Downtime Becomes Her

In this industry, nothing sends shivers down our spine quite like unplanned downtime. It can turn a perfectly productive day into a scene straight out of a horror movie. Cue the lost production, late shipments, disgruntled customers, and a team so stressed that they might turn into zombies. Oh darling, the nightmare doesn’t end there. But what if we told you we had a potion – drink it and you’ll never experience even a day of unplanned downtime. Don’t drink it, and watch your adhesive machines work themselves until they crumble to pieces. The choice is yours.

Alright, we’re not actually offering you an eternal uptime potion (tragic, we know), but wouldn’t that be fabulous? Instead, we’ve got something almost as good: data. Well, it could be worse.

This is manufacturing’s ultimate cruelty.

According to MaintainX’s The State of Industrial Maintenance 2024, 85% of respondents reported fewer unplanned downtime incidents. Sounds like a win, right? Hold on, darling—keep reading. Even with fewer outages, 29.5% said the disruptions they are having pack a much bigger punch. And get this: the average cost of one hour of unplanned downtime in 2024 is a whopping $25K. Yep, you heard that right—$25,000 per hour per facility. And if you’re a large organization? Those costs can skyrocket to over $500K. Need a second to collect your jaw from the floor? Same here.

So, why the jaw-dropping unplanned downtime costs? Darling, it’s a cocktail of rushed parts, scrapped production, overtime pay, and those oh-so-charming emergency tech support callouts. And don’t even get me started on the stress it dumps on your facilities team—it’s practically fatal! Blame it on inflation, post-pandemic supply chain madness, and rising labor costs. It’s the new ‘normal,’ and we’re all living it—tragically, of course.

The brutal truth? Sure, unplanned downtime is happening less often, but the skyrocketing cost per incident is stealing the spotlight, making those small victories feel like a distant memory.

She was a facility disruptor. She was costly. And she was BAD for productivity.

Now that we’ve hit you with the bad news, let’s turn this around a bit, shall we? While we can’t promise you’ll never face unplanned downtime (remember that magic potion we talked about? Yeah, still working on that one), there are ways to dramatically reduce the odds at your facility. And it all starts with a little thing called preventative maintenance.

Machines are a lot like us—minus the beauty sleep, snacks, and coffee breaks. But just like us, they need to stay clean, get regular check-ups, and swap out the worn-out bits before they completely unravel. It’s all part of the maintenance dance that keeps them running like a well-oiled… well, machine.

But when preventative maintenance gets ignored? Oh honey, your machine is heading straight into workaholic territory—hello burnout. For humans, that means stress. For machines? It’s breakdowns, failures, and a string of glitches you don’t want to meet. At Chicago Glue & Machine, we call this a full-blown ‘glue-mergency.’ Sure, you can slap a band-aid on it for a while, but keep going down that road, and your machine’s heading straight for the morgue—and believe me, it will be FURIOUS.

En garde, unplanned downtime!

Let’s keep the good news going – Chicago Glue & Machine has your back with a preventative maintenance program custom-built for your facility and equipment! We start by doing a full audit to get the lay of the land, then craft a game plan to stop issues with your adhesives and equipment before they even think about popping up. Plus, our regular on-site maintenance is scheduled during your downtime (because we know you’ve got better things to do). So, let’s keep your machines humming on the days they’re supposed to and avoid any surprise ‘glue-mergencies’!

…your back! We have got your back!

Unplanned downtime doesn’t have to be your nightmare. Contact Chicago Glue & Machine to schedule an audit and get a plan together to keep your machines from costing you time and money. Ready to get started? Call us at (800)419-GLUE or visit our website and fill out this form.