Save Time with Floating Pre-mated Systems
If efficiency is a primary goal, shops should limit the selection of bindings to plates. Rental procedures for plates are the most efficient because up to 50 units per employee per hour can be distributed. The procedures will be covered in a later column.
For valid reasons many shops select conventional toe heel rental bindings, although the majority of these operations are not as efficient as they could be. If, every time someone rents equipment, your employee makes a binding fitting adjustment (toe lug height, length adjustment) or calibrates the system (adjusting the setting for an individual skier weight and ability) your employee is wasting his time and your money. A small investment in time and money can eliminate these steps.
Before proceeding further, safety (performance) perameters must be established. A properly run rental facility can achieve a LEER (lower extremity potential equipment related) injury rate significantly below the general skiing public. To achieve the low injury rate a rental system (boot, binding and ski) must be inspected with a system tester (Lipe Release Check, Vermont Calibration, etc.). However the system does not have to be inspected every time it goes out.
When a rental system is inspected it is adjusted at a release setting. These settings should be considered as a part of your inventory. Like all rental units the fewer the gradients the easier they will be to manage. The number of adjustment grades depends on the quality of the equipment and the type of customer. In shops servicing an average adult population it is possible to operate with as few as six grades. Care must be taken to insure the adjustment is percise and there is a way to lock the adjustment.
When a customer rents equipment he normally fills out the rental form, selects his boots, picks up some skis and heads for the fitting bench. This is where the problems develop. An underpaid, overly hassled employee must check and, or adjust: (1) forward pressure (2) toe lug height (3) calibration (4) anti shock (5) symmetry. This process takes time and is usually the bottleneck of a rental operation. Occasionally mistakes are made and injuries result.
With a little time and effort these steps can be partially or totally eliminated. The procedure is called a “floating pre-mated system.”
If yesterday a size 9 boot was fit for a 150 cm ski and adjusted for 130 lbs. skier, and if today a different customer requires the same equipment you save time by using the same equipment. If only 50 percent of the time you eliminate the need to place the customer on the fitting bench, the savings will be significent. In order to impliment the procedure the shop must: (1) individually number each pair of skis and boots (2) keep track of what went out the previous day.
There are many ways to individually number each rental unit. Soldering irons and engraving work, but are permanent and time consuming. Surgical tape or stickers covered with a capping material like mylar is better.
For a numbering system, small rental shops only need to include length and an identifying number. Larger shops may want to include rack numbers to facilitate ease of locating each pair of skis and boots.
The key to the floating pre-mated system is a dispatch board. On a sheet of plywood put nails or hooks to represent each pair of skis. Divide the board by ski length or rack position. Make small disks (1″ diameter is plenty) representing each pair of boots. Paint small washers to correspond to the adjustment grades. When a customer rents the equipment place the boot disk and adjustment washer on the appropiate ski hook. The following day when a customer rents boots the dispatcher determines the ski length and calibration required. He then consults the dispatch board. If thought has gone into the storage and numbering of equipment it will only take minutes to give the person a pair of boots and skis which the previous day were fitted, and calibrated for his needs.
Even cases where it is necessary to change the calibration, considerable time is saved.
In operating this procedure the shop manager must remember a few important steps. He must insure the equipment has not been tampered with, (checking with a visual inspection or placing a dab of bathtube caulk on an approiate screw to prevent adjustment). If a system stays mated for an extended period of time it should be inspected. Care must also be taken to insure that the dispatch board is accurately kept and is up to date. The speed that a floating premated system generates should not be sacrificed for equipment that is improperly adjusted or calibrated.
