Parts... to change or not to change.

**Zoren** · 03-30-2009, 12:16 PM

it depends...

if you are referring it with consumables... for me dual component is a ton of headache but mono component is better, less maintenance with regards to consumables...

i'd been assiged as a stand by tech in an oil field. i managed to remedy my spare parts as much as i can... unless it is necessary needed for a new s'parts. for the company i work with its not good coz they said i have less income in that account... but for the user on the otherhand, i was given an appreciation for well a maintained copiers...

**unisys12** · 03-30-2009, 12:36 PM

We change parts by the PM and no one has ever said anything to us about spending to much on parts. Throwing to many parts at a machine to fix it is another issue all together.

But, if it makes you feel any better... None of the techs in our office can even carry an inventory! Sure, they have said year after year, that they were going to put something together. It never happens! Then, they will have me and another tech put a list together of things that we think we need to carry. Since we have done this so many times, we just hand over the same list or update it for new products. Never happens!

But I think what kills our techs more than anything else... You go to a call, troubleshoot the machine, come back to the shop at the end of the day with all parts needed listed on your ticket. Then, they come back and tell you this is not whats wrong. Now, I'll be the first to admit that even though they are not out there everyday, they are right 60% of the time. But still... it really pisses a tech off to spend two hours troubleshooting a problem, feeling confident that what they have listed has great hope in fixing the problem, only to get back to the shop and be thrown right back to square one.

This has lead a few of our guys to show up at the office with a ticket and copy quality sample, give it to one of the owners and ask them, "What do you think is wrong with this?". Because they would rather tell the customer they will be back with the parts to fix their machine and skip the butt chewing at the door about parts.

Zoren, all our machine are dual component and supplies are not factored in. I would have to guess that we ship 90% or more of our toner to customers. But keeping toner in stock... not that another rant all together ~

~

**fixthecopier** · 03-30-2009, 12:37 PM

At my shop everything counts. Like missing inventory. I came up short $11,000 last year. I did not lose it . I can show most of it as mistakes made by the people who handle the parts and sing them out to us. I was short $3000 on toner! I do not have a Di650 in my living room!
Some things must be changed to reset messages. I get burned by going behind another tech and finding out he should have rebuilt the worn out fuser, now I either have to do the job correctly and professionally, use the parts and take the hit on my numbers, or be a hack and blow the call off and hope the other guy gets the call back. Knowing myself like I do, I will not get a raise next year for my excessive parts usage. If that dollar number was the only performance measure you were rated on, what would you do???

**Zoren** · 03-30-2009, 12:54 PM

if you are working as a stand by tech you cant just throw away s'parts that easy. "general services" in that oil field will see to it that the s'parts you need to replaced is 100% worn out...

but in the field i never did the same thing as a stand by tech. if the s'part is due then it has to be replaced no question about it... this is where we get our incentive. the more s'part that cashes in the more commision we get...

**Jimbo1** · 03-30-2009, 04:21 PM

On the whole I always feel better off if I replace the slick rollers and such rather than feel i have to try and pull my magical tech duck tape (yes I said DUCK tape) out and slickety slash it till next week.

Eventually that sort of thing will catch up with you in lost customers. The companies are busy right now looking for where not to spend the money and what better place not to spend than YOUR bonus?

**JVergin** · 03-30-2009, 04:34 PM

I carry carstock parts for:

Panasonic: 190, 8020 series, 2330/3030, xx30 series, 80xx series, C322, 354, 405 series.

Savin: 2522/27 series, 9022/27 series.

Duplo folders.

Riso RZ and EZ duplicators.

All in the truck of my taurus. Sure I have no trunk space left, but unless something really out of the ordinary breaks on these machines, I have the parts to fix whatever problem. I simply troubleshoot the problem, replace parts and/or make SM adjustments, then I'm off to my next call.

Our company replaces parts at PM. There are a few occations where this isn't the case. For example, if an STR roller goes out too early on a color panasonic, we just reset the counter and wait for the PM cycle to replace. However, on a black and white model, if something like the drum goes out 5k or 10k copies before the PM mark, we will go ahead and do the PM anyways as to eliminate that future call and any other problems that could occur as the parts get closer to the PM. One great thing about the company - the techs make all the decisions on what calls to go to, when to go to them, and what needs to be done to fix the problem(s).

**DadO** · 03-30-2009, 05:27 PM

I run the parts till i can. I would like to change them but what would costumer think: Our copiers i good and u change parts? Only thing i can say him that copier will explode if I dont change the drum. Rent is something else.I try there to run copier whit less parts replaced.

"Do you see a difference between changing parts by the book as far as better run times between service calls"
I cant really answer you on this question since i never changed a part that wasnt bad or damaged

but i believe it would give u a longer run time and i dont need to mention how much easier would be since machine would have more stability especaly for 2 component machines

**cobiray** · 03-30-2009, 05:28 PM

Originally posted by fixthecopier

At my shop everything counts. Like missing inventory. I came up short $11,000 last year. I did not lose it . I can show most of it as mistakes made by the people who handle the parts and sing them out to us. I was short $3000 on toner! I do not have a Di650 in my living room!

