What are the risks of not calibrating your test and measurement equipment on time?

Having an instrument that is not properly calibrated can affect all the aspects of your business, right from the quality of work that you do to your productivity and safety. I’m sure that all of these factors tend to affect your company’s performance which makes them all the more important to be calibrated.

Instrument calibration is a technique that involves the comparison between the measurements of a test instrument against those taken by a standard device with a known accuracy. Instrument calibration is very important in terms of quality assurance and compliance in various different industries such as the food and beverage industry whereby strict rules are passed. Don’t take instrument calibration too lightly as it can hold several risks for the person using the instrument as well as to your company where it is in use.

Here are 5 Risks of Not Calibrating Your Instruments on Time:

1. Quality of Your Products Can be Affected in the Manufacturing or Process Industry

If you are unable to take accurate measurements, then it is bound to affect your manufacturing or production processes whereby you will face problems in term of the quality of your finished products. Food products and plastic casings are such examples of poor quality due to the use of uncalibrated equipment such as bad temperature regulation.

2. Food Quality Can Affect the Health of the Consumers

Not calibrating equipment that controls the temperature in storage areas with perishables is not safe as it can lead to your perishable products spoiling which in turn can lead to an increased risk of illness for your consumers due to your food becoming spoilt. This can also lead to your company incurring unnecessary losses. Using uncalibrated equipment to monitor the adequate temperature in a food or pharmaceutical storage unit will end up spoiling perishable items in your storage and put your customers' health at risk.

3. Uncalibrated Instruments Can Cause Harm to Other Equipment and Employees

Using uncalibrated equipment will lead to increased downtime and unexpected failures as it can affect and damage other parts of your machinery and lead to wastage which can be pretty expensive for your business as well as risky for your employees to operate the uncalibrated work equipment.

4. Increases Your Overall Cost and Maintenance

Having poorly calibrated equipment can lead to a wastage of your resources, time and manpower as well as spare parts in your company. Regular maintenance can reduce downtime, increase reliability as well as help in saving energy as your equipment is performing optimally due to regular calibration. Regular calibration of your equipment will help you save energy and reduce your maintenance costs while getting optimal performance out of your equipment.

5. Unsatisfied Customers

You are bound to get some flak for producing sub-standard products from unhappy customers due to your equipment not operating in an optimal manner which is caused by lack of timely calibration services. Don’t let this happen as your customers won’t wait too long before shifting to another replacement product.

The unfortunate truth is that bad news tends to spread a lot faster than good news, this can tarnish your company’s reputation which you have put in a lot of time and effort to establish and maintain. Badly calibrated equipment can affect the quality of your products and dent your reputation and affect your business profits so take the necessary precautions and conduct your instrument calibrations in time.