Years ago it was common for all laundry and dry cleaning operators to stock a good amount of repair parts at their location. Laundromats, hotels, skilled nursing care centers, commercial laundries, all had parts on their shelves. It was relatively cheap insurance. Since UPS took 2 to 4 days depending on the distance travelled and air freight was rarely used the cost of being down for 3 or 4 days outweighed the cost of stocking some key parts. Today much has changed. UPS and FEDEX have logistics figured out. Most routes in New Enland are next day delivery. Air freight although not cheap is an alternative to stocking a lot of parts if used sparingly. However, what has not changed for the better is the cost of downtime. In fact, it is higher now than ever when considering your customer dissatisfaction and labor cost for lost production.
Knowing that stocking a lot of parts has a cost to it as well here is a suggestion. Review with your maintenance people or develop a list yourself of the most critical machines in your business. Then review the most critical parts on those machines. How fast could you get them if they failed? Could you afford to be without that unit for a day or two without causing serious customer interruption? Once you answer these critical questions. Develop a budget for spare parts, call our parts department, and lets work together to get some insurance on your shelf. Spare parts on site will get you back in operation in hours instead of days. Spare parts will help you serve your customers better. Spare parts will help your bottom line. Happy customers. Profitable, cost effective laundry. We think that is a winning combination!!