Do you reconcile your car inventory on a regular basis? We had this trouble for years, only counting car stocks at the end of the year. We then went to a quarterly count and finally now to a monthly count. It really sucks to count them every month, but it keeps the inventory much, much cleaner. After we count, we get a variance report and then reconcile that against the calls we did and to try and locate where the parts are or where they were used. Everyone bitches and moans about the counting, but it keeps the big variances down.

As for the car stocks, we've been trying to get techs to carry a stock to fix most problems on the first call. PM kits, feed rollers and other common fail parts are usually kept in the car for this reason. First call effectiveness eliminates a second call therefore eliminating more labor, travel time, travel expenses and customer down time. In my book, it's a no brainer.

$36,000 in a 12 month period sounds very, very reasonable. Seems maybe the salesmen are giving away the service or not charging enough to keep the machines running and still have a profit. Sounds to me like you are very much getting the shaft, as they say.

What kinds of machines are you working on? KonicaMinolta?

**cobiray** · 03-30-2009, 05:34 PM

As far as PM's on time or not, it really depends on the machine and the account it's in. Some of the Ricoh boxes are just pigs and you can't stretch the PM much past (or even up to) the stated count. Others you can run well past with out much consequence. My personal preference is to perform the maintenance as it is stated by the manufacturer. The equipment will run cleaner and your time between calls will go up. With quality end users, I've got some machines going PM to PM. IMHO, the digital machines do not give you the option of tweeking settings to milk a PM nearly to the extent of an analog machine, so that is another reason I like on time PM's.

**fixthecopier** · 03-30-2009, 09:52 PM

Originally posted by cobiray

Do you reconcile your car inventory on a regular basis? We had this trouble for years, only counting car stocks at the end of the year. We then went to a quarterly count and finally now to a monthly count. It really sucks to count them every month, but it keeps the inventory much, much cleaner. After we count, we get a variance report and then reconcile that against the calls we did and to try and locate where the parts are or where they were used. Everyone bitches and moans about the counting, but it keeps the big variances down.

As for the car stocks, we've been trying to get techs to carry a stock to fix most problems on the first call. PM kits, feed rollers and other common fail parts are usually kept in the car for this reason. First call effectiveness eliminates a second call therefore eliminating more labor, travel time, travel expenses and customer down time. In my book, it's a no brainer.

$36,000 in a 12 month period sounds very, very reasonable. Seems maybe the salesmen are giving away the service or not charging enough to keep the machines running and still have a profit. Sounds to me like you are very much getting the shaft, as they say.

What kinds of machines are you working on? KonicaMinolta?

It is not a salesman thing. I only work 2 government contracts, and the real hard spot for me is that on the 650 machine contract, my boss has owned them all for 3 years. I know what each machine pulls in each month and did the math. My company paid for 2 techs, all the parts we used and all other related expenses with the first 2 months payment. the other 10 months are pure profit. We do not carry a set truck inventory, our truck inventory is stuff signed out and not used, and our missing inventory is checked twice a year. It is everything that was signed out to us, that did not get removed when we turned in the calls. So you can see there is a lot of room for error. The biggest issue I have is the lack of control I have over the whole situation. Oh yeah, looks like they are fixing cost to the used parts I strip out of the junk pile. WTF!

**Jimbo1** · 03-30-2009, 10:44 PM

Sounds like a problem with whoever does the write-offs from the calls. If they don't do it right you wind up with a very big headache.

We had a girl once at another place who only worked the a little while. She was having marriage issues. When she would get call tickets she maybe couldn't read real good or the computer gave her a little trouble over the numbers she just pitched the tickets.

Needless to say inventory that year was kind of a joke.

**blackcat4866** · 03-30-2009, 11:23 PM

I think any Ikon veteran will tell you that this is a very sore point. Which do you want? Copies Between Calls or Cost Per Copy? When you force one down, the other invariably goes up.

I personally lean towards CBCs. There is no way that I could maintain the number and variety of machines that I do if I was cheating the machines on parts.

One thing I am certain of. The customers know when you're doing everything right. The single most common comment I hear is "'Has it really been X months since you were here last? We hardly ever need you out here." I love to hear that.

If you can't satisfy management, at least you can sleep easy knowing you're doing the best job possible. =^..^=

**fixthecopier** · 03-31-2009, 12:10 AM

You are correct, I have to do it the way my father would, which is the right way. I started the day by spending about $2400 rebuilding a bizhub 500 and 600. My sore point goes back to this being the only performance measure I have been given. The bizhub 600 I did today went double life on drum and fuser. The 500 went 50% over on drum and developer. I will not get credit for that, I will just get $2400 added to my year end total. Does anybody work somewhere where they measure how good you are by how few calls you do, or the mileage you get out of parts? I have heard of places where they would send a supervisor out to audit a tech on a call like a random drug test. They would check to see if minimum call procedures were done. How are you measured? I know for some , like me, one measure is just if the customers do not call to complain.

**blackcat4866** · 03-31-2009, 12:15 AM

My boss can set some pretty hard to meet standards.

As a matter of fact he looks a lot like me. Oh wait, he is me! =^..^=

Parts... to change or not to change.

Parts... to change or not to change.

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