Equipment Failure -Operation and Financials

Questions that need to be answered:

    • Can you operate food services without electricity? What is the stopping point?
    • What could cause water source to be disrupted?
    • Can septic issues occur?
    • In what situations can you remain open, or in what situations must you close?
    • If an attraction is vandalized, can you operate without it?
    • Is there documentation of employees training on critical equipment?

Some procedures to consider in this chapter include what to do when:

    • Jumping pillow fan goes out
    • Straw maze destroyed by guests over the course of a day
    • The credit card machine is not working or the communication system is down


While some equipment failures are not an immediate danger to guests, the failure of critical systems will affect how you can serve guests and your bottom line.

What to do in the case of outage or failure:

  1. Contact manager on duty as soon as failure or outage is realized.
  2. Implement plans for critical services.
  3. Communicate with customers about activities, events or even possible closure of the farm/event.

To prepare for these situations:

  1. Install back ups for critical services (electricity, computers, credit card machines, registers, internet) Use appropriate resources for installing generators and operating generators.
  2. Have back up equipment plans (tractors, wagons, jumping pillow fans, tents, etc.)
  3. Prepare alternate activities for planned tours and events to reduce financial risk of returning payments.
  4. Train employees in operation of alternative equipment.

 

Next: Chapter 5 Traffic Accident