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Your Laboratory Equipment: Why a Contract Service Agreement Just Makes Sense

laboratory equipment preventative maintenance
No matter what your core business is, you need the right tools in good working order to deliver accurate results on time and on budget.

Never is this more evident than inside a laboratory. Having the right equipment—and keeping it running smoothly and calibrated accurately—is what makes it possible for your staff to do their jobs.

Fortunately, unlike some of the challenges laboratories have dealt with in the past six months, controlling downtime due to faulty instrumentation is one factor that affects your business that is within your control as a lab owner or manager.

There are four reasons why contracting with an experienced industry partner for an ongoing laboratory service agreement makes sense for you as a lab owner or manager:

1. Mitigates Downtime

First and foremost, if your equipment isn’t working, your lab’s productivity grinds to a halt. When your instrumentation is down, your staff can’t work. Having your equipment properly maintained on a regular basis is the most effective way to fix that. Knowing your instrumentation is being evaluated and maintained by a service contract team will enhance your team’s performance, mitigate downtime, and give you peace of mind.

2. Reduces Costs

With your lab instrumentation and equipment as with so many other things, an ounce of prevention is well worth a pound of cure. When you have periodic, regular maintenance through a service agreement, it is much more likely that problems with your equipment will be caught and addressed before they turn into larger issues. Letting one of these issues with your instrumentation go unheeded and unaddressed can take a big toll on your productivity, compromising your production schedule and deliverables. And if any of your lab equipment needs to be repaired, your service partner will be available to fix it—and that means you can manage your timelines better, meet your deadlines, and keep costs under control.

3. Allocates Resources Effectively

Are you currently relying on your bench scientists to keep their own equipment running well? While it may be true that some of your staff have the skills and experience needed to maintain and calibrate their lab equipment, does it make sense to ask them to? Assigning these more routine maintenance and repair tasks to a team of experts whose only job is to keep your equipment in good working order will allow your team to focus on the higher level of tasks you hired them to do.

4. Saves Time

Having a single point of contact when you need equipment maintained or repaired will save you from the lost time that results from having to manage different vendors and various maintenance schedules for each of your departments. A contract service agreement simplifies this often-complex administrative process and gives you and your team more time to focus on accomplishing the deliverables and other tasks at hand.

When you contract with an experienced and reliable service partner, you will have the assurance that your investment in your equipment and instrumentation is being protected properly. In addition to having the peace of mind that your assets will be in top working order when you need them to be, you will be able to mitigate downtime, reduce costs, allocate your resources more effectively, and save time—all important strategic advantages that your lab can leverage to benefit your laboratory operation and results.