By Jonathan Cadotte
Service manager at Premium Industrial Group inc.
What are your priorities today? We all have tasks to prioritize, but sometimes we misjudge the urgency of a situation. However, when a plant’s production comes to a standstill due to a breakdown, for example an overhead crane’s, you have to act fast. Calling a service technician is often a matter of urgency. You need his immediate intervention! Similarly, if a hydraulic platform is rented for work, a delay by the technician can lead to unnecessary costs and stress.
So, how does it work? Premium Industrial Group, with over 15 years’ experience, employs some twenty specialized technicians, some of whom have more than 30 years’ experience in the lifting industry. When a customer calls us for an inspection, maintenance, repair or urgent intervention, one question often comes up: how long does it take for a technician to be on site ?
In this article, you’ll find out how long it takes for a technician to respond to two different types of request :
- Service call
- Planned work
But you will also discover how to manage your equipment’s downtime better, and the solutions available to ensure you’re not at the mercy of uncontrollable situations. You’ll be able to reduce the impact of your downtime on production, and also reduce the stress these situations can cause you.
How long does it take for a technician to arrive for a service call?
A service call occurs because of a breakdown or unforeseen problem requiring the supplier’s intervention to avoid an impact on productivity. The urgency varies according to the situation, from simple inconvenience to major dangers.
But to answer the question directly, the response time varies according to the priority of the call. The time before a technician leaves for your plant will be between 30 minutes and 24 hours for high emergencies, and from a few hours to a few days for lower priorities. The question is: how do you determine these priorities?
Factors influencing the delay for a service call
Service calls are prioritized according to a number of criteria: is the equipment critical? Does the problem affect productivity? Is a temporary solution possible? Is there a risk of wear, breakage or danger to worker safety? The service supervisor will analyze these factors with you to define the priority and provide a precise lead time (see “Realistic expectations” box).
REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
When you make a service call, you naturally want the technician to be on site as quickly as possible. But since the service supplier doesn’t necessarily have a technician on standby at the time of the call, he’ll often have to reorganize tasks to free up one. But what happens when all the technicians are already on urgent calls?
The service department can adopt different strategies, but it will inevitably happen that several urgent calls come in on the same day, mobilizing all the technicians at the time of your need. This underlines the crucial importance of a contingency plan, as mentioned above.
Managing a team of technicians is complex and demanding. However, if have the feeling that the team is taking care of your request as soon as you call, this is a positive indicator for the future.
Other factors, such as the distance between the technician and the work site, can also influence the lead time. Even if the technician is not always at his or her home base when the call is made, this can be used to estimate travel time.
What’s more, if a spare part is needed to restart production, the time it takes to obtain it can have a major impact on downtime. Your supplier doesn’t always have control over delivery times, which depend on the availability of parts from the manufacturer, their location and transport time. To reduce this impact, an effective but under-used solution is to set up a contingency plan.
A contingency plan to reduce critical equipment downtime
For critical equipment essential to your production, prolonged downtime due to a lack of spare parts can be frustrating and detrimental. Do you have measures in place to anticipate a possible breakdown of a key piece of lifting equipment? More often than not, having spare parts in stock that are know to have long delivery times is a must for dealing with this kind of situation. For further advice on this subject, we recommend the article Reactive or proactive when it comes to the maintenance of your lifting equipment?
How long does it take for a technician to arrive for a scheduled call?
In most cases of planned interventions, such as inspections, maintenance or repairs, the timeframe is agreed according to the availability of the customer and the supplier. Good organization and communication make it possible to set a date, or even a precise time, for the technician's arrival (see box "Normal service hours and technician arrival").
Certain periods, such as the holiday season or the two construction weeks, are very busy for planned interventions. It is then important to reserve these dates early.
When it comes to repairs, we often have to consider the availability of spare parts. Your service supervisor will take this into account when planning with you.
Normally, in the case of a scheduled call, the level of urgency for the intervention of a specialized technician should be low. That said, if an inspection or maintenance work becomes urgent, it should be considered as an unscheduled intervention, much like a service call.
For effective management of your service calls
In conclusion, effective emergency management, combined with an appropriate contingency plan, considerably reduces the pressure on those managing production. So, when a service call comes in, you can pass on clear information to your supplier and receive the technician within the agreed timeframe. After all, if your neighbor has a call that takes precedence over yours, you’ll certainly be happy to give him priority. But you’ll be even happier when the opposite happens!
To reduce emergency calls and favor scheduled appointments, put a contingency plan in place as soon as possible. A lifting specialist can help you with this essential step. If required, our service team is also available to help you. Don’t hesitate to fill in the form at the bottom of the page for our advice.
Another effective way of limiting emergency calls is prevention. Regular inspections are a valuable tool in this respect. You’ll find useful information on the importance of inspections on our dedicated page.
