What does extended downtime mean for a manufacturer?

Manufacturing is by far one of the most important industries in the world, but its success hinges on access to uninterrupted energy. A power outage is devastating for any business, but manufacturers are especially vulnerable to this issue.

To that end, let’s take a look at what downtime can do to such a company.

Wasted time is money lost

When the lights go out and the machines stop humming, one of the first thoughts most manufacturing administrators will have on their minds is how much money is going to be lost. While the Department of Energy has stated that power outages cost the U.S. economy around $150 billion every year, exactly how much your business would lose during such an event is completely up in the air.

“Power outages cost the U.S. economy around $150 billion every year.”

The first area of concern is going to be the overall productivity of your facility. Without power, you don’t have the ability to make the products you’re known for, which obviously translates to decreased profits. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the most important issues at stake here is the cost of having your employees sit on their hands while they wait for the power to come back. It’s nearly impossible to predict how long an outage will last, and your workers will have to stick around to ensure they’re ready to go should you find a solution to the problem. Of course, these people still need to be paid, and this money will buy nothing but boredom from your staff.

Employees still need to be paid during an outage, even if they can’t actually produce anything.

A reputation for reliability will be tarnished

Although lost revenue is a major concern, it pales in comparison to a loss of reputation as a result of a power outage. Customers are fickle, and becoming known as an unreliable vendor that can’t handle its power infrastructure can ruin future opportunities, regardless of if the fault is actually yours. In fact, Manufacturing Global’s Andrew Brown pointed out that “the combined pressures of reliability, capacity, and quality in the supply chain” within manufacturing organizations make this industry particularly open to reputational disruptions.

Therefore, it’s absolutely vital that manufacturers partner with reliable power quality/energy solutions companies to help ensure uptime. Uninterruptible power supplies, or UPS’s, are essential to continued prosperity, but only if you’re working with a trusted vendor that you can contact when life gets difficult. This is one of the reasons why ECS is so committed to continued support following a sale.

With respect to UPS’s, the batteries and the entire UPS unit itself need periodic maintenance, and batteries actually should be replaced every three years. Working with ECS means you have access to trained maintenance experts as well as a sales partner that stays by your side throughout the entire process.

At ECS, we understand how important consistent power is to your company, and we want to help keep your business up and running. Contact us today to find out what a robust UPS solution can do for you.