Additional costs in numerous areas

Continuous power supply is vital for safety as well as operational efficiency reasons. Further, where production processes demand a sterile environment, any discontinuity in production jeopardises this and incurs costly consequences:

• Lost production and revenue. A power interruption or dip can ruin an entire production batch, resulting in lost sales. Given the years of investment that precede mass production and the consequent need for an efficient payback, such revenue loss places a significant and avoidable burden on the return on investment. The wasted production creates inevitable delays that can stack up an otherwise smooth running process – not to mention the lack of compliance with health standards, loss of reputation and reduced investor value that can follow.
• Subsequent equipment damage. Replacing or repairing manufacturing equipment is an expensive business. This cost is even greater when contaminated production equipment needs to be cleaned before production can be resumed.
• Staff downtime. During extended production stoppages, employees are often at a standstill while the problem is being resolved. This loss of productivity adds to the overall cost of production losses.
• Additional maintenance and repairs. Carrying out unscheduled maintenance generally incurs expensive emergency time of specialists being brought in at short notice. On top of this, extra quality control procedures usually have to be put in place before production can re-start.
• Lost R&D samples. An extended power interruption can result in the loss of R&D material, such as data or samples stored in refrigerators. The wastage and expense of losing all records or “just” having to redo both causes delays in R&D and increases those costs. Even bigger losses occur when the climate control or HVAC system fails in a distribution centre or warehouse.
• Electrical systems may need to be completely or partially redesigned. The cost of redesigning an electrical system is higher than designing a system from scratch. Both are nevertheless cheaper than the problems they are designed to avoid or resolve.