Woodworking machinery is a bit like running a car: no matter how you patch it up, without regular servicing, eventually it will grind to a halt.

Ask any machinery supplier what’s best for their machines, and they’ll say proactive maintenance. The traditional “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality is increasingly becoming an outdated way of thinking – and one that only ever results in machines operating below their optimum levels.

Judging by the growth of the servicing arms of some of the UK’s leading machinery and machinery servicing suppliers, the timber trade is certainly starting to shrug off its apathy over servicing, and increasingly reaping the benefits of regular maintenance contracts.

Weinig‘s aftersales business is growing at least 10% year on year, with staff levels increased from 14 to 21 and 360 contract customers. “It is absolutely critical that our customers receive the best possible support to get the maximum profit from their investment,” said aftersales service manager Neal Reid.

Meanwhile, SCM Group now employs 28 technicians throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland, who are supported by a team of six co-ordinators from its Nottingham office. It also uses the services of preferred subcontractors if required – technicians that have received training in the company’s products.

“We all know the mentality of the industry has been to ‘make do and mend’ or ‘fire fight’ problems as they happen,” said John Allenby, general service manager of the SCM Group. “But we’ve always advocated proactive maintenance, whether booked as an individual service or contracted, mainly because we would prefer to know that the machine we are supporting from the office is in a good state of repair.”

Benefits

He believes the benefits of regular maintenance are becoming clearer to the trade. SCM is receiving an increasing number of requests for contracted maintenance on all machine types.

“Clients are interested in the daily/weekly requirement, which forms part of their general housekeeping,” said Mr Allenby. “I am sure this is consistent with all the current health and safety regulations being enforced as well as realisation that ‘maintenance works’.”

Although machinery is becoming more reliable, accurate and technically advanced, making life easier for both operation and performance, Mr Allenby says the woodworking industry will always be at the mercy of a host of factors that can impact on a machine’s operation: dust, resins, shavings, hot and cold environments.

“This industry can never be maintenance free,” he said. “However, some of the ‘grease monkey’ type tasks of old may require a little more finesse these days. SCM offers service contracts with a view to educate the client in a way which will both allow for a smoother machine operation for clients production and ensure the machinery meets the standard expected from modern production plant.

“There is no conflict between reliability and service guarantees: it is a partnership which has to grow.”

Companies realise that regular maintenance tends to prevent emergency breakdowns, while at the same time enabling machinery firms to have a better understanding of their customers’ current and future requirements, both with regard to maintenance and machine supply.

“In our experience, though, it is the larger customers who seem to appreciate the value of regular maintenance, presumably because they cannot afford to have breakdowns,” said Francis Dalton, managing director of Daltons. “The smaller companies often seem to prefer to take their chances and call us in when something goes wrong.”

Daltons has also recently boosted its number of service engineers, expanding its team to 13 to cope with growing demand. “The service side of our business is increasingly important,” said Mr Dalton. “As major distributors of woodworking machinery, involving many leading brand names, we are expected to provide comprehensive aftercare facilities.”

Warranties

Daltons provides fully comprehensive warranties with the machines it supplies, although after expiration of the warranty, any work it carries out is chargeable. However, sometimes commercial sensibilities are applied, depending on the nature of the problem. “We endeavour to take a lenient view when dealing with any problem which could have been related to the original manufacture of the machine,” added Mr Dalton.

With 30 engineers on the road, Wadkin UltraCare claims to be the largest national equipment maintenance and repair organisation in the woodworking machinery sector. The company offers a range of advice, products and services ranging from preventative maintenance programmes and machine rebuilds, to tailor-made packages for the supply of tooling and spare parts for customers both in the UK and overseas.

“UltraCare is all about service and maintenance, whether that’s preventative maintenance in terms of contracts, or just emergency breakdown,” said marketing executive Nuria de la Fuente. “It’s not a difficult thing to convince customers of the benefits of maintenance contracts: our engineers are our diplomats. They might do a breakdown repair for a customer who doesn’t have a contract, and it’s not difficult to persuade a customer they should be servicing their machine once or twice a year. They can see the benefits for themselves.”

Five years ago, the company invested heavily in a database system that enables it to locate engineers at any given time and deploy them quickly, for example, if a customer without a service package does have a breakdown.

“We get OEM [original equipment manufacturer] parts or standard parts that our engineers are trained to install on a wide range of manufacturers’ machines,” said Ms de la Fuente, although the company does supply its own Wadkin machines and those from IIDA and Robinson, as well as rebuilt machines at a fraction of the price.

Flexibility and getting the job done quickly are two key requirements. Headed up by aftersales director Paul Newman, Homag‘s service department incorporates a spare parts division with a large inventory. “The Homag UK service department is a cornerstone of our organisation in which we have invested heavily in both highly trained staff and systems,” he said.

“We realise that the machinery we supply is the heartbeat and lifeblood of our customers’ businesses. We’re here to keep everything working.”

Homag’s fully-manned internal service department is available all day and staffed by trained engineers with specialist areas of expertise. Behind the scenes, it has service administration staff with access to all technical information to every machine supplied – including service history and maintenance schedules.

Health and safety

Health and safety is also a big issue. Machine-related accidents and injuries are a fact of life in woodworking and, while companies – and the trade in general – are working hard to improve health and safety in the workplace, recent figures paint a picture of mixed success.

According to statistics from the Health and Safety Executive, the number of general accidents resulting in absences from work for over three days has come down quite steeply from 370 in 2001-2002 to 243 in 2004-2005. There’s no doubt that this is a significant improvement but, with accident rates higher than other manufacturing industries, there’s still more that can be done.

Wadkin Ultracare is helping combat the problem by improving the visibility of health and safety documentation in the workplace. “We keep health and safety records at customers’ premises, as well as keeping our own records,” said Wadkin’s Nuria de la Fuente. “We make sure that machines conform to all the latest regulations, and keep test sheets on site so that customers have a permanent record of what work’s been done. Each customer also gets a six-monthly report on the state of their machine, what repairs have been done and what might need to be done. It’s an important paper trail and provides customers with peace of mind.”