Unplanned downtime is very expensive for any company— and emergency downtime can be disastrous for profits and continued viability. Emergency downtime (when something has gone seriously, catastrophically wrong) can cost five-times as much as downtime for planned maintenance. Clearly, a primary goal for all production processes should be to place a heavy emphasis on reducing downtime as much as possible.
When looking at how to reduce downtime, companies often focus on system design, preventative maintenance, and managing obsolescence. This article adds a fourth essential element to this list: managing the supply chain.
Managing the Supply Chain
An essential part of maximizing equipment uptime involves successfully managing your supply chain. The availability of crucial components is critical to production; not having ready access to these parts is setting your company up for failure.
The supply chain can lead to unplanned downtime because of inventory stock-outs and delayed deliveries. For example, automotive manufacturers, who are under constant pressure to reduce costs, have created supply chains that typically provide less than a singleday supply of parts at the final assembly plant. If the company needs more parts than that, then they are likely to experience a potentially expensive delay, with machinery and workers standing idle while they wait for replacement items to arrive.
Threats to the supply chain can come from a wide range of different sources, including:
- Catastrophic weather events
- Power outages
- Union strikes
- Hackers
- Terrorism
By their very nature, these events are particularly hard to predict and costly to prepare for. When you’re looking to minimize risk in the supply chain, you really need to
create a robust and cost-effective system that covers as many eventualities as you can afford to include.
What Your Company Can Do
There are a number of steps that companies can take to mitigate supply channel disruptions. Many companies look at the feasibility of stocking their own parts—but
stocking carries with it a huge price tag. Money spent on maintaining a large inventory is money that can’t be spent on wages or invested in other parts of the company. Instead, it’s locked up on the shelf.
Most companies, when considering all their options, understand the value of an efficient distribution channel. A well-designed, well-run distribution channel acts as a
buffer against disruption, allowing for a more flexible approach to distribution.
An effective distribution system is able to act proactively, seeing likely problems before they happen and putting contingencies in place. It must also be flexible enough
to react to changes in the market, maintaining a steady flow of parts regardless of the obstacles placed in the way.
For many companies, the ideal solution is to find an experienced, reliable distribution partner with whom to build a solid relationship.
The Partnership Solution
An ideal distribution partner would be:
- Financially sound
- Familiar with your business and its place within the unique requirements of your industry
- Aware of the needs of your customers
- Fully versed in how you operate internally, including your structures and processes
The ideal partner would be able to offer solutions to minimize the risk in the supply chain, which should include, among others:
- Online order management
- Customized inventory management
- Automatic order status updates
- Managed inventory
- Consigned inventory
The expertise required to create an effective and reliable distribution system is not always widely available. The chances that you have a team in-house that understands
the complexities of this process are slim. But the right partner for your company is out there—they can be invaluable in helping to keep your equipment running in a comparatively stress-free process.
At Valin, our aim is to be the people you trust and have confidence in when it comes to maximizing the uptime of your equipment. Our promise is to help you achieve
your goals through a process of listening to your painpoints and then customizing a solution to fit the unique needs of your company. If you’re concerned about
equipment downtime and need a partner to support you, Valin should be your first choice.
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