This is topic Why are the equipment manufacturers closed during the holidays? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-31-2003, 10:44 PM:
 
Why can`t the major equipment manufacturers not have one lonely guy at the phone for emergency orders during the holidays? Or in general, on weekends, when tens of thousands of cinemas are doing their best business?
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 12-31-2003, 11:01 PM:
 
Micheal, why do some European manufacturers have a Holiday close down in August when we are having our summer business in the USA?
Most critical planning is usually done by December 15 which should carry through the Holidays....both situations have their reason and can be easily worked around. I have found emergencies on Christmas or New Years tend not to be surprises but many cases will point to a problem that was obvious prior to the Holidays..........Happy 2004
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-01-2004, 01:00 AM:
 
I never had a problem reaching (at least the Berlin office of) Kinoton any day of the week until around 11pm. One of their technicians would be on emergency duty and also have access to the parts warehouse. So we usually got everything we needed within 1-3 hours. This is obviously not possible due to the enormous distances in this country, but they could at least have people on the phone during the weekend. If it is not possible to get stuff more quickly than overnight, OK - it does travel over enormous distances, so overnight is actually very good. But if you have a problem Friday afternoon (also you have to take into account that California is 2-3 hours behind some manufacturers), then you are down the whole weekend
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-01-2004, 01:24 AM:
 
In Europe,India,parts of Latin America the manufacturer + service component is more vertically integrated and service support is usually part of a sales package. As an example is Spain with KCS,Proyecson, and Wassman promoting service packages as part of a sale; expecting a response to an emergency and setting up a call within an hour is a given in that market if you have a contract. I know Kinoton, Prevost and indirectly Cinemeccanica operate with a simular set-ups in Europe. In some aspects it can be a cash cow for them. In the USA with the mish mash of dealers, service companies, distributors and manufacturers it is always somebody's other problem. In the past I would work with a new account, figure out the weak spots, find out what their tolerance for performance standards, look at their competition and recommend what spares, forecast of cyclical needs and work out a game plan for their operation......not many people are willing to do this unfortunately.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-01-2004, 02:08 AM:
 
I have a lot of typically needed spare parts, but it is not easy when you have such a wide variety of equipment as our chain (which has taken over a number of cinemas from various other exhibitors). But then of course it is simply not possible to stock everythng, and there will always be the "unforeseen" situation.
Wouldn`t it make a lot of sense then for major vendors to stock more parts and have them available also on weekends and holidays? Or maybe not - else it would have been done already? Or is it that people here are simply not used to getting parts that quickly? In my mind, there seems to be a lot of potential in this idea, since a downsituation on a busy weekend costs the exhibitor a lot of money.
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-01-2004, 02:38 AM:
 
Micheal,I have worked with a couple of circuits that had the same situation regarding different equipment and it took a couple of years of trading, retiring hardware until we had 1 to 2 packages to work in most situations....I had a late technician do this for another company and in the same time frame he was able to clean up their operation. You do have manufacturers like Kinoton which many of their parts are generic over many models of equipment which allow stocking not to be a major problem. In todays market with approxiamately 30 full line manufacturers trying to sell to a very small customer base,it is hard to justify the stocking expense unless they are charging to a service operation under their control......which no present USA manufacturer is set up to do. It is funny in a business sector which will become more important to the cinema industry....the dreaded DIGITAL ( if and when ) beast.....overnight parts + loaners, emergency service, network supervision ( maintinance )plans as part of their upcoming business plans are being factored; since they already have experience suppling these needs in major corporate and government enviroments.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-01-2004, 09:03 AM:
 
Michael,
We have a huge parts inventory for many manufacturers and we always say..."If you need it we probably have several in stock, and if you don't need it there is probably one in stock anyway"

Actually many of the U.S. manufacturers DO at least have emergency personel available in such situations. Christie used to be the worst one but even they now have an emergency person around there. Smaller U.S. companies may be more of a problem in this regard though. Hey at least you can chastise Richard right here on the forum if you can't get through to Kinoton !

Mark @ CLACO
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-01-2004, 10:13 AM:
 
I can not remember the time I had a theatre go down to the point of non-repair over the holidays.

Like CLACO...we also have a rather large stock of projection parts (including electronic items) based on our service area. The more unusual, the more we have the individual location stock the odd item at that location. If the "page" comes in that a theatre is down, the fastest way to get them back up is for the part to be there. However, if it is a Simplex or Century, we not only have every part, we have entire projectors to ensure our customers will run with minimal down time. Diodes? Got em in several sizes.

Historically, theatres stocked their own parts that suited their projection equipment...gears, tubes...etc. Now, that isn't the case so much.

I do feel that ultimately it is the theatre's responsibility to have a reasonable parts supply on site though. Iook at how many screens you have and what items are critical to your show running. Do you have a spare of those items? If not, it is your risk and not the responsibility of the service company, dealer or manufacturer.

You have spare xenon lamps, right? I know, as a dealer it is silly to tie up funds stocking every lamp size with the various fittings...heck just in the 2KW lamp, you have the standard 2K, two forms of 2K HS (one is similar to the 2500HS and the other is similar to the 1600HS). Those are critical items. How about rectifiers? If you have switchers, you should have a spare (on MS connectors, if possible)...there will not be any fixing of them on site. They are not that expensive and if one goes down, that theatre is down.

Does your theatre use motor controllers? If so, perhaps a spare should be around...that sort of thing. I know of some theatres that have essentially complete projection systems as spares for their plex. The theatre needs to take some responsibility here. It is their business after all.

