Parts... to change or not to change.

[Shadow1]

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.

We get measured on Response Time, Short Interval Calls (SIC calls are any machine that calls back in less than 7 days), First Time Fix (Meaning you had the right parts in your car and didn't have to order anything and go back), Customer Inquiries (Customer calling the dispatch center wondering where the tech is - unfortunately "I had to leave for the rest of the afternoon, come tomorrow" counts as a CIQ too.), and only rarely get hammered about the parts budget. It's more important to have happy customers.

Company policy is to let the machine run until there is some sort of a failure, then bring the whole thing up to date on the PM schedule - the customer does not have to have their day interrupted while the machine is still working fine. All my machines are Ricoh - The really small and big machines run great - the MP35/4500 and MP40/5000 have been crap ever since Japan put that godawful new toner in them appearantly without testing a single one of them.

We do have our manager go out into the field and QSR (Quality Service Review) our machines from time to time, but it's not just the machine they look at - it's the customer: Do you have a happy customer? Do we have any other products or services that can make their life better? How many sales people do we need to sacrafice to your business today?

[Llama God]

We tend to run the 55+ ppm machines to PM schedules, having stretched them somewhat, with some breakdown calls in between. The 35 and 45 type machines wouldn't get close to a PM schedule, useless dirty buggers that they are, but the 22 types we just run to failure.

It'd be fair to say that ordering any parts isn't an issue for me - officially I should quote yield vs target yield when I do, but I don't bother and nobody asks as the machines always work better for longer when I've serviced them with a lorry-load of bits.

Apparently my parts spend is over 60% of the total but my key accounts run very nicely, though I say it myself. I chuck in some luxuries as and when I fancy it too, and these go without mention.

Finally, as Fixthecopier said, it's a known hazard that the engineer who went before you to a call may not have fitted anything and you end up fitting hundreds of pounds worth, but I feel safe in the knowledge that I did my job right.

[bsm2]

life is short

I used to work for company that tracked every minute, every mile, every part,
new company rules every month, vacation hassles , no time off without pay

Would point out how to save money, time and parts but never got any credit.
Problem with them they did not track warranty replaced parts and give you any credit for saving them big bucks.

Life is short, Don't work for A HOLES

Look for a better job and better company

[fixthecopier]

Shadow1 I like what you said. That is what I am missing. I fee that if companies have preformance measures that are realistic, then the cream will rise to the top. If you set realistic goals then people will rise to the challenge and preform for you. I guess the real issue is not about parts but about the measure of a tech. I can allways justify what I use, as I just spent another $1000 today. I personally believe in the method of run it till it breaks then change all the parts. My bosses seem to have think it does not need to be changed unless the customer is complaining. I went on a call to a color machine that had a bad LED, that was causing part of the print to be of poor quality. When I went to the shop for the part, because it listed for $1500, I was ask if the customer was complaining about it. Then I found out from another tech that she had identified the same bad part on that same machine two weeks eairler. WE had brought it back to the shop, the "head tech" said it was OK, sent it to another location and I got to eat the $1500 part on my usage list. WTF?

[rthonpm]

My thoughts working primarily (99% exclusively) on Ricohs is that the smaller the machine is, the less you worry about the PM cycle. I will let an LD015 run 35,000 pages past its yield if the print quality is still good. At the same time, if an LD0105 is even 50,000 pages close to its PM cycle, I'll do it then, or arrange a time ASAP to do the work. Colour machines, I will let go past their PM, especially the older 22 and 32 series boxes. My MP C machines are just beginning to come up to PM level, but keeping a drum and fuser oilers onhand seems to take care of most issues.
The compay policy seems to be to almost strip the machine down to the frame on every call, but that's just not realistic. Covering a good chunk of territory and having multiple calls to do in a day I'm not going to take apart every registration assembly or check clutches on every machine. It seems like the techs that do that kind of thing always end up with more callbacks than those of us that don't, mainly because they end up putting more problems into the machine than they started with!
In terms of parts, I carry all PM items for the 18-20, 22-33, 35-50 and 55-80 page black and white machines as well as some of the most common broken parts (lower drum frame and developer unit top cover for the 5635 and the fuser door and spring for the 1018) keeps most of my machines running pretty well and putting a lot of parts in somewhere within the same ZIP code as the PM cycle seems to keep me from having to always run back for issues between PMs. Consistently, I've been praised for being able to take care of an issue the first time out since I carry a few of the stranger parts...

[nodle]

All I know is that my manager calls me as the Fireman of the team.

He and the higher ups are constantly trying to micro manage by telling us that are is the field what parts we can use. The closer to the end of the month\quarter the less we are told we can use.

After the other tech's play by the rules, eventually the machines are running like crap and the customers are pissed. That's when he sends me in to put the fire out by calming the customer and fixing the machine. The majority of the time the fix is a PM kit, a drum, and developer. I get be the hero until my review, then I hear that my parts usage is too high, but keep doing what I'm doing. ( The good ol' catch 22).

