Protecting Your Manufacturing Facility from the Harsh Realities of Bad Weather

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Figure 1: In the event of major storm damage, facility operations can be impacted for minutes, hours, days, or even weeks. It’s important to prepare your workforce, and your facility, for the harsh effects of Mother Nature. (Source: Heather Emond on Unsplash)It is thought that Benjamin Franklin uttered the words, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." While that idiom may have seemed true in his time, it can now be supposed that a third element could be added to that list: bad weather.

No matter where one lives or works, chances are we’ve all had to deal with the lasting impacts of poor weather conditions. Hurricanes, major storms, earthquakes, brownouts, heat waves, you name it . . . and while we often think about the crippling effects as they relate to our personal lives and homes, major weather events tend to have a much larger impact on businesses. Consider the massive cost implications if a factory floor has to shut down due to a power outage. Or, think about what happens when an organization’s workforce is severely impaired because roads are closed. There are about a million different scenarios to ponder if you’re looking at the bottom line of a corporation’s P&L statement, and many of those situations simply cannot be avoided due to the very nature of, well, Mother Nature.

While it’s impossible to predict when the next force of nature will impact operations, there are certainly steps to take now to make sure you’re better prepared.

First, while you may never have to enact your back-up plans, no organization ever regretted spending time creating contingency plans in the event that emergency struck their operations. Encourage all operations staff to put plans in place for every possible emergency situation, weather-related or otherwise. Consider what happens if employees can’t get to your location. Think about whether / how employees will be paid if the company has to shut down for a number of days. There are many factors to think through in the event of an emergency; it’s prudent to work through all scenarios so your organization is as prepared as possible.

Second, consider temporarily moving operations to another facility if a weather event prohibits operations elsewhere. Many organizations have ancillary facilities that operate away from a company’s headquarters that can serve as a good back-up command center in a pinch. Take into account all of the necessary functions that your HQ performs now, and then determine if there’s an easy way to temporarily integrate those functions in a secondary facility, if need be.

Also, prepare employees for loss of communications channels and alert them of back-up communications plans and expectations should you need to engage them. If power goes down, chances are computers and Wi-Fi do too, so perhaps investing in an automated text messaging system is in your company’s best interest. The same goes for vendors or outside operators who may also need to be aware of any company outages.

Figure 2: General Electric's TR7000 Series of Surge Protective Devices with Enhanced Thermal Protection. (Source: General Electric)Lastly, for those operating manufacturing facilities, it also pays to become more aware of the parts and components that can help mitigate the lasting impacts of harsh weather conditions. For instance, Schneider Electric offers the SURGELOGIC TVSS / Square D family of surge protection devices (SPDs) that allows customers to select the precise level of protection they require—not too much, as that would be overly costly, and not too little, as that could create surge situations that might take down the entire factory floor. Likewise, Eaton Corporation offers a comprehensive line of SPDs to help reduce costly downtime and protect sensitive electronic equipment against the damaging effects of transients caused by utility switching, lightning and internal load switching. Similarly, General Electric offers SPDs such as the TR Wallmount Series, which provides advanced monitoring, disconnect and enclosure options and was designed to handle the highest levels of surge activity. These units are ideal for both new and retrofit applications where performance cannot be compromised.

Fortunately, for most major weather-related conditions that could impact business operations, we know in advance what is coming and we have time to prepare our workforce and our facilities. Don’t be caught off-guard by not preparing your business with contingency plans and surge protection that will help to lessen the amount of time your operations are down.