Temporary power generation supplier Aggreko, an official sponsor at this year’s Manufacturing Indaba being held at the Sandton Convention Centre, in October, states that climate change is a hot topic in today’s world – and for good reason.

With the last decade reported as the warmest on record, climate change is beginning to affect the manufacturing industry “in a big way”.

As a result, manufacturing businesses have had to turn to rental solutions to cope with potential major impediments – such as clients’ equipment’s sensitivity to higher temperatures; the location, size and age of their manufacturing plants; unexpected weather patterns; or heightened product demand cycles.

This means that manufacturing companies must be ready for anything when it comes to production – or anything that could get in the way of meeting targets, notes Agrekko.

However, while climate change creates challenges, Aggreko suggests that warming ambient temperatures for air and water can also create unforeseen opportunities for manufacturers from emerging markets to introduce brand new products.

“And it’s these opportunities that manufacturers need to seize not only to keep up with demands, in spite of climate change, but also to outsmart their competitors and stay one step ahead in the race to the top.”

Therefore, the company states that it is even more important for facilities to maintain or increase manufacturers’ output to keep up with the rising demand that these additional opportunities bring.

Aggreko says it can be a struggle to set up permanent, scalable and flexible solutions for such demands.

“That’s where modular, temporary rental solutions can help, allowing businesses to keep up with demand and scale up and down as they need in client’s day-to-day operations.”

Three Key Benefits

Aggreko highlights the three major advantages of choosing rental solutions over permanent equipment.

The first key benefit of using supplemental rental solutions for industrial cooling is that it helps overcome seasonal limitations.

“As the planet is heating up, the need for cooling to supplement manufacturing processes is more vital than ever before.”

Pre-existing equipment, such as chillers, cooling towers and air compressors, might be decades old, and likely was not built with high ambient temperatures in mind.

As a result, the equipment can be impacted on and strained by high heat and humidity, especially in the summer months.

As such, when summer temperatures reach all-time highs, refrigeration and air handling systems struggle to maintain the cooling capacities needed to keep up with production demands.

“But rather than manufacturers reducing production or pushing equipment to its limits, risking costly failures, a better option exists; using temporary supplemental utilities like modular cooling systems to beat the heat of the season.”

The second benefit sees clients keeping up with new trends and consumer demands.

Aggreko points out that nobody likes missing out on the “latest big thing” – regardless of the industry.

Another advantage of using temporary rental solutions in the manufacturing industry is that companies can continue to stay agile enough to implement the latest trends, while keeping up with consumer demands.

“For instance, a client might spot a new trend in its industry and want to take advantage of the opportunity before competitors are even aware of it.”

Temporary supplemental power would enable clients to open new lines of production quickly, and gain that all-important head start on other manufacturers in the same industry.

Supplemental utilities also help clients avoid the possibility of pushing existing equipment beyond its limits.

Under the strain of more strenuous operations, equipment could potentially break down or experience unexpected failures, slowing down production, or at worst, “completely stopping it in its tracks”.

Easily scaling up a client’s current facilities with rental solutions is, therefore, the third benefit Aggreko can offer.

To that end, even without considering seasonal temperature rises and new trends, manufacturers must still recognise that ageing infrastructure may well struggle to keep up with today’s demands and current capacities.

For instance, manufacturers who are expanding their current facilities may need temporary utilities to keep the production processes moving and avoid expensive downtime.

The company points to a large paper manufacturing company which had such an experience when it was facing reliability issues with its existing generator.

To avoid a decline in productivity, it needed a temporary solution that could provide reliable and efficient power.

To ensure a smooth transition and operation, the company chose to use Aggreko’s rental modular thermal generation equipment while its existing generator underwent maintenance.

However, during the maintenance, the company discovered that its current generator was no longer a viable option.

So instead, the client chose to keep the rental generator while a new generator was installed on the site.

Aggreko notes that replacing the previous generator would have been proved extremely challenging – or at least, amount to a very large span of downtime – without the temporary solution.

As such, employing a temporary solution and a rental generator ensured that the company had the flexibility it needed to scale its power generation up or down as and when required, helping the company optimise fuel costs and avoid any production loss in the process.