“I don’t know what’s going on with the economy. I’m just going to wait and see what happens.” “I think we better wait until after the presidential election before making any big changes.” “The rising cost of diesel is killing us. We can’t make any changes until the price goes down.” “It’s the wrong time of the year… we need to wait until next fall.”

These are just some of the excuses I hear this year from company owners and managers stating why they feel that they need to hold off on making needed improvements to their manufacturing facilities. So then when is the best time to make updates to your ice manufacturing and/or processing systems? The best answer is usually now. We have all heard the expression, “No time like the present”. Well there is truth to that old standard. If you are considering updates to your facility, the changes you have been thinking about are most likely already past due. Why is this? Because people don’t like change and typically hold off until the required change is at the state of an emergency.

Recognizing the need for change is important, but results don’t happen on their own, you need to take action. Don’t wait for the time to be perfect, because it won’t. And don’t blame outside factors. Excuses like the economy and forthcoming elections have been shown, year after year, to have little effect on the packaged ice industry. Let’s face it, the only real outside factor that effects our industry is weather. And since we have problems predicting weather more than a day or two in advance, we can not allow future weather to dictate our plans. If you have been thinking about replacing worn out equipment or rebuilding your operations to improve productivity, give AIS a call. We would be happy to discuss your ideas and help to determine the best timeframe and plan of action to making theses changes a reality. We draw upon our equipment and systems knowledge, together with our project expertise and field experiences, to make your change as smooth as possible no matter what time of the year that change is made.