By Ray Lagrandeur, National Service Manager, Cooper Equipment Rentals. Published by RER.

Service departments are busy places, and let’s be honest, sometimes chaotic. There’s a lot of coordination and thousands of moving parts, only some planned. As the saying goes, “plans are worthless, but planning is indispensable.”

At the most basic level, you’ve got to meet customer demands, tracking equipment so you know when maintenance is due, and when annual inspections need to happen. Then there’s managing the inventory, ordering parts, ensuring you have enough mechanics trained on equipment and up to date on safety standards. If you have a 24/7 service department you need to ensure you’ve got someone for a 2:00 a.m. service call, and get the replacement equipment to the customer shortly after.

It’s not easy work, but when done right, it can be rewarding. So how do you ensure all these parts are moving and working together, without dropping the ball?

READ the full article at RER.