A major hurdle in the development of quantum technologies is dissipation, which can impede the performance of quantum devices. This raises a natural question: can dissipation in quantum devices be useful? The results of this thesis can be divided broadly into three directions: entanglement production, heat flow and non-Hermitian physics.

We first investigate entanglement production in a quantum thermal machine, establishing a connection between entanglement and heat flow in the steady state, in the form of a thermodynamic witness of entanglement. We then investigate heat rectification in quantum systems, introducing a novel framework to characterise their performance. Finally, we discuss two paradigmatic properties of non-Hermitian systems. First, we demonstrate that non-Hermitian degeneracies can optimise the dynamics of dissipative quantum systems. We then demonstrate how the non-Hermitian property can be utilised to produce Bell states from separable states. To conclude, we give an outlook on future directions of research.