Downtime, or dead time, can cause businesses to lose money due to factors beyond their control. Employers can reduce downtime by investing in backup generators, reducing their workforce, diversifying employee skills, and improving equipment.
Every good business knows that one way to lose money on a regular basis is to pay employees who can’t do anything due to factors beyond their control. This is called downtime, downtime, or dead time, and it can occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the occurrence is random and unlikely to happen often, such as if a sudden power outage hits the workplace and no one can turn on a computer. Other times, the way employers structure work or schedule employees results in some downtime, and that’s simply not profitable.
Downtime from accidental occurrences like a power outage affects most businesses at one point or another. It can be especially difficult if natural disasters strike and power isn’t restored for days. Some employers contract with employees to continue paying them in such cases, and this leads to huge downtime. Not only can’t the company earn money during this time, but it’s losing it to employees who can’t work. Many employers feel it is unfair to deprive employees of income during these times, which is of course admirable, if costly.
In business planning, employers need to consider whether things like power outages are more than a random occurrence. If they occur frequently, such as from frequent storms, a business may decide to make investments to reduce downtime. For example, having a backup generator could be one way to keep a business running and employees working. That investment could be less expensive than the money lost when everyone has to go home instead of finishing their work.
There are ways companies work to reduce downtime, or they can look into their practices and determine if they have too much. Too many employees can cause some employees to be idle, since there are more than enough people to handle the business workload. Companies may decide to reduce their workforce or move some employees from one department to another where there are too few collaborators.
In manufacturing, a major cause of downtime comes from the use of machines, although this can be true in companies with poor computer systems. Having to wait for a machine to finish its process can result in hours of downtime for people like engineers and manufacturing technicians. Such problems are exacerbated if the machines used to produce materials are known to break down. When they do, workers may be waiting hours with nothing to do, contributing to huge increases in indirect production costs.
There may be ways to address these issues and reduce downtime. Diversifying employee skills so they have other jobs they can complete while waiting for a machine to finish its process is one approach. Investing in better equipment or putting employees to work on improving current equipment can be worthwhile. Clear attention to the work process schedule of machines and workers is also important to minimize downtime.
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