Ron,
I first want to be clear that I own Nutek Machinery. We import and service high quality European Machinery. I don't want to sound self-serving or have my reply sound like a big advertisement, but you bring up a legitimate concern and I am happy to share with you how we are handling service. It's extremely difficult to find good technicians these days and even the best machine has no value if it isn't producing.
I believe the first criteria is to look at the machine you are considering and make certain it is well built, utilizing cutting edge technology. The best service in the world is a fantastic thing but you don't want to utilize that service 4 times a year on a subpar machine that is unreliable.
If you go to the website link with my post you will see that Nutek Machinery is an importer of high-quality European machine lines but the fact, is we aren't huge like the big names in the industry you have mentioned and are aware of. That does raise the question of how we handle the service side of things. I would first say that the number of service techs is dependent on the number of machines in the field. The bigger the company, the more machines they have. They will also at some point top out on the number of technicians they employ, leaving gaps in service. It's unavoidable, unless a company wants 10 guys sitting around the shop waiting on a breakdown. Cabinet makers don't have guys sitting around waiting and neither do machinery companies.
I thought about how Nutek Machinery would handle the service dilemma. I've been a service technician since 1982 and of course understand the importance of keeping machines running. I've made a lot of contacts throughout the years and have settled on the idea that the best way to handle timely service is to work closely with highly qualified independent technicians and provide them with factory training to ensure consistency and the proper knowledge to represent themselves, Nutek Machinery, and the Companies we have partnered with in Europe. The technicians we are working with either worked for one of the large companies in the industry and gone out on their own or worked in shops like yours and saw the need for their services in other shops. This is allowing us to work with guys on a regional basis and if their schedules prevent them from providing service in a reasonable amount of time, I'll get on a plane myself and fly out to a customers to get them up and running. I think the larger companies steer away from using independent guys, even the ones that used to work for them, almost like they are punishing them for leaving. As an example, we introduced the Ott edgebanding line at AWFS in Las Vegas and had a tremendous amount of interest. Ott has been building banders since 1963 and were in the U.S. in the early 2000s but for all practical purposes Ott is new in the market regarding what we have done. We already have 3 technicians that have been trained at the factory in Austria and will send 6 more the beginning of the year. We will continue to add to that number in strategic locations to give excellent coverage to the companies that partner with us and as machine sales dictate the need. We have a dealer and installation crew on board for Modesta dust collectors and will do the same thing for all of our lines. Currently we are in talks with an Italian CNC builder and already have multiple technicians lined up to go to training and provide service as soon as there is an agreement to bring the machines into the market. Once again, the technicians we are working with have already worked for the larger companies. When talking with the CNC company we are currently negotiating one of the most important topics is service. Interestingly what we are doing is exactly how many of the European companies are now doing it. This allows for reliable localized service without a high amount of overhead that adds to the price of the machines. The key is in the training of these technicians.
Between labor issues, people not showing up for work or doing their jobs correctly, and down machines the stress you guys feel is something I wouldn't want on a daily basis. We are providing efficient machines to reduce labor and keyed in on the service to keep machines running.
I hope all of this helps. I think all the machinery dealers are all dealing with the same conditions but the solutions to overcoming these challenges vary. Our flexibility is our strength.
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