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Step-by-step guide to choosing a scale maintenance provider

Article

Published On: March 22nd, 2024|5 min read|

Peace of mind and cost are huge prerequisites for businesses when reviewing their service and maintenance partners for their critical weighing equipment. When it comes to commercial scales, there are legal and quality requirements that dictate the need to ensure that this weighing equipment is regularly maintained and repaired so it works correctly and accurately.

In this guide, we explore some of the factors you should consider when exploring the market, researching, and choosing a scale maintenance provider.

1. Experience and reputation

When reviewing weighing scale maintenance companies, one thing to explore is their experience. This could be the length of time in the industry, and the clients they work with, i.e. do they work with companies like yours? Also, what types of weighing equipment do they calibrate and repair, is this what you have?

Reputation is also important, what do others say about the company, what do their customers say about them, do they have good reviews?

2. Technical expertise

Technical expertise and the experience of the company’s engineers are also an important consideration. If you experience a breakdown on an inline checkweigher for example, this is a massive issue for your business because production must stop until the issue is remedied. Technical and experienced engineers with weighing equipment expertise are a godsend in this scenario as their experience with the equipment enables them to diagnose and fix the issue as quickly as possible.

3. Comprehensive cover

In addition to technical expertise and experience, assessing if a provider offers comprehensive coverage is also a consideration. Looking into the types of equipment they cover, the frequency, calibrations and certificates, support hours, and geographical coverage are also key. Does the provider cover you for everything you need now and further down the line, will they accommodate additions if you buy any new scales?

4. Industry accreditations

Companies that possess certifications for industry standards and regulations such as ISO, UKAS, and SafeContractor, for example, must meet certain standards of work to be able to receive accreditations from these leading industry bodies. This offers reassurance that they take their work and professionalism seriously and are committed to providing the best service possible to their customers.

5. Response times and availability

No matter the industry, if you need your support provider, you need them, and that’s certainly the case for critical weighing equipment. Response times, and how soon an engineer can come to fix or calibrate your scales are extremely important, particularly if this affects your production or an imminent audit.

Review what response times the scale maintenance provider offers in the service contract package, does this work for you? If there’s no SLA, that could be a problem as there wouldn’t be any form of agreement in place, meaning you could be waiting far too long for a repair or breakdown to be rectified. Similarly, if they don’t have engineers based in your area or region, this could delay the response time too.

6. Preventative Maintenance Plans

Preventative maintenance of weighing equipment helps to extend its lifespan by regularly servicing and calibrating it. This in the long run will save your business money from not having to replace it together with the peace of mind that your scales are weighing accurately for quality and legal purposes.

Some scale repair and maintenance providers will include a preventative maintenance plan as part of the annual maintenance contract, so if this is important to you, it’s worthwhile investigating if this is the case when researching a new provider.

7. Types of Equipment

If you have different types of weighing equipment in your business such as floor or platform scales, bench scales, checkweighers, and/or small laboratory balance scales, you’ll need a maintenance provider who can repair, calibrate, and maintain these different types of scales.

Be sure to check out what they can maintain. Some weighing companies specialise in certain pieces of equipment, and some can maintain a selection, so this is something worth investigating to make sure their service suits your needs. Similarly, if you have different brands of scales, for example, Avery Weigh Tronix, Mettler Toledo, Ohaus, etc.

8. Communication

Communication is key, particularly if you have an equipment breakdown or issue, you want peace of mind that you can report the issue and rectify it quickly.

When researching scale maintenance providers, investigate how they communicate with their customers, do they have a ticketing system or portal for example, where issues can be reported, and updates can be provided in real-time? Is there a service desk where you can speak to an actual person or team? What happens out of hours?

9. Insurance and protection

For peace of mind and protection, when looking at a new service and maintenance provider, take time to find out if they have insurance and liability protection. Sometimes this can be found on their website, or you may have to ask them directly to provide this information.

10. Contract terms

When it comes to selecting and appointing a scale maintenance provider and you want to have an annual maintenance contract to cover you for things like preventative maintenance, calibrations, repairs, spare parts, and breakdowns, look at the contract offering or types available and the contract terms. Do they cover you for everything you require?

Another factor to consider is the service contract duration, how long do you need support from a weighing equipment expert? Would a long-term contract save you money over time, are there any incentives available for signing up for longer?

Could you have one provider to cover every weighing scale, reducing the number of suppliers on-site, and reducing the management and admin time of working with several companies, ultimately reducing your spending on third-party maintenance companies?

Conclusion

Taking time to carry out research and compare offerings is always a good way to find the best partner to work with that suits your business’s needs. This ten-step guide will hopefully help you in your investigations and give you some pointers about what to look for and consider when choosing a scale maintenance provider.

Stevens Traceability Systems has been in the weighing industry for over 180 years and offers a range of service contracts for the repair, calibration, and maintenance of many different weighing equipment. Find out more here.

2025-02-13T11:52:07+00:00