As an instructor at CarWash College, I’m often asked what should be kept in inventory to help in the event of an unscheduled repair.
It sounds like an innocent enough question, but in reality, it’s anything but. With at least a dozen tunnel equipment manufacturers, each with their own way of doing things, a generic spare parts list isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Sure, there a couple of givens: a couple of extra rollers, a section of chain, etc., but, for the most part, that’s where it will end if you want a list that will really come in handy if your wash is down.
Closing for unscheduled maintenance is a cardinal sin in our industry, yet it occurs more often than we’d care to admit. If it happens and you don’t have the parts to fix the problem on hand, that compounds the issue. Now you have to call your supplier and get parts sent overnight which, in most instances, doubles the price of the part needed to fix the disabled component.
If you think of it, most of the items that cause an unscheduled repair stem from “wear” items; bearings, shocks, rollers, cylinders, etc. These items usually give some indication that they are beginning to fail long before they give out for good.
If a preventive maintenance plan is being followed religiously, these failures will be caught early, the parts needed can be ordered in time, and replaced, prior to total failure.
Some of the larger chains we deal with will change out “wear” items at regular intervals regardless of appearance. By doing this, they ensure themselves that they won’t close for unscheduled maintenance unless they have a catastrophic failure.
I know of one group that changes their chain and rollers once a year like clockwork. Excessive, you say? Perhaps. But, to my knowledge, they have never had to stop processing cars due to a chain issue since employing this method.
Granted, some of us don’t have the resources to replace items that haven’t reached the end of their useful life but if you have an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, you are begging for trouble.
As a former operator myself, I can recall thinking that I didn’t have the money to do this, or to do that. If something broke though, I always had the money to get it fixed! It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?
While having a few spare parts on your shelf may come in handy someday, preventing the need for those spare parts is useful today, and always.
Bob Fox has over 30 years of industry experience and is an instructor at CarWash College™. Bob can be reached at [email protected]. For more information about CarWash College™ certification programs, visit CarWash College or call the registrar’s office at 1-866-492-7422.
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