When I bought two heat sealers 7 weeks ago the salesmen mentioned if I would like to buy a spares pack. I thought that was a bit odd not understanding what he meant was replacement pars that wear out through use.
This morning my daughter phoned me asking me to run around and find the heat part of both sealing machines that had worn out. One had stopped functioning and I dare say the other one will pack up in the next few days as that is how things tend to happen so I bought two replacement parts for each machine.
Looks like nothing as this is wo pieces of material in each pack along with two wires. I guess the wires heat up and the cloth material prevents the metal having direct contact with the plastic tubing we are sealing when creating tube like sand bags.
Normally I would have fetched them tomorrow as I had a busy day ahead of me, but when you are paying the staff salaries you think about lost production time and it suddenly becomes a priority. Just one day of lost time is rather costly and I cannot afford to pay people for doing nothing. When you are an employee you think very differently as you are not the one paying the bills.
Both parts cost around $5 each so as per normal it is the cheapest part that can lose you money. Thinking about it now I should have bought 10 packs of each and will get some more tomorrow as we will need them over the coming months. One of my pet hates is running out of supplies and always have back up stock hidden away for the just in case moments. Staff never tell you when they have opened the last box or grabbed the last roll of pallet wrap and why you need to be on top of the needs of the business. Last minute buying always costs you more and it can happen when you are doing overtime when every wholesaler is closed.
A few years ago DHL phoned me on a Sunday morning begging for a delivery as they had run out of pallet wrap and their warehouse had come to a stand still. This is an oversight and something I am trying to drum into my kids as I check all our supplies daily making sure we never get close to running out. It is always the stupid things like sellotape that you cannot do without and we use hundreds of rolls per month.
Your mindset changes 180 degrees when you become an employer mainly as you are the one paying the salaries each month. Employees don't care if they run out because they do not think like that and why you have to be on the lookout continuously for any problems that may arise and avert them before that happens.