Downtime Reduction
Find out why your machines stop, and fix the causes that cost the most.
Most plants know downtime is a problem but can't say exactly where it comes from. We capture why equipment stops, put a dollar value on each cause, and build the system that helps your team fix the biggest ones first.
Free 30-minute call, no obligation
Sound familiar?
Everyone knows the machines go down. Nobody can say exactly why.
Downtime gets written down as "down 20 minutes" on a log sheet, if it gets written down at all. Without reasons and patterns, maintenance stays reactive, the same stops keep happening, and nobody can tell which problem to fix first.
- Downtime reasons are blank, vague, or filled in after the shift
- The same stops keep coming back
- Maintenance spends its days reacting instead of preventing
- Changeovers take longer than anyone planned
- Machines wait on material, operators, or quality checks
- Nobody knows what an hour of downtime actually costs
Why it happens
It's rarely a people problem. It's an information problem.
Stops aren't captured when they happen
By the end of the shift, the details are gone and the log says "machine issue."
Reasons are too vague to act on
A general reason doesn't tell maintenance or production what to fix.
Small stops add up unseen
A few minutes here and there never make the report, but they add up to hours every week.
Nobody owns the pattern
The information is split between operators, maintenance, and production, so no one sees the whole picture.
None of this means your team is doing a bad job. It means they're working without the information they need.
Step 1: Downtime assessment
See which stops are costing you the most.
We start with the records you have and watch how stops happen in practice. Where the data doesn't exist yet, we help you start capturing it.
What we look at
- Downtime by machine and reason: including the short stops that never get logged
- Changeovers and setups: how long they take compared with plan
- Waiting time: for material, operators, and quality checks
- Maintenance: how much is planned and how much is reactive
- Cost of each type of stop: in lost output and overtime
What you get
A report with downtime causes ranked by dollar impact, the root causes, quick wins you can act on right away, and a recommended plan with expected payback. If downtime isn't tracked today, the Data Capture add-on puts a simple tracking tool in place for a few weeks first.
Timeline: About 2 to 3 weeks as a Single Area Assessment, or combine it with other areas in a Multi-Area Assessment.
Step 2: Downtime tracking built for your team
Capture every stop, then fix the ones that matter.
We build a simple way for your team to record stops and reasons as they happen, then turn that data into a clear picture of what to fix first.
Depending on what we find, it can include:
- Quick stop logging at the machine, with reasons your team chose
- Automatic capture from machines where the data is available
- Downtime causes ranked by machine, shift, and line
- Alerts when a machine has been down longer than expected
- Changeover tracking against target times
- Maintenance requests tied to the stops that triggered them
After launch, we track downtime hours and recovered output month by month, so you can see the return.
We don't repair equipment. We give your maintenance and production teams the data to know what to fix first.
Common questions
Questions about downtime reduction
Do we need sensors on our machines?
Not to start. Many plants begin with quick logging at the machine, and we add automatic capture where machines can already provide the data.
Will operators actually log stops?
They will if it takes a few taps and the reasons make sense to them. Your team helps choose the reasons, and they see the results of the data they enter.
Does this replace our maintenance system?
No. It works alongside the maintenance system you have and can send requests to it, so stops and repairs stay connected.
How fast will we see results?
Patterns often show up within the first few weeks of tracking, and the quick wins from the assessment can be acted on right away.
Get started
Find out what downtime is really costing you.
Talk to an expert about what's stopping your machines and whether a downtime assessment is the right first step.