Are Your Computers Too Slow to Meet the Needs of Your Manufacturing Company?
How often does your computer freeze? How much time do you spend waiting for your system to boot up? How often do you find yourself staring at the blue screen of death?
Advances in the technological environment have transformed the modern workplace. Business operations are running faster and more efficiently than ever. But all this efficiency and speed comes to a crashing halt when your computer slows down. One of the most common complaints that helpline desk agents hear from companies is that their computers are slow.
As a manufacturing company working on slow computers, you’re probably losing a lot more time than you think. According to The Telegraph, companies lose an average of five and a half days of working hours every year because of slow computers.
Why Are Your Computers Slow?
- You Are Running Too Many Applications On The Background: If you have noticed that your computer is running slowly, you may want to check how many applications you are running. Whenever you open a new window or run a program, your operating system allocates RAM space for these running programs. Once your RAM space is full, your computer relocates this space, slowing down your computer’s processing speed.
- Your Network Has Malfunctioned: When businesses have online performance issues, they tend to assume that their computers are to blame. However, before blaming your computer, it is essential to think about when it started acting slow. Does it take longer to boot up? Are your programs not opening up? Does Microsoft Office Word lag when you type? Or are you only experiencing performance hitches when you use a program that requires an internet connection or when you browse the internet? If the latter is the case, then your browser or network is to blame for your performance hitches.
- Your Computer Could Be Infected With A Virus: Typically, the presence of a virus is known through pop-ups, encryption of files, and the ransom demand. However, some viruses run unknowingly in the background collecting useful data like passwords, accounts, usernames, financial, and healthcare data. While it’s normal for an aging computer to slow down over time, if yours becomes slow overnight, there’s a probability that your computer is infected with a malware or virus.
- You Don’t Perform Routine Computer Maintenance: One of the reasons your computers may be running slow is because they may need routine maintenance. In a busy office, it’s quite easy for computer maintenance to be forgotten. This maintenance is essential in ensuring the optimum performance of your computers.
- Your Computer Has Aged: To get optimum performance off your computer, you need to replace it after every five years of use. Computers that have been in use for more than five years will begin to exhibit poor performance since they do not run as efficiently. Older computers lack the processing speed required for today’s brisk business world.
Alternatively, installing new software may be too demanding on your aging computer, further slowing it down.
The value behind a properly functioning computer cannot be underestimated. Slow computers cause downtime, leaving you with seconds, minutes, hours, or even days when you and your employees are unable to work. Working with slow computers can be extremely frustrating to your clients and partners.
How Much Does it Cost Your Manufacturing Business to Run Slow Computers?
According to ServiceMax, out of 82% of companies that have experienced downtime in the past three years, outages have lasted an average of four hours and cost an average of 2 million US dollars. Downtime also lowers your employees’ productivity.
While you experience downtime, you incur the costs of running a manufacturing business without generating revenue since you cannot deliver services to your clients. Additionally, some staff members will divert from their regular duties to help mitigate the problem, reducing productivity.
Downtime = Lower Productivity + Lost Revenue + Cost Of Recovery + Ancillary CostsÂ
Downtime can diminish your company’s reputation and affect your relationship with potential clients and partners and affect your business prospects. All this is because your computers aren’t fast enough to keep up with your manufacturing firm’s needs.
With modern businesses relying on computers more than ever to connect with business partners and clients worldwide, slow computers mean reduced productivity. Unfortunately, it’s normal for computers to slow down over time, as they operate at optimum speed when they are new. However, this does not mean that there is nothing you can do to improve your computer performance.
How Do You Improve Your Computers’ Performance?
If your employees complain of slow computers that are older than five years old, follow the standard troubleshooting tips to help restore optimum performance:
- Close Any Browsers and Programs That You Are Not Using: Check to see which programs run automatically at startup and disable them. This will help improve booting time and make your computer run faster.
- Clear Your Browser’s Data, Including Your History, Cookies, Cached Images, and Files: Deleting this information will help improve your computer’s performance. If this doesn’t fix the problem, then it’s time to upgrade your company’s internet plan. The problem might be that your current network connection is not strong enough to handle your demands.
- Invest in Quality Antivirus and Antispam Programs and Install Them on Your Computers: If you already have these programs, it’s vital to run system-wide antivirus scans to ensure that viruses are not slowing down your computers.
- Run Hard Drive Specialist Software to Scan, Identify and Fix Issues With Your Hard Drive: Also, install the recommended operating system and computer software to improve your computers’ speed.
If your computer is still slow, then it’s time to buy a new one.
The ultimate solution is investing in high-quality hardware. A cheap computer or any hardware is not less expensive in the long run. If you have the right hardware, the ultimate solution is implementing a proactive approach to prevent downtime. You will need to be on the lookout for system issues that may spiral into full-blown outages, improve security measures, and implement backup systems that will help you recover from outages.
Downtime is not something that can be prevented entirely. However, having the right IT support will help lessen its impact.
Rea & Associates is an IT support provider that has been servicing businesses throughout Akron and Ohio.
Talk to us today to get customized IT solutions that will help you recover from downtime, and keep your operations running smoothly.
- Why are your computers running slowly?
- How can I improve my computers’ performance?
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