Preventative maintenance that sticks

Hi!

I’m Jared, the founder of Prefix. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Uptime, Prefix’s official newsletter!

Here’s what you can expect: Each month, we’re going to be delivering two actionable tips to help you get the most out of your spaces. We’ll be sharing best practices that we’ve learned from auditing hundreds of restaurants and processing thousands of work orders. Ideas that you can use today to save you money and maximize your facility uptime.

Why? Well, it’s personal for us. Along with the six other dedicated members of the Prefix team, we’ve now spent a ton of time working with restaurant operators, and we’ve seen firsthand just how brutally hard it is to run a restaurant. If we’re able to help you keep just one piece of equipment from going down, then we’ll consider this newsletter a success. 

But importantly: We’re also going to try to have fun here. Because we’re in the restaurant business, too. And the business of bringing in guests and having them leave with a smile requires a little pizzazz, no?

Tip 1: How to create a preventative maintenance schedule … that’ll actually stick 

Creating a preventative maintenance schedule is a little bit like taking your perfectly-running car in to get serviced. There may not be anything wrong with the car, but many of us know from painful past experience that skipping this appointment can lead to costly repairs down the road.

Here are three quick steps to creating a PM schedule that sticks:

1. Conduct an inventory of all equipment and facilities within the restaurant – from the kitchen appliances, to the HVAC, to the electrical systems. 

2. Prioritize equipment and facilities based on mission criticality. The most important equipment – your AC, your hood system – should receive more frequent maintenance attention compared to lower-priority items. 

3. Go down the asset list, assigning preventative maintenance to either internal staff or external vendors. Work with your PM techs to schedule out each upcoming visit, leveraging your commitment to secure visits that aren’t during lunch or dinner service. Remember: If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist.

(Note: Prefix makes these tasks a breeze. The program analyzes your maintenance plans and compares them to our huge library of data, helping you quickly create your asset list and PM cadence.)

One more note: try to make PM something that’s always occurring. Empower your staff to be extra sets of eyes and ears. If they see something odd with a piece of equipment, they should speak up! Preventative maintenance means preventing minor problems from escalating into major disturbances.

Mental health break

Even for five minutes, this McDonald’s training video from 1983 is worth a watch. It has everything: puppets, a character named “Coach McNugget,” vintage hot mustard dipping cups, more puppets…

(Note to self: should we get puppets for our next training video?)

Tip 2: Change your fryer oil!

Ah, the fryer oil change. One of the least-loved tasks in any restaurant. Modern filtration systems have made the work a bit easier, but still, it’s a tedious process. 

This job’s importance, though, can’t be understated! Not only for the obvious reason – fresh oil means better tasting, more consistent food – but because changing the oil regularly in a fryer can greatly extend its lifespan. Here’s how:

• Prevents Buildup: Over time, oil used in fryers can accumulate food particles, debris, and other contaminants. (Yum.) Regularly changing the oil helps prevent the buildup of these substances, which can degrade the quality of the oil and contribute to the deterioration of the fryer's components.

• Reduces Risk of Malfunctions: Contaminated or degraded oil can lead to issues such as clogging of filters, malfunctioning temperature controls, and increased wear on mechanical parts. By changing the oil regularly, the risk of these malfunctions is reduced, prolonging the overall lifespan of the fryer and minimizing the need for repairs or replacements.

Regularly changing oil is an investment – in both time and money. But it’s one with a high ROI for both your restaurant’s reputation and its assets.

That’s all for this month. Thank you for reading!

We’ll be back next month with more tips and details on what’s new at Prefix. Have something you’d like to see covered in a future newsletter? Just reply to this email with your questions/hard-earned wisdom.

Jared