How Downtime Costs Businesses More Than Generator Maintenance Ever Will

Delaying generator maintenance may save money upfront, but the cost of unexpected downtime, lost productivity, damaged equipment, and operational disruptions can be far more expensive for businesses across every industry.

It may be tempting to delay or minimize generator maintenance. When everything seems to be functioning as it should, it can seem like an unnecessary expense when those same funds may be better allocated elsewhere. And there lies the error. The money saved today will be spent in higher amounts later, when something goes wrong in a poorly maintained machine. This includes not only the higher cost of the repairs themselves, but the operational costs and penalties associated with extended downtime. Across industries such as healthcare, retail, and industrial operations, this can not only cause large-scale financial losses but also threaten human health and safety.

The True Cost of Downtime

Downtime can be broadly defined as any period of time during which operations need to cease in whole or in part due to a loss of power or other technical reasons. This brings with it a myriad of effects beyond the immediate cost of repairs. These include lost revenue, an immediate interruption of sales, services, or production, and labor inefficiency due to the fact that employees must still be paid even though no work can take place. There are also the costs inherent to restarting systems and the potential wasted product. In terms of digital operations, it may even lead to unrecoverable data loss. Even a short outage can thus cause disproportionate losses that may not be recoverable. As a result, the cost of doing nothing in the long term is always higher than preventative maintenance.

Impacts Span Industries

The impacts of power failure can be felt no matter the industry. In healthcare, especially, they can be downright catastrophic and subject to legal and regulatory penalties. Life support systems, refrigeration for critical medicines, and diagnostic equipment all rely on a steady stream of uninterrupted power. It is critical that backup generators not fail when they are needed.

In retail, should power fail, POS systems necessarily go offline, preventing sales while employees and overhead still need to be paid. In certain niches, the loss of refrigeration may also lead to a wasted product, thus incurring additional losses.

In the case of industrial manufacturing settings, power loss leads to a loss of production. Turning the machines back on once the power has been restored may be complex and incur additional expenses. This can also lead to supply chain disruptions, which ripple outward.

Not even office environments are exempt. Computer and server systems rely on delicate chips that are highly sensitive to surges and sudden losses of power. If they do not have an underlying uninterrupted power supply system and generator that enables a safe shutdown in the event of a power loss, it is possible for mission-critical data to become corrupted or lost entirely.

Generator Maintenance As Risk Prevention And ROI

Properly maintaining a generator is the first line of defense that any business has against expensive downtime. The majority of issues that generators may experience occur not due to an inherent manufacturer defect or even necessarily the age of the machine. They occur due to the wear and tear that accumulates when the machine has to work harder than it should when basic maintenance is neglected. Maintenance ensures that the generator will be functional when it is needed, reduces the overall risk of mechanical failure, and improves fuel efficiency (which in itself lowers the cost of running it). The return on investment is indirect, but very real. The small amount of money spent maintaining the generator today pays the dividends in the form of not having to spend far more down the line.

Trust The Experts. Trust GenTech.

At GenTech, we’ve worked with all types of generators for decades and are skilled in all forms of maintenance. Trust the experts, and ensure your machine is there when you need it most.