The Hidden Cost of Downtime in UK Manufacturing
Unplanned production stoppages are hitting UK manufacturers hard. In the automotive sector alone, a single hour of downtime could cost up to £2 million, with 20–25 such events per month lasting around 3–4 hours each. This isn’t limited to the automotive industry, either. Food processors can lose up to £25,000 per stoppage, racking up hundreds of hours of lost productivity every year. These eye-watering statistics come from research into the true cost of manufacturing downtime by IDS-INDATA.
Across sectors, over 80% of industrial businesses in the UK and Europe have experienced unplanned downtime in the last three years. These incidents go beyond just immediate financial hits. When you consider emergency repair costs, delays, overtime, and even reputational damage when customer deadlines are missed, the consequences can be catastrophic.
One of the top culprits? Electrical equipment failure, often triggered by overheating, dust ingress, or fluctuations in temperature. In hostile industrial environments, even minor issues like blocked fans or unfiltered air can spiral into major system failures.
Why Invest in Regular Electrical Maintenance?
The only way to manage optimum performance and ensure the longevity of your electrical systems is through a regular programme of professional service and maintenance.
Some of the benefits of regular maintenance include:
- Improved Efficiency: it keeps systems running at peak performance, enhancing productivity and reducing energy consumption
- Avoiding Downtime: it identifies issues and ‘hidden’ wear and tear issues early, helping to prevent unexpected system failures, and ensuring continuous production line operations. For example, removing dust and dirt around the cooling unit heat exchanger
- Cost Savings: it reduces the risk of more expensive repairs by identifying and addressing issues before you get to the point of critical systems failure. For example, major electrical failure due to overheated componentry
- Value Retention: it maintains the value of your system by addressing wear and tear proactively
Overall, regular professional maintenance supports safe, efficient, and cost-effective system operation.
However, the current labour shortages and skill gaps in manufacturing will inevitably impact on in-house response times for maintenance and repairs. This will worsen when you remember that August is one of the peak periods for planned maintenance in the automotive and heavy machinery sectors. Because of this, it’s almost certain that maintenance checks will coincide with workforce holidays and other production requirements such as retooling, which can only increase the pressures on the company’s service engineering teams.
Rittal 360° Service
The comprehensive services we offer under our "360° Service" programme, helps ensure your business benefits in full from the reliability, quality, efficiency, and tailored solutions that you expect from Rittal products.
We have a team of specialist service engineers who will act as an extension to your team, thereby freeing them up to work on other jobs that add value to your business.
Our maintenance programmes are also very competitively priced. We regularly price-check our services, which are typically cheaper even than local trades!
Our 360o Service includes:
- Assembly, Installation, and Commissioning: our engineers will set-up your infrastructure, as well as provide detailed commissioning logs and operator training
- Transparent System Efficiency Checks: no-one wants to pay more than they must for energy. As part of a regular maintenance schedule, we run comprehensive analyses across all the operating data from your units using our proprietary diagnostic software. We share the results with you and offer advice based on energy savings analyses
- Professional Maintenance and Inspections: we will ensure you are able to maintain optimum system uptime (as well as value retention)
- Fast Diagnostics Through Digital Tools: our Scan & Service App uses QR codes to give you quick and easy spare parts management, initial diagnostics, and service notifications.
- Technical Support & Troubleshooting: we provide 24/7 nationwide support 365 days/year, with fast response times (aligned with service agreements) from certified Rittal service technicians and partners
- Fast Efficient Repairs: we know our products better than anyone! Our technicians are trained in Germany to deliver fast, effective and professional repairs using Rittal original spare parts, to ensure operational safety and productivity
- Tailored Service Agreements: we provide tailored, customised agreements covering maintenance, warranty extensions, and the stocking of spare parts, in order to minimise your downtime and reduce unexpected cost
- Original Spare Parts: perhaps not surprisingly, we have high constant stock availability of manufacturer-certified spare parts customised to the individual unit and with 100% accuracy of fit and reliability thanks to global Rittal standards
- Equipment Upgrades & Modernisation: where appropriate, we offer recommendations on modernising equipment to help minimise your costs through improved efficiency and reduced energy consumption
- Reduced Risk of Repair Costs: companies who are signed up to a regular programme of maintenance benefit from a warranty extension of up to 5 years
Final Thoughts
No business wants to be faced with high unexpected costs caused by equipment failure.
Sadly, industrial environments are hostile spaces for electrical equipment; their components don’t react well to high levels of moisture, dust, and heat in the atmosphere. This sensitivity will affect plant efficiency and will ultimately lower output and profitability.
Our 360° Service programme offers you comprehensive and robust support to maintain your production line efficiencies, reliability, and minimise costs, supported by our global network of engineers and digital tools.
