Machine Downtime/Utilization

Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby troutriver on 31 Dec 2009, 13:08

How many resorts out there track machine downtime? I see so much focus on my productivity/acres/fuel and NONE on tracking/preventing/reducing downtime whether its operator error, mechanical failure, parts availability, etc.

I know there must be some great maintenance departments and grooming departments with programs to address such issues? As we lose machines/operators in the push for larger more productive machines, and are expected to maintain the same level of grooming quantity and quality this can't help but become a larger issue, yet it seems largely overlooked in my world. Am I onto something or way off base??
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Tom400CFI on 31 Dec 2009, 18:21

You are onto something...I think.

First to be efficient, you can't have the overhead of surplus cats just sitting around...although plenty of resorts do. With a fleet that is sized properly to the resort, down time absolutely becomes a factor, and even more so as we replace MORE low hp/smaller machines w/correspondingly LESS, new high HP, bigger machines -to get the same work done. If we have a 500 go down for a night, it is almost at detrimental to the grooming plan as loosing ~1.8 regular machines, and more like 3 BR275's. That's a huge hit that we have to manage carefully. And of course, we knew that risk, when we dove into the "bigger, but fewer cats w/fewer operators" philosophy.

We do track down time. The only way I can see that you would not need to do that is where you have a fleet of say 30 cats, but only use 15 per shift. In that case, who cares if a cat breaks? Go grab another cat.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Canadianbombar on 01 Jan 2010, 03:31

If you need 15 cats per shift....you should have maybe 3 spare for a fleet of 18 if your whole fleet isn't a pile of garbage. Not that big of a deal for an operation that size. The problem you speak of is amplified at small resorts though that only put one or 2 cats out and thus need to keep 1 or 2 back up cats around...essentially doubling fleet size. Ah well..I'm off to run the only alpine only cat we have at the moment because I've been waiting on our pumps back for the other cat from Bosch for 4 weeks :(
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Tom400CFI on 01 Jan 2010, 15:56

Canadianbombar wrote:If you need 15 cats per shift....you should have maybe 3 spare for a fleet of 18

You think? That is is an overhead of ~$750,000.00. You need to sell a lot of ski tix to pay for that. I think that $750k could stock a parts room pretty well to mitigate down time. I think 1 extra cat is plenty. It varies though. we are in close proximity to both our dealers so parts are an hour away if they have them in stock. If you were in the sticks, you'd have to either carry a big inventory or several extra cats like you said. I'm for the inventory philosophy, myself. Too bad that our parts room is only 300 sq ft! :(

In my post above though, I was talking about resorts that have 45+ cats, and only need ~8...MAYBE 10 at most, per shift for grooming. That's craziness. Resources could be better allocated.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Canadianbombar on 01 Jan 2010, 16:47

You're looking at it all wrong. Cats run X amount of hours and then they're done. You will eventually spend that 750k on replacements sooner rather than later if you don't have any extra cats to take up the slack. You're also looking at it backwards.....you're only in to 3 extra cats for $150k because you keep 3 around for spares that you would have otherwise traded on new ones.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Tom400CFI on 01 Jan 2010, 22:21

So the cats don't age/degrade...sitting there not being used?

I have a friend who had a '00 Jeep Cherokee. In '05, he bought a Volvo X90...but he didn't sell the Jeep. His thinking was, that the longer he kept the Jeep and didn't drive it, the "more it would be worth" b/c the relatively less miles it would have for it's age. How does that logic sound? It's true that as time goes by, HIS jeep will become worth more than other Jeeps from the same year, because his isn't accruing miles. But he's still loosing money. He ended up selling the fully loaded, "Country" Cherokee for $2500, with 40,000 miles. How did that work out for him? He had a "spare cat" in case the Volvo ever broke. But you can see, the resources weren't well utilized. He could have probably gotten $8-10k had he sold it in '05.

As for cats, buy them, used the sh!t out of them, trade them at "x" hours for the most possible money you can get out of them. Carry as little overhead as you can to get the job done.

