Asset Health: Critical to Business Efficiency

Understanding the impact of asset health on your overall power consumption can help you shape processes, identify the early signs of issues, take corrective action, and lower costs.

Why the importance of Asset Health?

For small and medium businesses, ensuring that your operations are running efficiently is crucial to your success. However, many business owners may overlook the impact of asset health on their overall business efficiency. The condition of your assets – including equipment, machinery, and other assets – can have a significant impact on your business’s productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

In this article, we will explore the importance of equipment health to SMEs and the benefits of energy audits for improving asset health. We will also provide some energy-saving tips specifically tailored for SMEs in Queensland, Australia.

Impact of Asset Health on Business Efficiency

Asset health (or equipment health) refers to the overall condition and performance of your assets, such as your equipment, machinery, and potential other material assets. Maintaining the health of your assets is essential for ensuring your business operates smoothly and efficiently without unexpected breakdowns. Here are some ways that asset health can impact your business efficiency:

Reduced Downtime

When your assets are in poor health, they are more likely to break down or not perform as required, leading to costly downtime and production delays. Downtime can have a significant impact on your business, causing lost revenue and missed deadlines that might not be recoverable. By maintaining the health of your assets, you can reduce the likelihood of equipment failure and minimise downtime.

Improved Productivity

Healthy assets also contribute to improved productivity. When your equipment is running efficiently, you can complete tasks more quickly and effectively, leading to increased output and improved efficiency. The operator of the machine will be working with more joy also, providing other business advantages.

Lower Maintenance Costs

Maintaining the health of your assets can also help to reduce maintenance costs. Regular maintenance and inspections can help to identify and address issues early on, preventing more costly repairs in the future. It also allows for planned maintenance, where work on machinery happens when it is chosen. 

Benefits of Energy Audits for Asset Health

Energy audits are an excellent tool for identifying and improving overall asset health if correctly implemented. An energy audit is a comprehensive assessment of your energy usage and equipment performance, designed to identify areas of improvement and energy-saving opportunities. Here are some ways that energy audits can benefit asset health:

Identification of Energy-Saving Opportunities

Energy audits can help to identify energy-saving opportunities that can help to improve the operating cost of your business. By identifying areas where you can reduce energy consumption, safe money with the potential extend the life of your equipment in some cases.

Reduced Energy Consumption

By implementing the energy-saving opportunities identified in an energy audit, you can significantly reduce your energy consumption. Lower energy consumption will help your business bottom line and is great for the planet. It also helps with making the work environment better. 

Improved Equipment Performance:

Energy audits can also help to identify areas where your equipment is underperforming or not operating as well as it should. By identifying and addressing these issues, you can improve the health and performance of your assets, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.

Equipment Health Considerations for Businesses in Queensland

Queensland has a unique energy landscape, with a diverse mix of energy sources, including solar and other renewables. For SMEs in Queensland, there are several energy-saving opportunities that can help to improve the health of their assets:

Solar Energy

Queensland is blessed with abundant sunshine, for long periods of the day, making it an excellent location for solar energy. Installing solar panels on your business premises can help to reduce your energy consumption and lower your energy costs. There are grands available for this from the government. It is important here that the right solar system is installed for your business that means not the cheapest or the biggest that could fit on the roof.

Energy-Efficient Lighting

Upgrading to energy-efficient lighting, such as LED lighting, is an excellent way to reduce energy consumption and improve wellbeing of staff. LED lighting lasts longer and consumes less energy than traditional lighting, is usually a better source of light, reducing maintenance costs and energy bills.

Power Quality and Power Factor Correction

When it comes to equipment health and equipment efficiency two other important elements at play are power quality and power factor.

Power factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is being converted into useful work output in your facility. In an ideal scenario, the power factor would be 1, meaning all the electrical power drawn from the grid is being used effectively. However, in reality, most electrical systems have a power factor below 1. A low power factor means that your electrical system is drawing more apparent power (measured in kVA) from the grid than it actually needs to perform the required work (measured in kW). This increased apparent power not only results in higher peak demand charges but can also lead to additional costs due to inefficiencies and potential penalties from the energy provider.

Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Systems Optimisation

Optimising and maintaining your Air Conditioning and refrigeration system can also help to improve the efficiency of your business. By ensuring that your system is running efficiently, you can reduce energy consumption and extend the life of your Air Conditioning and refrigeration equipment

Maintaining equipment Health 

Equipment health is critical to the success of SMEs. By maintaining the health of your equipment, you can improve productivity, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance costs. Energy audits are an excellent tool for identifying energy savings and potentially improving equipment health by identifying energy-saving opportunities and improving equipment performance. 

In addition, implementing energy-saving measures, such as solar power, energy-efficient lighting, power factor correction and energy quality, air conditioning and refrigeration system optimisation, can help to improve the health of your assets and reduce energy consumption. By prioritising asset health and energy efficiency, SMEs in Queensland can improve their bottom line and contribute to a more sustainable future.

If you’re in need of an energy audit, or just want to understand where to start, contact our team today for an obligation free discussion.