It is estimated that the largest manufacturers lose about $1 trillion dollars a year because of equipment failures. That is several hundred thousand dollars for each hour of unexpected downtime.
When a machine is supposed to be running and equipment being used and it is not, that is downtime. When machines, and equipment are down, it causes major interruptions in workflow and a loss in production. Planned downtimes are helpful for equipment repair and industrial cleaning. Accidents and equipment failures happen, and when it does and equipment is down, it is important to get it back up and running to cut the losses as quickly as possible.
Unexpected downtime can result in product loss
Food industries face challenges that many other industries do not face. In the food industry, equipment failures and unexpected downtime can result in perishable food product being lost and being lost quickly. Like any other industry, maintenance of the equipment used in food production is one of the keys to keeping the production line going without unplanned downtime.
Incidental spills of food products resulting from equipment failure and accidents can be a bane to the food manufacturer and can be costly.
Incidental spills can occur for many reasons:
- Debris clearing
- Leaking totes, drums, other containers
- Product transfer
- Clogged filtering systems
- Overfilling
- Human interference
To the manufacturer, unexpected downtime is an emergency.
Incidental spills in the food industry may not be hazardous to the environment but it is a loss of product and can shut down the production equipment. To the manufacturer, any unplanned shutdown is an emergency. Depending on the amount of product lost, the spill may be more than the manufacturer can clean up themselves. That is when industrial cleaning experience is needed.
Blackwell’s, Inc., in LaGrange, Georgia has been in the industrial cleaning business since 1982. We have seen and cleaned our share of incidental spills.

