The Coffee Technician's Mantra
/By HYLAN JOSEPH
In my day-to-day you’ll often find me on the phone helping techs in the field figure out what’s going on with the piece of equipment they’re in front of. We’ve all been there. After having dealt with traffic, circling the block several times looking for parking, only to be confronted by a frustrated café manager who needs their business-critical piece of equipment back in operation so they can get back to bringing in the monies. In those types of situations, it can often be a challenge to take a step back, gather information, and work toward sussing out the root cause.
It’s times like these where having a mantra comes in handy. With a mantra you can reset the mind to be ready for the task at hand. The framework I often fall back on is:
Symptom
Systems
Isolate
Verify
With this admittedly high-level categorization of the troubleshooting process one can systematically work through a myriad of situations and arrive at a high confidence diagnosis of the problem.
Let’s dive into each section in order to “fill in the blanks”.
Symptom
Start here with an aim to translating and qualifying the information relayed by the customer. I generally prefer basic observations. “The machine was doing…” or “sometimes the machine does this…”. Often the trick is figuring out what crucial detail hasn’t been relayed, versus only working with the information presented. Once you’ve ‘filtered” the information you can begin to narrow down the possible suspects.
Systems
Based on the information provided above you can begin to identify the various systems that regulate that function(s) within the machine. Is steam pouring out the vent line (heater circuit?) Is the equipment dispensing the incorrect amount of water (metering or dispense control circuitry?)
Isolate
Once you’ve focused on a specific system, identify or picture the various elements that make up the system. Are you able to isolate them with the equipment in the state it’s currently in? By this, I mean can you activate any of system parts using the equipment in a different way? For example, using a manual brew switch versus a keypad to activate a group valve.
Measure
Once you’ve focused on a specific component it’s time to get out the meter and begin measuring or observing. Is the component getting the required signal/voltage to do its job? Does water flow when/where it should? Is the component able to perform the task it was designed to perform? Is the resistance within spec, do you have continuity when you should, and does continuity stop when it ought?
Most of the time you will arrive at the root, and even if you can’t 100% verify the source, you certainly will have eliminated many possible components while working through this process.
Your mantra might be completely different, but by sticking to a consistent thought process, while your mind is calm and focused, you’ll be more likely to “reset” at the start of a stressful situation and execute to the best of your abilities.