My company has us carry an auto restock in our cars (usually nothing that i need to fix the copiers, so the crap just rides around in my car costing me gas money.) I wish that they would allow those of us that know how to do our jobs, just do our jobs without interference. The machines would be running so much better and the customers would be happier.

I say do a PM when it needs to be done, not after multiple visits and the customer is pissed off.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[blackcat4866]

In the past I've been the victim of auto re-stocking.

Some computer program takes a statistical average of the number used of each part per month, then an arbitrary number of turns per month is selected.

It becomes a continual battle. At the end of the month I used to get a list of 40 line items to return, over 1/2 of which was going to be needed.

Here's a great example: This one copier requires 6 upper fuser claws to do a rebuild, but I only am allowed to have 2 in carstock. The return list comes asking for 4 claws returned. If I don't return them I will only get restocked 2 when next month comes around. Having 2 fuser claws, like 1 fuser bearing is useless. You might as well not have any, because you won't be tearing apart a fuser to install your 2 claws and 1 bearing. You have to order the rest of the parts.

This is one case where the statistical average is less than useless.

I'll stop my rant here. Clearly, the person managing this program has no f'ing clue what techs do for a living. =^..^=

[Ollie1981]

I'm suffering on parts spend at the moment purely for two very unfortunate reasons.

I'm the only person in my area to carry the (Godzilla sized) PCU unit for the 1224c/3224c and all of the development units for both (yep all eight of those massive boxes), and also every single part for the fuser, the belt assy, pressure roller, stripper pawl assy and oil unit.

Because I'm the only engineer to have all of this stuff, that means anytime anyone else on the team goes out to one of these POSes, they are there for all of five minutes before getting on the phone to dispatch to get the call put under me. I have to go and basically PM the entire machine as usually (with a few notable exceptions) the previous guy has done nothing.

It's not my choice to carry all of this stuff as it means that I can only use my car for buisness, this is an idea cooked up by management that one person should carry all this crap for the TEAM and I just ended up drawing the short straw. The problem is, they don't factor the parts spend into the total area spend, they factor it into my parts spend. So that's a double hit!

What's also hitting me is the godawful dev/toner of the MP4000/5000. I've fitted the modified dev units in a number of the most problematic machines because essentially the customers (quite righty IMO) were coming to the end of their patience. I've been boxing them up with the crapped out dev still inside them, a full SMC printout, copy quality examples and have even included some quite scathing customer complaint letters when sending them back to base.

But everytime I fit one, that's another few hundred theoretically added onto my parts spend, the likelihood is the company should be fully reimbursed under warranty but that doesn't get factored in at the point of fitting.

[TonerMunkeh]

I'm of the "if it needs it, fit it" school of thought. We replace dev at suggested life and important stuff like ozone filters etc, fuser components are fit on fail, PCU items are fit on fail if before PM, etc etc. I do get some flak for fitting stuff but at the end of the day our manager says we fit parts if the machine requires them. 'Nuff said.

[Llama God]

I'm of the "if it needs it, fit it" school of thought. We replace dev at suggested life and important stuff like ozone filters etc, fuser components are fit on fail, PCU items are fit on fail if before PM, etc etc. I do get some flak for fitting stuff but at the end of the day our manager says we fit parts if the machine requires them. 'Nuff said.

[TonerMunkeh]

Busted.... you've ratted me out as one of these engineers who can't fix a fault, I just throw parts at it then escalate it to my tech spec. I'll hide in a corner for a week methinks.

[banginbishop]

I'm of the "if it needs it, fit it" school of thought.

Same here - when i have my figures through for the month i look at my recall rate and then first time fix.

I've been told i spend too much and asked why, my reply "you can only clean a bold feed tyre so many times"

To many engineers are more concerned with keeping their cost down than fitting parts when they should, so the next engineer comes along and has to fit what should have been fitted in the first place.

My biggest hate "engineers that put cuts across bold feed tyres to get them out of the door but never order the part"

I agree throwing parts at a machine isn't right but that comes down to training someone correctly on how to fault find in the first place.

If my recall rate is good i'm happy knowing i've doing it right first time and can quite happily justify my parts spend.

[Lagonda]

If I dont spend the bosses money on spare parts he will only go out and buy another expensive car. If he buys another car his misses will give him a hard time. If his misses gives him a hard time he'll come to work with $hit on the liver and give every body grief.
So there for the more I spend on spare parts the happier everybody is!
Well thats my theory

[fotocom]

We run as a 'General rule' a 10% policy. By that I mean parts expenditure should be about 10% of service revenue generated.However we are kept on a very long lead, with nobody looking over our shoulder or breeding down our necks.

Generally I try and follow the P.M. tables. I think it just cuts down on calls and reduces the larger costs a company has i.e amount of engineers on the road, repeat calls, vechicles, wages, fuel etc.
Its much easier to keep customers onboard and happy when they have well maintained machines that run fairly trouble free for four or five years.
I always try and give as good a quality of service as I can. Our company will never be the cheapest with regard to service contracts, we never claim to be but we do provide a good quality service, and thats what our sales people go out and sell.

With regards to car/van parts we carry our 100 top moving parts in our vans/cars.