At General Kinematics, we know downtime can be scary — especially if you haven’t prepared for it. Most facility and operations managers think they’ll catch a problem in time, but for thousands of facilities, the frightening reality is they don’t.
Downtime Nightmares
Downtime can cost you more than you think and happen more than you expect. Some studies found that facilities experienced up to 800 hours of downtime annually and that almost every factory loses at least 5% of its productivity to downtime. Some may even lose as much as 20%. Those are some pretty scary numbers.
Even worse, studies show that 20% of estimated downtime costs are 200-300% shy of the actual cost. In just one example of total downtime cost (TDC), an automotive manufacturer may lose as much as $22,000 per minute! That works out to $1.3 million per month. Could you afford that kind of downtime?
How does downtime snowball into such high TDC?
- Employees are paid for downtime.
- Repair crews may be needed.
- New parts could be needed to fix your equipment.
- Equipment may need to be replaced entirely.
- The rest of the facility needs to keep running.
The list grows with the unique needs of each site.
Downtime Can Be Downright Scary
Though you can likely see the instantaneous repercussions of downtime, there are some that may take some time to surface. For one, downtime can be bad publicity for your business, as late delivery to customers can ruin relationships and even lose contracts.
All of these losses prove that it is so important to not only maintain your equipment but make sure the equipment that you are using can stand the test of time (and the potentially abrasive nature of your product).
General Kinematics doesn’t want downtime to scare you — or keep you up at night. We keep this in mind with every piece of equipment that we build and every part we sell. By using only the highest quality materials, our engineering and application knowledge ensures a longer service life for every GK unit.
Prevent Scares, Increase Uptime
It is important to have a plan in place to get up and running as soon as a potential downtime risk hits. It’s also important to practice this plan multiple times a year to make sure that everyone knows what to do when downtime strikes.
And when downtime happens, make sure to collect the data. It is very important to know your limits and financially strategize in the case of downtime. It’s also important to evaluate how a particular set of equipment performs, and if reinvesting that money into a new system might make more financial sense in the long run. It is not just the salaries of your employees that you need to take into account; it’s all of the production costs that are lost during downtime.
At General Kinematics, we take multiple steps to ensure that downtime is not an issue for our customers. There are multiple maintenance classes we offer to keep you up on the latest preventative maintenance strategies for your equipment. Our field service team is also here to offer the best service and support. When you purchase equipment from GK, each unit comes with a list of critical spares to have on hand to prevent downtime scares.
Don’t let downtime keep you up at night. Keep the lights on with General Kinematics. Contact us today to see how we can help you get out of the downtime dark.
