By Jon Webb
IPS Sr. VP — Sales & Marketing
What drives your choice of a power services provider — cost or value? It depends on the situation.
During an unplanned outage, you worry less about the cost of getting back online than the cost of unplanned downtime. The calculus may change during regular business operations. That’s when a lower bid for motor repair can look good simply because it’s lower.
Before you proceed with that low bid, check under the hood. We often end up repairing the work of low-cost repair shops. Less experienced technicians, using older technologies and less expensive materials, don’t provide the quality and workmanship you’d expect.
In our experience, cheaper always has hidden costs.
Is that lower cost worth the risk?
The average lawnmower costs about $650. Labor rates for lawnmower repair run about $100 an hour. Can you trust a service provider who charges lawnmower repair rates with your million-dollar motor?
Remember, we’re talking about repairing motors that cost anywhere from $20,000 to $1 million and up. IPS labor rates to work on those motors aren’t much higher than labor rates for lawnmower repair.
“Eighty percent of outages at industrial plants are the direct result of the distribution system inside the plant — i.e., failed equipment and systems belonging to, and maintained by the industrial plant.”
You might save a few thousand dollars with a less expensive repair shop. But if that motor fails a year later, the downtime could run up to $260,000 an hour.
IPS charges a little more for labor rates, but doing the job right the first time has its benefits. Our technicians are highly trained, skilled craftsmen that utilize qualified methods and UL-certified system.
What you’re buying with IPS:
Let’s start with OEM-authorized repair. If the company who manufactured your motor trusts us to repair and maintain their equipment, then you can too.
Why do OEMs trust our work? Because they’ve audited and certified our repair shops to meet or exceed their standards. The IPS North American network has dedicated, authorized repair operations for both low- and high-voltage motors. We also have the industry’s most comprehensive service offering, including state-of-the-art diagnostics and premium rewind technologies.
“Good as new” is our baseline, but we go well beyond that. We repair your equipment to higher standards than most OEMs offer and can re-engineer your motor for your application, rewinding for more horsepower or efficiency.
IPS has dedicated repair technicians that have been on the job longer than some of your motors. These veterans combine decades of experience with a focused commitment to continuous improvement.
Our commitment to training is key to achieving our reliability goals for your assets. Our technicians learn how to employ the latest technologies and advanced methods at IPSU, taught by industry experts in electric motor & generator service and repair. They also raise the bar for our younger repair technicians. They teach them about safety and quality, how to set benchmarks and then beat them.
IPS repair technicians draw from our network of North American resources, including the industry’s leading corps of engineers. Together, we solve complex operating problems — the kind that if unchecked, can cause repeated failure and unplanned downtime.
IPS engineers have an extensive toolbox to analyze your motors, including motion amplification technology and smart motor controls. IPS engineers can reverse engineer and build a motor from scratch using technologies such as a Faro laser and solid works. They work directly with our repair technicians to deliver measurable improvements in performance and reliability.
IPS repair technicians have decades of experience in your industry, so they know your assets and their operating challenges. Continuous process operations demand reliability, and that’s what we deliver. We reduce your total cost of ownership by eliminating unplanned outages and improving asset reliability and performance.
Want to check your motor status? You can follow your service and repairs in real-time, using IPS Tracker.
Forget the problems and lag times of customer reports built with paper forms and manual data entry. We’ll tell you what we’re doing, from “as received” to “as shipped” and all points between.
What is it? It’s unmatched safety and quality, lead times no one else can touch, plus complete documentation and communications — all at a competitive price.
IPS repair technicians come prepared every day, ready to deliver that experience for our customers. If your current repair shop doesn’t have that commitment, then you should consider a new service provider.
We aren’t in the business to repair the same motor twice. That attitude, as much as anything else, can eliminate the unplanned outages that cause eighty percent of your unplanned downtime.
That’s the value of IPS motor service and repair.
Want to know more? Talk to your local IPS sales rep or visit www.ips.us.
About the author — Jon Webb has logged over 35 years in the electric motor and power transmission industry. He oversees IPS sales strategy, marketing execution, national accounts, distribution, referral, and hydro-electric operations.
