The Agriculture and Construction industries are fast-paced and time-dependent, whether due to weather or other deadlines. Proactively managing your project can help decrease the financial risk and pressure on decision-makers, workers, and operators alike by reducing the chances of deadlines being missed. One of the main pieces you can proactively manage is the equipment your operation depends on, lessening the chances of unscheduled downtime and delays in the field or on the jobsite.
Delays, like unexpected equipment breakdowns, make your work even more difficult. They disrupt your schedule and can quickly turn a planned budget into unforeseen expenses. A single breakdown or stretch of downtime can cost far more than the price of being proactive with off-season preventative inspections. That’s why Titan Machinery offers Uptime Inspections: to help you stay ahead of downtime and keep your operation running smoothly and on time.
The True Cost of Downtime
When your equipment goes down, the real cost is more than the repair bill. Lost hours, delayed work, and added stress can make a breakdown far more expensive during farming or on a construction jobsite.
Farmers and contractors live by the clock; timing isn’t just important, it’s everything. Whether you’re racing a forecast or meeting a project deadline, staying on schedule keeps your operation moving and your bottom line protected. When your equipment fails, you lose crucial hours you need to get the crop in or out of the field or to finish moving dirt or material in or out of the jobsite. Instead of using those hours to finish your project, you're stuck waiting for repairs to be made.
Not only are you losing hours that you could have been working, but you are spending extra money to fix the machine and get it running again. A breakdown often starts with just one small part failing, but that single failure can quickly lead to bigger problems. A simple repair can quickly become a costly chain reaction, costing even more. In addition, whether paying for the part to be delivered to the downed equipment or running to get the replacement part yourself, more money will have to be spent on travel time or due to expedited shipping.
Service calls to the jobsite or out into the field also cost more money and hours, especially if the technicians are not located close to your job and have to work in difficult conditions. Service technicians traveling to the jobsite or field will take more time away from your project. Having the technicians work on the equipment outdoors can cause even more of a delay if the conditions are not favorable for repairs. These will create additional charges against your budget and use more time.
Not to mention, if your combine or wheel loader goes down, a ripple effect occurs. You aren't losing just one machine and operator. Due to the equipment going down, other machines can't complete their tasks and will have to halt their work, which could also grind the entire project to a stop. Now, you have many machines sitting waiting for the downed equipment to get up and running again, causing even more time to be lost and money to be spent.
You, or the project owner/foreman, are also directly affected by equipment downtime. The stress of knowing that your equipment is not running as it should be and time is not being utilized effectively adds even more difficulty to an already tense situation. Your time, money, and energy are being used up in a way that is not productive.
Colton Wientjes, Area Product Support Manager at Titan Machinery Watertown, puts the true cost of downtime into perspective: "So many variables go into 'true downtime cost' as in which machine is down, is there rain or snow in the forecast, or other time variables that come into play there. Plus, they might have indirect costs that are unknown at the time, like if the markets go down while they can’t combine if the combine is broken down."
When a machine goes down, the clock doesn’t stop. Repairs can be made, but the hours lost can’t be recovered, and that lost time can be more costly than any part or service bill. That's the true cost of downtime: your time and aggravation.
So, when you skip an off-season inspection, for one reason or another, you increase the chance of downtime from equipment failures. Downtime costs can be reduced or even eliminated if you take a proactive approach during the off-season and schedule a preventative maintenance inspection at Titan Machinery.
How Uptime Equipment Inspections Help You
At Titan Machinery, we offer a complete package of comprehensive machine-specific inspections called
Uptime Inspections. These are detailed, multi-point inspections covering every major component within the machine. Our Uptime Inspections are designed to identify any issues that could cause your equipment to go down during the season. Once a machine has been inspected and repairs made, you can be confident that your equipment is ready to go to work.
With comprehensive training and daily exposure to many machines, our technicians know what ‘normal’ looks like for your equipment. That experience allows them to identify anything out of the ordinary and address it before it becomes a costly problem. This ensures that major equipment failures don't happen because a small belt is worn or a major issue doesn't occur because a suspicious noise wasn't identified or investigated.
We know it's common for machine operators to find an issue or need other maintenance activities done during the season they are running the equipment. However, bringing in your equipment before your next busy season will ensure you don't find those same issues again when you bring your equipment out. That's why Uptime inspections most often occur during the off-season for farmers or contractors. Having a preventative inspection during this time also gives our service teams time to schedule and fix any major issues they find, without causing more downtime for your equipment or costing you extra money to get your machine fixed quickly.
A Uptime inspection will give you the peace of mind to know that during the small window of time you have to complete a task or finish a job, your machine will perform to its highest potential when you need it to.
We Care About You & Your Equipment
At Titan Machinery, we prioritize you and your equipment. When you schedule a Uptime inspection, you will receive additional benefits. It's our commitment to you.
Benefits include:
- OEM-Certified Technicians working on your equipment
- Genuine OEM Parts will be used where applicable
- 1-Year Parts Warranty for genuine CNH parts installed
- Priority in-season support for services
- No service call fees
We’re more than your local Titan Machinery dealership; we’re your partner in keeping your equipment running and your projects on track. From routine maintenance, Uptime inspections, to expert support, we’re here to help you get the job done efficiently and reliably. We want to ensure you can run as long as you need to finish your busy season within your optimal window of time.
Contact your local Titan Machinery dealership today to schedule a Uptime Inspection and gain the confidence of knowing your equipment is ready for your next busy season.
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