Commercial Food Equipment Service Association:
Foodservice – A solid career choice
By Carla Strickland, Executive Director CFESACommercial Food Equipment Service Association (CFESA) is a not-for-profit trade association, which was founded in 1963. We are the only association that represents foodservice equipment repair companies that specialize in commercial cooking and refrigeration equipment.
These companies not only provide repair and service, but also offer OEM replacement parts, preventative maintenance and installation service. We are the only trade association that provides training and technician certification to members’ technicians, as well as training to their technical and managerial staff. We certify technicians on electric, gas, steam and refrigeration.
Benefits of using a CFESA company
As an end user, you should always use a CFESA member service company. Why? On large cooking equipment, approximately 85 percent of all warranty calls within the first year are due to improper installation of equipment. CFESA members are your first choice for proper installation according to the manufacturer guidelines. CFESA member companies, who provide installation services, establish relationships with foodservice consultants thereby making a significant contribution to the overall layout and design of a kitchen, which is of benefit to the restaurateur during the bidding process.
In addition, our members employ CFESA Certified Technicians. There are four designations of CFESA Certified Technicians: Gas, Electric, Steam and Refrigeration. A Master Certified Technician has passed the examinations in at least three of these four categories. We have also created the CFESA Certified Company designation. The purpose of the CFESA Certified Company program is to provide a benchmark for all service companies, regardless of size, to raise the bar of quality and professionalism throughout the service industry. It measures the percentage of CFESA Certified Technicians, CFESA Certified Master Technicians and many other quality, service and delivery factors. Among those factors are education of all employees, testimonials from customers and channel partners, replacement parts inventory and customer service. This certified designation distinguishes companies who excel. It is an excellent way to confirm your belief that a local service agency will be a strong business partner.
Promoting foodservice careers
Based on the needs of the membership, driving new personnel into the foodservice industry has been a major priority for our Board of Directors. The first endeavor involved the production of the DVD “Foodservice Careers – A Solid Choice.” The DVD was designed to promote the foodservice industry as a whole, regardless of which area you chose, e.g. service technician, consultant, representative, etc.
Last year, we set out to educate the foodservice industry, including end-user customers, on the value of using CFESA Certified Technicians and CFESA Certified Companies. Our target market is any service company with the desire to improve their professionalism, performance, and bottom line results through education and training. We feel that we have met this goal with our growth in membership over the past few years. CFESA now represents more than 500 companies in the service industry, covering the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Bermuda and Australia.
This past January, the CFESA Board of Directors approved the production of technical training manuals to be used by vocational schools and technical colleges. We now have three separate training modules available – basic electric, basic gas and basic steam repair for commercial cooking equipment. Each separate training course includes all necessary teaching aids; such as labs, discussion points, exercises, tests and test answers.
In addition to the teaching aids, each course covers safety, testing equipment, reading diagrams, troubleshooting, parts replacement and problem reporting. The entire course, electric, gas and steam, is approximately 200 hours of study or a six-week endeavor. Our current and future focus is to reach all vocational schools and technical colleges in the US in an effort to drive potential technicians into the foodservice repair industry. We can guarantee an interview, anywhere in the country, for someone successfully taking and passing this training course.
View Digital Corporate Profile of Commercial Food in Food and Drink Digital June 2009