Total Hose Management Pirtek Dublin has its own particular take on Total Hose Management. “We have a number of customers with rolling contracts to change a certain number of hoses each year,” says Ken, “so over a five year period we may change all the hoses. They’d be tagged with all the normal red tags but not with the full data- based system. “A lot of customers would say ‘We have a big loading shovel in the workshop today, come and change whichever hoses you think need to be changed.’ But they won’t say, ‘Come over and change them all and come back in three years.’ “They wouldn’t just change a hose because of its age, though they really should do because a lot of hoses we work on are over water so if one failed it could be a pollution risk. “They’d say their guy would keep an eye on it and change it when it looks rusty or starts leaking. “It’s hard to convince people that they will save money by taking off good hoses just because they’re three or five years old,” Ken says. “This is because they may not have factored in the price of downtime,” he explains.
“Currently there’s a sailing at 8am, then we have to be gone by 11am for an incoming ferry. This leaves again by 1pm, and there’s another ferry at 5pm.” He continues, “We’re down there twice a week on average and we normally get to replace two to three hoses per trip. There’s a lot of planning for each visit.” There is one minor issue for Guy though. “All the work at the moment is at height – cranes, cherry pickers and the like… and I don’t like heights,” he says.
Ken leaves the door open, however, “We’re not waiting for customers to demand this service.” Rams and things Customers have higher demands today, Ken explains. “People expect that if you’re in the hydraulics business, you have to be comprehensive. So we’re not just a hose company any more. We wouldn’t survive if we were.” With customers’ diagnoses not always accurate, it is in everyone’s interest that Pirtek can solve a wide range of problems. “In a lot of cases the customer sees oil running out of the machine, rings us and says he’s got a hose leak but when the van arrives the engineer discovers that it’s actually a seal in
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