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In a competitive market, the pressure to cut costs wherever possible is understandable. Machinery servicing and spare parts can look like an obvious target, after all, the machine is still running, so what's the harm in delaying a service or sourcing a cheaper part? The answer, as Dave Moore and Steve Rowe explain, can be devastating. Between them, they've spent decades witnessing first-hand what happens when businesses take shortcuts – and what it actually costs them in the long run.
The Servicing Problem: Dave Moore — Operations Manager
Dave, how often do you arrive at a customer site to find machinery that hasn't been properly serviced?
More often than you'd think. I've been doing this since 1979, so I've seen it all. You turn up to investigate a breakdown and it quickly becomes apparent that the machine hasn't had proper attention in years. Sometimes the customer has been getting a local engineer to carry out a basic service, or they've bought a service contract from someone with no real knowledge of that specific machinery. They've ticked the box on paper, but none of the manufacturer-critical checks have been done.
The honest truth is that machines don't break down, they're broken down gradually by neglect. What looks like a sudden failure usually has months or years of warning signs built into it. The right servicing catches those signs early.
What are the consequences when a machine breaks down unexpectedly on the production floor?
The immediate cost is obvious – the machine isn't running, so production stops. But people often underestimate what that actually means in real terms. You've got operatives standing idle, you've potentially got downstream processes backed up, you might have delivery commitments you can no longer meet. In some operations, one machine going down brings the whole floor to a standstill.
Then there's the reactive repair cost, which is almost always higher than planned maintenance would have been. In an emergency, you need engineers fast, you need parts fast, and speed costs money. We do everything we can to help our customers in those situations, but it's always more stressful and more expensive than it needed to be.
The customers who have the worst downtime incidents are almost always the ones who've deferred their servicing. That's not a coincidence.
Unplanned machine downtime typically costs far more than the repair itself. Lost production output, idle labour, missed delivery deadlines, potential contract penalties, and the reputational damage of telling a customer their order will be late. For businesses running tight schedules, a single unexpected breakdown can wipe out weeks of saved servicing costs in a matter of hours.
Do you find that businesses genuinely understand what a proper service involves, compared to a basic one?
Generally, no – and that's not a criticism, it's just a fact. Customers are experts in their own products and production processes. They're not machinery engineers. So when a cheaper service option is presented to them, they might reasonably assume it covers the same ground. It often doesn't.
When our engineers service a machine, we're drawing on a deep understanding of how that specific equipment is designed, how it wears, and what the manufacturer considers critical to longevity. Our service team has an average of over 25 years' experience, many of them have worked on these machines since they were first sold in the UK. That kind of knowledge is genuinely irreplaceable. You can't replicate it with a cheaper option, because the cheaper option simply doesn't have it.
The Spare Parts Question: Steve Rowe — Parts Sale Manager
Steve, let's talk about parts. There are always cheaper alternatives available online — what's the real risk?
It's a really common scenario, and I understand the appeal – you find what looks like the same part for a fraction of the price, you order it, it fits, and everything seems fine. Until it isn't.
The issue is that non-genuine parts are often manufactured to lower tolerances. They might look identical, but the material grade, the heat treatment, the dimensional precision – these things matter enormously in a production environment. A bearing or a drive component that's slightly out of tolerance doesn't just fail sooner; it can damage the surrounding components as it fails, turning what would have been a straightforward part replacement into a much larger and more expensive repair.
I've seen businesses save £40 on a part and then face a £4,000 repair as a result. That maths doesn't work for anyone.
Are there particular types of parts where the risk of using cheap alternatives is especially high?
Consumables and wear parts are where we see it most – blades, bearings, belts, cutting tooling. These are the parts that people buy regularly, so there's always pressure to keep that cost down. But they're also the parts that are most directly involved in the quality of the finished product and the safety of the machine's operation.
Substandard cutting tooling is a good example. It wears faster, gives a poorer finish, and in the worst cases can create safety risks through unexpected failure or vibration. Customers often tell me they've been struggling to hold tolerances or getting a rough finish they can't explain, and when we look at what they've been using, the tooling is the culprit. Genuine parts, properly specified, are fundamental to consistent quality output.
How does having recommended spares on site change things when something does go wrong?
It's transformative, honestly. The biggest enemy of uptime isn't the failure itself; it's the time spent waiting for a part to arrive. If you've got the right spares on your shelf, your engineer can have the machine back running in hours rather than days.
Part of what our subscription package includes is exactly this, our engineers will identify and recommend the key parts you should have on site based on your specific machines and their age and usage. It's not a generic list; it's specific to your equipment. And because subscription customers receive a 15% discount on all parts, building that on-site stock becomes much more affordable.
How does poor servicing and cheap parts ultimately affect a business's bottom line?
The financial impact goes well beyond the direct repair cost. When your machine is down, you're not producing. When you're not producing, you're either not fulfilling orders or you're scrambling to subcontract the work at a higher cost. Either way, you're losing margin. And if you miss delivery deadlines regularly enough, you start losing customers.
There's also the cumulative effect on the machine itself. A poorly maintained machine deteriorates faster. Its resale value drops. You end up replacing equipment earlier than you should. A machine that should give you 20 years of reliable service might only give you 12 if it's not properly looked after. That's a significant capital cost brought forward, and it's entirely avoidable.
Steve, from a parts perspective – what would you say to a business that's hesitant about the cost of a subscription?
I'd say: add it up properly. Most businesses that go through the exercise of totalling their actual annual spend on ad-hoc parts, call-out charges, and emergency repairs are surprised by what it comes to. When you compare that to a subscription that includes scheduled servicing, priority tech support, recommended spares guidance, and a 15% discount on everything you buy, it often comes out very favourably, and that's before you account for the value of preventing a serious breakdown entirely.
The 15% discount alone can make a real difference for businesses with regular parts spend. It's not just a nice perk – for some customers, it pays for a significant chunk of the subscription.
Finally, what's the single most important message you'd want manufacturers to take away from this conversation?
"Plan ahead. Don't wait for a machine to fail before you look after it. Planned maintenance is always less disruptive, less expensive, and better for the machinery than reactive repair. Book the service, buy the right parts, and keep the right spares on site. The businesses that do this well don't really notice their machinery; it just quietly keeps running." – Dave Moore – Operations Manager
"I'd echo that completely. And I'd add: buy genuine parts from people who know your machinery. It's not about brand loyalty, it's about knowing exactly what's going into your machine and having confidence it will perform as expected. When your production and your reputation depend on those machines running right, that confidence is worth having." – Steve Rowe - Parts Sales Manager
Key Takeaways from Dave & Steve
- Unplanned downtime costs far more than the repair – it disrupts production, misses delivery deadlines and damages customer relationships
- Cheap parts often damage surrounding components as they fail, multiplying the cost of the original saving many times over
- Poor maintenance accelerates machine deterioration and brings forward costly capital replacement
- Having recommended spares on site dramatically reduces downtime when issues occur – hours, not days
- A planned servicing subscription with genuine parts typically costs less than a single serious reactive breakdown
Protect Your Production with a JJ Smith Service Subscription
Scheduled servicing, expert tech support, recommended spares and a 15% discount on all spare parts – all in one annual package.
Visit www.jjsmith.co.uk/service-and-support or call 0151 548 9000 to find out more.