Here's another example:
You and I need 5 cat's per shift to get our job done. You buy 10 cats so you have 5 spares. I buy 5.
In 4 years, I'm up to "X" hours on my 5 cats. I trade them all, update my technology, and have a new fleet. It's going to take you another 4 more years to reach that "X" hours, turn your fleet and update your technology. And how much is an 8 yo cat with "X" hours worth, compared to a 4 yo with "X" hours? Less. That's for sure.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Canadianbombar on 02 Jan 2010, 02:55

I said 3 extra on a fleet of 18...technological advances are not that rapid in this industry....and since a big resort gets to X hours on a new machine in 4 years...the delay is going to amass to a grand total of a few months. Your vehicle comparison is way out of wack. Snow cats go to a 50K trade in value in 6000 hours/4 years hours and pretty much sit there for the next 4000 hours/5 years. What's more...keeping a few machines around that should have been traded can keep you from paying thru the nose for express freight or express rebuilds for parts for you main fleet....as we all know the part you need is never the part you have.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Tom400CFI on 02 Jan 2010, 21:22

Well, we know where you stand now, and where I do.
I try to run a fleet w/little overhead, and for the OP, yes, we do track down time.

My vehicle comparison was "way out of whack" -or exaggerated might be a better way to put it, to bring clarity to the philosophy, and it did. Your 18/15 cat fleet will have the same draw backs as my 10/5 cat hypothetical situation...just not as bad. My current 11/10 operation will have similar draw backs to the 5/5 cat example...just not as bad. I created an exaggerated hypothetical situation to highlight the different outcomes of the two different philosophies.

We mitigate express services by stocking a good parts room and by doing good inspections of the cats.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Jimski on 17 Jan 2010, 23:11

I'd have to agree with Tom on this one. I recently sold a fleet of 4 machines to a customer that flipped there entire fleet at once. At that meeting, There was no way I could tell my customer, "well, I know you only need 4 cats to do the job, But I am going to sell you 6 just to make sure you don't loose out on production". As much as I hate to admit it, Ski areas aren't in business just to buy snowcats. Reducing downtime thru engineering, a parts department that is open on weekends, and an around the clock service department, and sales guys who are always accessible via cell phone, makes it so a 10 cat job can survive on 11 cats. I can't imagine any GM would endorse more than a 1 cat surplus in a fleet, even when we get to the 15+ cat fleet. And used snowcats do continue to depreciate according to years/hours. they have different values all the way down to 18,000 hrs. I don't subscribe to the theroy that 5 yr/6K hr cat is worth the same as a 8 year/10K hr cat.

the question is, what is the value in staffing a swing or grave mechanic? I have seen it work very well, and it only makes sense to have someone on the clock while the machines are running. When there is a small problem that an operator would or could not handle, an on duty mechanic can have a machine up in 5 minutes. I was at a ski area in the PNW last week, and they had a spool get stuck in the valve that handles the curl cylinder for the blade, in there only avaliable winch cat. This was at 7 pm. Due to the swing mechanic, the machine was down maybe 10 minutes. if he would not have been there it would have missed almost 2 full shifts.
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Re: Machine Downtime/Utilization

Postby Tom400CFI on 19 Jan 2010, 19:08

Jimski wrote:the question is, what is the value in staffing a swing or grave mechanic?

Good question. I don't have the data to support or condemn that concept. But I think you need to do something. We did have a night shift where I originally came from, and I was it. I think that I was efficent, and I did fix many cats that would have otherwise not finished or missed shifts. But that fleet was poorly maintained (PM'ed) and so there were a lot of problems TO fix, to keep the machines on the hill.

Now, our current fleet is extrememly reliable, by comparison. I tried a night shift mechanic a few years ago and it was a total waste of money. He ended up mostly cleaning up the shop and running snacks and food up to the operators on a snowmobile...before I ended that. Not a good use of wages.

Now days, we just have someone on call; myself or the shop supervisor. If a cat goes down, one of us either talks the operator through a fix, or we drive in, and go fix it ourselves. I don't feel like that is the best solution...but I don't want to pay wages for food delivery(lol)...but I don't want down time either. So I come in when necessary. Probably ends up beeing 5 times a year or so.
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