Several weeks ago, I was forced to replace a very expensive piece of equipment at my bistro. A convection oven that I inherited with the building suddenly stopped working. I called a repair service and the machinery medics were quickly dispatched. Unfortunately, the news was grim... I would need to purchase a replacement unit. The technicians that came out were unable to repair it. In fact, they had no idea why the unit had failed, only that they wouldn't be able to fix it. I contacted my restaurant equipment supplier, who, it turns out, had sold the now defunct unit to the previous owner. When I told him about the old unit and that I would need a replacement, I expected him to be ecstatic, knowing full well that my wallet was about to take a major hit. Instead, he surprised me by asking me a series of questions about the old unit.

With his help over the phone, we were able to get the unit up and running in about twenty minutes. That's pretty amazing, I think. The problem was caused by a lack preventive maintenance measures to the oven. We were under the impression that we were taking proper care of it, though in truth, I never bothered to check and see if there was more that we needed to be doing in the way of preventive maintenance.

A few days later, I got a letter from my equipment supplier, with specs on every piece of equipment in my restaurant, along with the necessary preventive maintenance measures that I should take with each one. The majority of these I already knew about, but there were a few I was unaware of. Since I received the letter, my staff has been performing all the recommended preventative maintenance measures and we really notice a difference on the pieces of equipment we were neglecting to take proper care of.

Preventive maintenance is important in the restaurant business, especially with the cost of replacing an expensive unit. The only way to take proper care of your equipment, however, is to know it well enough to know what preventive maintenance measures needs to be performed. I am grateful to my equipment supplier for helping me to realize that.