Jerry Peerbolte
J. Peerbolte & Associates
Are end-users repairing more electric motors today than in the past? Or fewer? What’s the trend? Certainly, this is an important question for most EASAns.
In the 2014 Customer Research study, while just under half of respondents reported no noticeable change, over 36% reported repairing fewer motors. Reasons for this trend are included in Chart 1.
While a trend of fewer repairs may not be in most EASAns’ favor, it is interesting to note that that the second highest reason given for this trend is the fact that “vendors” (most likely – EASAns) have assisted end-users in solving the root cause for motor problems. This demonstrates the value of EASAns’ technical/application expertise in serving end-user customers.
The research study also asked end-users about the quality of motor repairs. The findings in Chart 2 were quite supportive for motor repair advocates.
As the chart suggests, fewer than a third of end-users believe a repaired motor has less reliability than a new motor. Many of those also expressed an overall preference for replacement over repair.
These findings add support to EASA’s past efforts to develop a motor repair standard (ANSI/EASA AR100) and the associated accreditation of motor repair service providers.
Finally, we examine the reasons given by those end-users (just 19%, though, as noted earlier) who are repairing more motors today than in the past (Chart 3).