Steve
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-01-2004, 11:06 AM:
 
I have lost count the many times our stock exceeded a vendor and we helped during plant closures, met people who flew in at one of our airports and sent people internationally to deal with customs people to deliver emergency parts. This of course was tempered by good relationships between manufacturers, distributors,techs and clients who would pay .
 

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 01-01-2004, 12:04 PM:
 
My thoughts are, if you have to order one, order two because another one is soon to break.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-01-2004, 12:08 PM:
 
I am in fact meeting a customer at the store at noon today that requires a new 5 Star main shaft and bearings. His show will still go on as planed at 4PM today.

Mark @ CLACO
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-01-2004, 12:13 PM:
 
I never had a problem, either, we stocked much. Except, as Richard noted, waiting a month to get repaired intermittents and gear boxes back from Cinemeccanica, because they shut down in August.
 

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Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 01-01-2004, 01:06 PM:
 
I think a case today of bigger not being better.

Waxing nostalgic as usual, back when Walter Reade owned almost everything around here we were at the most a half-hour away from the warehouse (except for Reade's NYC houses). We had a Reade tech who would come at anytime as well as an Altec-Lansing tech who also was close by. At worst we might have had to run on one machine (a tad impossible for most of you guys today) until the tech came with the part. We also kept so many spare parts that calling a tech simply meant coming in early tomorrow to meet him. It was a good system back then. The only time I personally had to shut down was when the power company's substation feeding the DI I was working at launched a transformer, not much I could do about that.

In a related issue, why are booking offices closed even though we are running? Due to the new Russell Crowe film being held over in 1st run we had to rebook something else for next week, but there was only one poor secretary there who just took your name and number and "someone will get back to you."
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 01-01-2004, 02:04 PM:
 
If memory serves all industriial manufacturers shut down in Italy for August as it is a state law
but it doesn't really matter since if one is aware of it work around it
 

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Posted by Chris Byrne (Member # 1563) on 01-02-2004, 05:56 AM:
 
Our refrigeration tradesman brought up this exact point stating that for both of our companies it is the busiest time of year (School Holidays and Summer time), yet the companies we rely on for parts and service are closed for business.

As luck would have it, we had a gas leak in our biggest auditorium holding one of our 'Rings' prints and it was like pulling teeth getting bottles of refrigerant to cool the cinema.
 

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Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 01-02-2004, 08:00 AM:
 
It's not a state law, it is just a tradition!

If Cinemeccanica is closed on august (I don't know) it is its decision and nothing else!

Bye
A
 

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-02-2004, 10:39 AM:
 
I think, also, parts are very expensive today. When spending $500 only gets you a few gate springs, a belt, and and a zipper solenoid, it's tough to keep a good inventory. It gets worse, too, when the manufacturers use "just-in-time" inventory practises, which means even they might not have stock of what you need.
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-02-2004, 03:07 PM:
 
John, you know that Ace Hardware has the best prices for parts Is your hotmail account working?
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-02-2004, 03:34 PM:
 
Question: does the dealer usually have to pay for the parts he has in stock, or can he stock them and then pay when one is sold to the customer?
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-02-2004, 03:43 PM:
 
Generally the dealer pays for the parts sitting on his shelves. Terms may vary but it always seems too short In allied businesses that use some of our components, such as speakers, amplifiers there are some long term stocking situations between a manufacturer and distributor to have it available in a market; but they are generally working to a larger customer base than cinema supply.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-02-2004, 04:25 PM:
 
While we have some parts that have been around for quite some time, mainly for machines or older sound processors that there are only a few of around this area, most of our parts turn around on a fairly regular basis. We stock a huge inventory of Simplex, Christie, Century, Ballantyne, and Norelco DP-70 parts, along with at least the commonly needed stuff for most other brands. We also have at least doubles and many triple inventory loaner intermittents, gear boxes, ignitors, and other re-buildable items. We also have the only new inventory in the country of certain older sound processor boards.
In addition to all the parts, our inventory of actual projectors covers just about everything ever made here in the U.S. plus many foreign machines as well.

Mark @ CLACO
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 01-02-2004, 06:29 PM:
 
Mark, are you Charlie Wolk's long lost nephew
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-02-2004, 06:56 PM:
 
Possibly....... but we do sell tons of parts.
Mark
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-02-2004, 09:54 PM:
 
Our motion-picture Customer Technical Services Group at Kodak all have cell phones, and when we are out of the office, our office phones are patched through to the cell phones. Even if the cell phone is turned off during bedtime, we can take a message on voice mail, which is checked frequently.

Film can be ordered by phone, 24/7, 365 days per year (1-800-404-2016):

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/order/shoot.shtml?id=0.1.4.19&lc=en

Here are Kodak's motion-picture offices around the world:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/order/offices.shtml
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-02-2004, 11:10 PM:
 
Can I also order Strong switchers from Kodak?
I already have built up a big stock of the most commonly needed parts, but sometimes fate strikes mercilessly: For instance when you have a spare switcher within reach, and then 2 (!) fail on the same day. BTW, Strong wasn`t open today (Friday) either.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-05-2004, 03:51 PM:
 
Modeled on its very successful customer-service oriented film business, Kodak offers comprehensive "Full Customer Care" for Digital Cinema:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/digital/showEast03solution.shtml
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-06-2004, 11:51 PM:
 

quote:

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Kodak provides everything Ad suppliers and their Exhibitor partners need to deliver digital advertising reliably to the cinema - and to verify it played according to terms of the sales contract.

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