Restaurant Social Media
Equipment Maintenance
Most of my entries have thus far stemmed from a shift or two and sometimes a pet peeve of mine. Eventually I will delve more into strategy versus tactics. Oh and this one is going to be brief as it is almost 2:00 and I have to be back at work in the morning after a long close.
Maintaining your equipment is paramount to good shifts but more importantly good financials. Here is an example and a very true one at that.
Mother’s day 2006.
For those of you that do not know, Mother’s Day is typically the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry as dad’s are not as handy (sorry if it sounds sexist) in the kitchen as mom’s. Mother’s day 2006 was an absolute nightmare situation. A full 70% of my product comes from fry and the remaining 30% is evenly slit between sauté, broil and pantry (salad and desert).
Long about 1:30 in the afternoon nine out of ten fryers died. There was no resuscitation. It was not an issue of gas. It was not an issue of not knowing how to use them. It was not an issue of electrical failure to the control panels. They just died…all of them in about ten minutes time. Sometimes shit just happens but Mother’s Day 2006 it hit the fan. I had to have gone to at least 50+ tables (my restaurant is that big) and tell them that 70% of their order was not possible and that we were very sorry for ruining their Mother’s Day.
Oh my god the day from hell it truly was. I expected the skies to part. The sun to melt. Seven horses to come from nowhere and the fullest extent of rapture to take a strong hold on the city. Nothing could be done to salvage Mother’s Day 2006 for 1600 customers. (Please note a ever so slight hint of sarcasm in that)
Monday morning when our highly trained experts came to the rescue, they jerry rigged a few of them to give us room to breathe then they gave us a bid for far more than it would cost to purchase all new fryers. Friday, we had ten new fryers.
OK, so where is all this build up going to? Get your equipment on a regular maintenance schedule. IF we had taken care of our equipment properly, this would have never happened as the fryers were only five years old or so.
Make a list of all the equipment in your restaurant. Fryers, Reach-Ins, HVAC, Hoods, POS Systems, Salamanders, Salad Stations, Ice Cream Coolers, Hot Wells, Plumbing (I could write volumes about the plumbing issues we have had in the last year) and so on. Create that list and call all the manufacturers. They will send you a preventative maintenance schedule for each piece of equipment. Then ask them for a preferred company or qualified technician or two for each piece of equipment. Call them and get bids for a preventative maintenance schedule.
It might seem like a pain in the rear now and a cost that you do not need not expense here and now, but Mother’s Day next year you will gladly thank me for the advice. Your comp line will agree!
Maintaining your equipment is paramount to good shifts but more importantly good financials. Here is an example and a very true one at that.
Mother’s day 2006.
For those of you that do not know, Mother’s Day is typically the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry as dad’s are not as handy (sorry if it sounds sexist) in the kitchen as mom’s. Mother’s day 2006 was an absolute nightmare situation. A full 70% of my product comes from fry and the remaining 30% is evenly slit between sauté, broil and pantry (salad and desert).
Long about 1:30 in the afternoon nine out of ten fryers died. There was no resuscitation. It was not an issue of gas. It was not an issue of not knowing how to use them. It was not an issue of electrical failure to the control panels. They just died…all of them in about ten minutes time. Sometimes shit just happens but Mother’s Day 2006 it hit the fan. I had to have gone to at least 50+ tables (my restaurant is that big) and tell them that 70% of their order was not possible and that we were very sorry for ruining their Mother’s Day.
Oh my god the day from hell it truly was. I expected the skies to part. The sun to melt. Seven horses to come from nowhere and the fullest extent of rapture to take a strong hold on the city. Nothing could be done to salvage Mother’s Day 2006 for 1600 customers. (Please note a ever so slight hint of sarcasm in that)
Monday morning when our highly trained experts came to the rescue, they jerry rigged a few of them to give us room to breathe then they gave us a bid for far more than it would cost to purchase all new fryers. Friday, we had ten new fryers.
OK, so where is all this build up going to? Get your equipment on a regular maintenance schedule. IF we had taken care of our equipment properly, this would have never happened as the fryers were only five years old or so.
Make a list of all the equipment in your restaurant. Fryers, Reach-Ins, HVAC, Hoods, POS Systems, Salamanders, Salad Stations, Ice Cream Coolers, Hot Wells, Plumbing (I could write volumes about the plumbing issues we have had in the last year) and so on. Create that list and call all the manufacturers. They will send you a preventative maintenance schedule for each piece of equipment. Then ask them for a preferred company or qualified technician or two for each piece of equipment. Call them and get bids for a preventative maintenance schedule.
It might seem like a pain in the rear now and a cost that you do not need not expense here and now, but Mother’s Day next year you will gladly thank me for the advice. Your comp line will agree!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carl Muth on -
Like they say; an ounce of preparation is worth more than a pound of cure. I was an E & S salesman for 12 years, and invariably I would get that call around 3 or 4 in the afternoon from a customer who had a piece of equipment that had broken down. So they call me (even though I may not of sold them the piece of equipment) to find out who the authorized service agent is for that manufacturer. Now (because they are a good customer) I have to stop making sales calls, get some one from the office that can look up the information on the phone, then get some one on the phone at the mfg to give me the information, then get the restaurant operator (the person that called me in the first place) on the phone to answer his question. This whole process could take up to an hour or longer, so the rest of your day is shot just trying to take care of a simple problem.
The good news is that I have created a solution to this problem. On my website (FoodServiceResource.com), I have created a Service Agent & Repa... where the Sales Person or End User can quickly get the information that they need. If you're a salesman out in the field, all you have to do is tell your customer to go to FoodServiceResource.com, look for the Service Agent & Repa..., and get the information that they need. One phone call, no follow up calls, Zero Cost, and off to the next customer. Brilliant!! -
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