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Taking a safe approach to equipment financing
Upgrading or replacing plant and equipment, and ensuring that it adheres to the required safety standards...

Taking a safe approach to equipment financing

Upgrading or replacing plant and equipment, and ensuring that it adheres to the required safety standards under Australian law, can be both a costly and complex process.

Yet, these often essential upgrades – whether they involve new or existing machinery – don’t necessarily have to be a major burden on cash flow, time or company resources.

Good project planning from the very start is key, and that means putting in place the best financing options and bringing in the right experts to guide you through the minefield of occupational health and safety.

According to Interlease Director Andrew Sutherland and Safety Action Technical Director Michel Moutia, good financial and technical support is a powerful combination in enabling companies to achieve the best outcomes when making what can be a large financial commitment to upgrade or replace their plant and equipment.

“Interlease works with companies to buy or upgrade their equipment on an ongoing basis, sourcing the most cost-effective funding solutions so they don’t have to find the cash straight away and interfere with their working capital,” Mr Sutherland says.

“We can help to finance new equipment, which we would look at doing over its useful life of say five years. More importantly Interlease can also finance the cost of upgrading existing equipment to ensure it meets proper safety standards.

“Access to finance makes it much easier for companies to ensure their equipment is as safe as possible, reducing their overall risk exposure.”

Mr Moutia adds that Occupation Health & Safety laws in Australia carry obligations for designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers, all the way through to employers, that require a risk assessment to be conducted on plant and equipment.

“When you’re looking at costing the whole project you should be factoring in risk assessment at various stages of your project, in particular at the design stage, the pre-commissioning stage, and again prior to full operation,” he says.

“We can support organisations that are designers or installers with the pre-commissioning as well as employers in doing the risk assessments and linking them to the right Australian standards and the safety features their plant and equipment needs to have.

“If resourcing and funding for safety is factored into the whole scope of the upgrade project, and is not treated as an add-on element at the end, owners wont get a nasty surprise if they discover their equipment is exposing them and their workers to potential risks.

“Don’t wait to the last minute to think about safety. Build that into your whole project and get your financing in place to cover the whole scope, including those three key stages of risk assessments.”

Andrew Sutherland – Director