CNGA Looseleaf Oct/Nov 2018

17 colorad o nga.org LooseLeaf October/November 2018 Avoiding such incidents through preventative maintenance during the slow season is both a time and money saver. Some urgent repairs may still pop up throughout the year, but most can be avoided with focused attention to your equipment, vehicles and tools during the winter months. “Everything can be expensive to replace, and is getting more so as time goes on, but the biggest reason we spend so much time on preventative maintenance is we lose money through our lost time when we are busy and have something else to do. If we are spending an hour and a half changing a tire, we are not productive on the job. The expensive part is not necessarily the tire or the repair, but the hours you lose when trying to fix the problem and didn’t get to what you were supposed to do,” said Louis Linn, Field Grower and unofficial mechanic/master of repairs at Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery. Having a tool break may not seem like a big problem, but 20 minutes of staff time spent searching for a replacement tool would be better spent on the original task that the tool is meant for. Having tools and equipment in good shape and ready to go is just more efficient overall. “A sudden repair issue can also impact your customer’s schedule and bottom line. When for example a skid-steer goes down, your customer may be waiting and you may not be able to deliver on time,” Linn said. Often while doing maintenance, you can find issues like a crack in a tire or on a tank that could have become bigger problems later. “It seems like you are opening a can of worms, but overall it’s more beneficial to find the issue ahead of time, so you can take care of it all at once, not when it has done more damage or has disrupted a crazy busy time,” he added. Handling as many maintenance tasks during the slow season gets the work done when more time is available, rather than in the growing season with its many priorities. Plus, it has more long-term benefits. “One of our biggest advantages of doing our own maintenance is it provides employment,” said Ron Arpin, Nursery Manager at Little Valley Wholesale Nursery in Brighton.” If we did not do it, we may have to lay people off and may not get them back. I can carry a bigger staff through the winter, and anything we can do to keep employees is contributing to our experience base at our company. Our people know the routines and what we do going into the next year.” Arpin estimates that a core group of three or four employees spend nearly 1,000 hours in November and December doing routine maintenance. “If we make a concerted effort to check every little thing, to be honest, sometimes we have a hard time getting done by January 1, when our potting starts up again,” he said. “This year we have a big job because a hail storm took out our poly roof,” he added. “We usually replace three to four roofs each year, but now, we have to replace all 18, plus some greenhouse siding. Office painting hasn’t been done for five to seven years, so that’s on the list, too.” Planning, Record-keeping, & Training At Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery, the staff keeps a maintenance list all year, adding items that break or need attention. As the workload begins to slow down in the fall, some maintenance is started but most of it happens after Thanksgiving and continues until the first of March, depending on the weather. From the maintenance list, the staff decides which items to fix on their own, and which need to be sent out or scheduled with outside professionals. The decision is based on the extent, complexity and specialization of the repair needed, but the goal is to do as much in house as possible to save on costs. “If a transmission on a truck is broken, of course we can’t fix that. If a turn signal is broken, that’s probably something we are going to fix in house,” Linn said. “We assign each task to the person with those particular skills. Some guys aren’t going to be able to repair turn signals per se, but maybe they can sharpen shovels or fix wheelbarrows.” As far as teaching employees to do the maintenance, he works through it together with them to give them hands-on, on-the-job training. But, he added, “The most important training I really try to do is to get people to take care of equipment. I will try to emphasize that at all times, not when we are actually doing the maintenance work.” Arpin of Little Valley teaches employees how to do maintenance so he is freed up for other jobs, but the company has many long-term employees experienced in maintenance over the years. For them, it’s just a matter of telling them what projects need doing and they can work independently. W e’ve all been there. It’s our busy season, customers need our attention, we’re taking care of business, and then something breaks. Suddenly, our staff’s time and often our own time is consumed by the necessity of fixing the problem. It’s disruptive and can be costly. continues » Louis Linn Ron Arpin