5 Significant Impacts Of Production Line Downtime
Lost Productivity
Equipment failure and employee injuries have been the main two instances to trigger production line downtime in heavy industry operations. For example, carts can fail over a faulty set of caster wheels. Or, employees can injure themselves while operating a cart. When a set of faulty casters fail during operation, the cart may need to be taken off the line for maintenance. Consequently, this could stop the production flow for the duration of the caster repair. Leaving businesses with an unproductive workflow and lack of factory efficiency.
Production Delays
Downtime can create a lag that can disrupt production schedules and delay customer shipments. Equipment breakdown can prevent scheduled production cycles from starting on time. It's also likely that customers are dependent on your business to help them meet a deadline for their company's project. In that case, missing a delivery schedule can affect revenue and strain customer relationships. You should seek to improve manufacturing productivity and limit production delays in order to acquire cost savings in manufacturing.
Lost Customer Confidence
Delayed shipments can strain customer relations from wanting to pursue repeat business. Especially, when customers have business deadlines to meet. Inability to deliver critical products to customers on time can lead them to lose faith. Once customers see a company as unreliable, it can be very difficult to undo the perception. If customers cannot afford to wait, they may be motivated to take their business to your competition.
Lost Revenue
Downtime is a key principle in lean manufacturing and can be costly. Productivity and profits go hand-in-hand for any thriving business. A loss of production will cost businesses money to rectify issues and slow money from coming in. If your company's downtime is holding a customer from their deadline, they may cancel their order altogether. Downtime might leave your customer no choice but to do business with your competitor. Implementing a system of factory efficiency that reduces downtime would be a considered an ROI in manufacturing as it would ultimately limit lost revenue.
Lost Business To Competitors
Losing customers to competitors can cost you more than a lost sale. Your company's reputation and customer perception are also at stake. It also doesn't help your business look any better if your competition is available to do business when you're not. Don't let downtime take your business down.
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