Another service that maintenance companies are increasingly developing is machine operator training. Given their in-depth knowledge of how to make equipment run at optimum pitch and safely, they see it as a natural adjunct. “It’s a logical fit with machine servicing,” said Mr Dalton. “They’re both about getting the most out of your equipment. And it’s needed now more than ever as there is a smaller pool of skilled people out there.”
“Our engineers undertake training before delivery of a machine, during commissioning and afterwards for future development,” said Mr Crump. “In fact, any courses required to achieve highest productivity.”
AMS has also focused recently on developing this aspect of its service, entering a partnership with training provider DIDAC to offer City & Guilds accredited courses.
“Training is not only necessary for productivity, it’s also a health and safety obligation and it’s a fast expanding part of our business,” said Mr McGloin. “In fact, we’ve invested around £20,000 on a 1,500ft² classroom area which is equipped with a high-speed moulder, tooling facilities and grinding equipment. We now have customers’ employees on courses here every month.”
After the diversification of their activities in recent years, AMS and other maintenance providers say their service is set to evolve still further. They’re not giving away too many details, but it’s clear the development focus will continue to be not just on keeping customers’ machinery running smoothly, but their businesses too.
