CHICAGO — When it comes to basic equipment maintenance, respondents to American Laundry News’ most recent Your Views survey indicate that they or someone on staff handle the job on their own.
More than 52% of those who took the survey say that they, or someone at the laundry, handle all of the company’s basic equipment maintenance. Almost 30% indicated that they take care of most of the maintenance.
Only 10.9% say that they handle “some” basic equipment needs, while just 4.4% say that they perform either little or none of their basic equipment tasks.
And it seems that managers or staff members are doing a good job on basic maintenance. Nearly 83% of those who took the survey answered “no” when asked, “Have any of your laundry’s equipment maintenance efforts ever backfired and ended up requiring repairs or even replacement?”
What happened to the remaining 17.8% who answered “yes”?
“A circuit board was installed wrong on one dryer, shorting out the entire bank of dryers,” one respondent writes.
“Equipment was down months for repair,” writes another.
One possible reason so many managers, or someone on staff, have a role in basic equipment maintenance for the company could be because of service school attendance. More than 60% of respondents say that they or a staff member have attended a service school offered by an equipment manufacturer or distributor.
The remaining respondents indicated that neither they nor a staff member have attended a service school.
Another possible reason that laundry staff perform basic maintenance could be because doing so is either the same as or easier than it has been in the past.
When asked to finish the sentence, “Performing basic maintenance on our laundry equipment today is ______ than it has been in the past,” 43.5% answered “no different.” Nearly 24% indicated that basic maintenance is easier today, while 32.6% answered “harder.”
No matter how proficient managers or staff are at maintenance, most laundries, at one time or another, require attention from a maintenance or service technician. Most respondents have had solid experiences when a specialist had to be called in.
Almost 35% of those who took the survey indicated that the experience was “Good, they get the job done most of the time.” More than 28% answered, “Great, they always get the job done.”
Just 2.2% rated the experience as “poor,” and 6.5% answered that they “never call a repairman.”
No matter who is performing the maintenance, most managers who took the survey indicate that they have a formal schedule for basic maintenance tasks. Almost 83% have such a schedule, while the remainder answered that their company does not have a maintenance schedule.
While the Your Views survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific. Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100%.
Subscribers to American Laundry News e-mails are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online. All managers and administrators of institutional/OPL, cooperative, commercial and industrial laundries are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and identify industry trends.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].