Why serviceable beats throw-away.
On day one, our company ethos was to make our equipment serviceable and maintainable, not throw-away. 40 years ago, people reused and repaired, and the throwaway society hadn’t yet happened. We engineered our hydraulic pumps as we expected professional equipment to be, offering low cost service kits and easy maintenance.
What has changed in 40 years?
In the consumer world, throwaway is the norm. This came about following the unleashing of the Chinese economy in 1989 to become the world’s low cost manufacturing base, and to a lesser degree the liberation of eastern European countries around about the same time. Western firms lost no time in sourcing cheap products and moving production out of the UK to take advantage of low cost labour.
The words ‘sustainability’ and ‘global warming’ weren’t on everybody’s lips back then and it is only now we realise what a terrible price we’ve paid in environmental terms by ignoring maintainability and chasing cheap, disposable products For sure, technological change in many consumer products has also played a part in this and makes maintainability a largely redundant concept, but only because it is affordable. Let’s face it, the West is deeply in love with cheap “stuff.”
The throwaway ethos extends to industrial equipment as well, even where technology hasn’t significantly changed down the years. Some Professionals chase the lowest cost and reason that replacing it – many times over – still saves money. For others, there is a higher value in kit that lasts and can be repaired. Time is money and a pump that fails prematurely during a job or production process can actually cost the business many times its purchase price.
Those brands that were built on maintainability and very long life are still there meeting the needs of Professionals. Whether it is Caterpillar construction equipment and diesel engines or even Snap-on tools, the message has remained unchanged.
We stand by our kit that can be repaired in the field, and still get pumps back into our workshop for repair from 1983. Selling comprehensive service kits and spares at modest prices means repairing your kit is a viable and affordable option, instead of opting for new.
Explore our service kits and service tools here or contact us to discuss how we can support you over a long service life.
MW & MP seal kits and Servicing Tools
See our Datasheet by clicking the link on the right.
