As Food Engineering searches for a new editor-in-chief, this month the editor’s note is under construction, so to speak. Instead, the editors will highlight this issue’s offerings, which focus on replacement parts and maintenance.
While maintenance is not always the sexiest topic to address, having a strategy for it is essential to avoid equipment failure and unscheduled downtime, which almost always means valuable time and money lost. Each year, we conduct the Replacement Parts and Components Trends Study to provide a snapshot of the industry’s latest methods used to improve efficiency in replacement parts and components in food and beverage plants. The key objectives are to identify who is responsible for the decisions made in replacing parts at facilities and how these individuals are reaching their conclusions. The study also determines what factors are considered most important in selecting a supplier and what maintenance strategies and inventory management practices are currently utilized.