Understanding What Stops Your Work — And Deciding What to Fix

Unplanned downtime is expensive, but the bigger problem is that most teams do not have a clear picture of where their time actually goes. Without that picture, you end up fixing the wrong things — or fixing nothing because no one can agree on what the real issue is.

Start by Seeing the Problem Clearly

The first step is not a solution. It is visibility.

Most facilities have a general sense that downtime is a problem, but the specifics are fuzzy. Was it the same machine three times, or three different machines once each? Did the breakdown happen during a changeover, or in the middle of a run? How long did it actually take to get back up?

When you track downtime as it happens — not reconstructed at shift end — the picture sharpens. You stop debating what happened and start discussing what to do about it.

What good visibility looks like

• Status updates as they happen, not summarized hours later
• Categorized reasons so you can see patterns over time
• Duration tracking that captures both the event and the response time

Let Operators Tell You What Is Going On

Operators are closest to the work. They know which machine has been acting up for two weeks, which tooling is worn, and which material lot is causing problems. The best downtime strategies start by making it easy for operators to share what they see.

Make reporting simple

• One-tap reason codes that match how operators actually think about problems
• Photo capture for maintenance tickets so the tech sees what the operator sees
• A feedback loop where operators learn what happened after they reported an issue

When operators see that their input leads to action, reporting quality goes up. When their input disappears into a void, they stop bothering.

Respond Systematically When Downtime Happens

Not every downtime event needs the same response. A five-minute jam is different from a two-hour motor failure. But having a consistent approach helps:

1. Contain — minimize the impact on the rest of the schedule
2. Understand — identify the actual root cause, not just the symptom
3. Fix — implement a repair that addresses the root cause
4. Learn — update procedures, training, or maintenance schedules based on what you found

The goal is not to eliminate all downtime — that is not realistic. The goal is to learn from each event so the same failure does not keep recurring.

Look at the Patterns, Then Prioritize

Once you have a few weeks of clean downtime data, patterns emerge. Maybe 60% of your unplanned downtime comes from three root causes. Maybe one cell accounts for most of the lost time. Maybe a particular shift transition is consistently rough.

These patterns tell you where to focus. Not everything needs to be fixed at once. Pick the issue that costs you the most time, address it, and move on to the next one.

What to look for

• Recurring failures on the same equipment — these point to maintenance or design issues
• Time-of-day patterns — problems that cluster around shift changes, startups, or specific product runs
• Long response times — sometimes the breakdown is short but the wait for a technician is long

Work Across Teams

Downtime is rarely just a maintenance problem or just a production problem. It sits at the intersection:

• Production knows what was running and what the impact was
• Maintenance knows the equipment history and repair options
• Planning knows whether the schedule left enough room for changeovers and maintenance windows

When these teams look at the same data together — in daily stand-ups, shift handoffs, or weekly reviews — they make better decisions than any one group can alone. Shared visibility replaces finger-pointing with problem-solving.

What to Expect

There is no magic number for how much downtime you can eliminate. It depends on your starting point, your equipment age, your product mix, and a dozen other factors. What you can expect is this: when your team has a clear, shared picture of where time goes, they will find things to improve. The improvements compound over time.

The first step is seeing the problem. Request a demo to learn how Attainment Tracker by Swip Tools helps your team do exactly that.