CHANGE OF SEASONS

As Autumn embraces the northern hemisphere, leaves and temperatures begin to fall. With the cooler weather, this is a great time to think about filling your inventory of parts and supplies before the snow and inclement weather turn a normal 2-day delivery time into a week or more.

Do a quick walk through your center, look for low supplies of critical items:

·       Lane conditioner, lane cleaning cloth and lane cleaner

·       Belts for your pinsetting equipment and lane machine

·       Restock critical parts for the pinsetting equipment

·       Filters and belts for the HVAC system

·       Snow shovels and ice melt

·       Check in with your snow removal company

Try to keep at least a 2-week supply of your lane maintenance materials. While weather in your area might be nice, the supply chain to your location can be interrupted by a winter storm hundreds of miles away.

Many of the belts in the pinsetter and the lane machine are specially made for specific applications and can’t be sourced through local belt suppliers. Keep an inventory of these important parts to keep things running.

Having a pinsetter break down is always a bad situation. Having a pinsetter nonoperational for several days or even weeks due to a weather caused delay is extremely stressful. An ice storm in a part of the country will cause a ripple effect across the entire supply chain. Get those critical parts on the shelf early!

Your heating system will be put to the test during the next few months. Make sure you have the supplies on hand to keep it operating during the frigid nights ahead.

Know where your snow removal tools are before the first flakes start to fall. Shovels and ice melt tend to be pushed to the back of a closet and forgotten until needed, For the safety of your customers and employees, stock up now.

If you use a snow removal company, be sure your agreement is up to date. If you do your own snow removal, check the operation of everything and get those spare parts on the shelf.