The impact of COVID-19 on UK industry and manufacturing means a new approach to sourcing processing equipment is required, says Aggreko.
As capex constraints tighten in the wake of the coronavirus’s impact on supply chains, companies are under more strain than ever to ensure their equipment is as efficient as possible. Yet businesses can circumvent financial obstacles and limitations by thinking outside-the-box when it comes to equipment maintenance and purchasing, say the leading temporary power, cooling and heating solutions supplier.
The disruption caused across industry supply chains has been pronounced and prolonged, affecting logistics, workloads and business cashflows, leaving businesses without the capital to upgrade or update their existing equipment and processes. Companies are therefore more reliant on older and less efficient solutions which lead to escalating operational costs due to breakdown-induced disruption. Others may find themselves with permanent installations that are inappropriately sized for currently reduced demand, and also ill-suited to the predicted, pronounced spike in activity predicted when the economy rebounds.
Aggreko’s latest campaign, ‘Hire Efficiency Expectations,’ aims to encourage companies to take an innovative approach to optimising their processes and equipment, so they can do more with less in these testing times.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that industry has been massively disrupted by COVID-19,” says Matt Watson, Manufacturing Specialist at Aggreko. “In this altered business landscape where purchasing permanent installations may no longer be possible, it becomes even more vital to improve process efficiency. By taking an innovation approach to applications and solutions, process, production and operations managers may be surprised by what savings can be achieved.”
A survey of 200 energy managers conducted by Aggreko in 2019 demonstrated the ‘capex crunch’ problem, with 59 per cent of respondents saying their requests for new equipment to reduce energy consumption had been turned down. The company expects this figure to increase post-pandemic, and with 59 per cent of those surveyed also saying they did not use hire to avoid capex restrictions, different perspectives may be needed.
“Industry needs to consider new strategies when it comes to purchasing equipment and improving process efficiency,” says Matt. “By looking at strategic hire as a viable method of financing new installations, companies can avoid the further capex constraints caused by the coronavirus.”
Matt concludes: “Equipment rental gives businesses a route out of being reliant on ageing, unreliable installations that provide diminishing returns. Additionally, hired solutions are ideally placed to guard against the volatility inflicted by the pandemic. The modular and scalable nature of such solutions allows businesses to react quicker to changing circumstances and the peaks and troughs of demand, while maintaining excellent process efficiency throughout.”
For more information on how to improve efficiency in the food and beverage industry following the COVID-19 pandemic as part of Aggreko’s latest ‘Hire Efficiency Expectations’ campaign, visit: https://www.aggreko.com/en-gb/news/2020/noeur-articles/hire-efficiency-blog-manufacturing
