The value of repairs

Without doubt, much of the last year has been about survival. Faced with the ongoing impact of the pandemic, industries of all kinds are looking to keep up productivity, improve efficiency and optimise costs.

In order to keep going, things need to keep working. It’s when things break that organisations really feel the impact – from a stall in productivity to financial and business loss. Sometimes, buying new may seem like the easiest and fastest option. But in my experience, the opposite is true.

In this blog, I’ll show you why having the right approach to repairs, and understanding their innate value, will optimise costs and help your business to survive well beyond the pandemic.

Something new for something old?

If your car broke down, would you take it to the garage first, or would you look to replace it straight away? Of course, you’d take it to the garage, as the cost of fixing the car is likely to be less than buying a brand-new one. Similarly, in business, replacing every broken product every time (no matter the cost) isn’t the most cost-efficient way of operating. 

But businesses still choose to replace. Why? Fear of the old product becoming obsolete is a common reason. If your original vendor can no longer fix your product, you’d be wishing you had a more up-to-date version.  When it comes to technology, newness somehow seems ‘safer’, even if it comes at a higher cost. So, what’s the difference with repairs? Having the right partner.

There’s a lot of risk in buying a new product, aside from justifying the price. What if it’s not compatible with your existing infrastructure? What if it requires a process change? How easy it is to source or fix? One of the most important things to consider is the vendor – their expertise, their reliability and how easy they are to do business with if something does go wrong. The attitude, flexibility and speed of a vendor is vitally important.  

Lektronix (a Rockwell Automation business), takes ownership of problems. Like all businesses, we had to overcome challenges with the pandemic, too. For example, when our couriers were not available, we used taxi firms for urgent jobs, so we could maintain our service levels and make emergency repairs. And when one of our customers needed to produce an alternative product, one of our field engineers wrote new code for an obsolete piece of equipment to make it happen.

It’s this kind of innovation and determination to get the job done that means we could support our customers through difficult times. All of these factors influence the total cost of a product, when you’re considering buying new or seeking repair services.

A partner in repairs is a partner for recovery

During this time, every industry is still on the road to recovery. So, everyone’s production facilities can benefit from repairing products rather than replacing. And it’s easier than ever now they can use evolving innovations and data analytics.

McKinsey states that ‘automation of manufacturing, distribution centres, and warehouses is likely to accelerate, hedging against additional disruptions of the labour force, enabling physical distancing among employees, and reducing the risk of new infections.’ Innovative tools in the industry, such as AI, VR and remote assistance, are only likely to increase in use. For instance, having access to the right data can enable engineers to know what the problem is before visiting a site, and even predict issues before they occur. And AR technology can allow them to fix issues remotely. You can explore more on the newest products, solutions and services on offer by watching our Automation Fair At Home, available on-demand here.

There is another, wider benefit of repairs too – sustainability. By making (more than) the most of existing products and their lifecycle through repairs – and with the right partner – businesses can not only optimise costs and keep going, but adopt more sustainable practices, too.

If it is broke, the right partner can fix it

When you work with a business that has the ‘know-how’ to repair, you needn’t always buy new (which is costly and can take longer). There comes a point when every product ends production and support can only last so much longer. So, when they stop working, this causes unnecessary downtime and delays. But at Lektronix, we prefer to keep these products working while planning a staged replacement over months, or even years.