Make the hidden losses visible.
Practical, vendor-neutral guides on OEE, downtime, micro-stops and maintenance, written by manufacturing engineers and paired with free tools.
What Is OEE? The complete guide to Overall Equipment Effectiveness
The formula, the three factors, what counts as world-class, and the six big losses, with a worked example and a free calculator built in.
Read the guideWhat Is OEE? The Complete Guide to Overall Equipment Effectiveness
The formula, the three factors, what counts as world-class, and the six big losses - with a worked example and a free calculator.
The True Cost of Manufacturing Downtime (and How to Calculate It)
Why downtime costs far more than lost sales, the three components to add, real industry figures, and how to build the business case.
Micro-Stops & the Hidden Factory: The Losses Your OEE Doesn't Show
The sub-5-minute stops nobody logs quietly erase 5–20% of capacity. What they are, why they hide, and how to find them.
The Six Big Losses (and How to Cut Each)
The six categories every OEE loss falls into - breakdowns, setup, micro-stops, speed, defects, startup yield - and the fix for each.
OEE vs TEEP vs OOE: What's the Difference?
They all use Availability × Performance × Quality - the difference is the time basis. When to use each, with calculators.
Manufacturing Downtime & OEE Statistics (2026)
The most-cited downtime, OEE, micro-stop and maintenance statistics - each with its source. A free, regularly updated reference.
Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance: Which to Use
Reactive, preventive and predictive compared - how each works, the pros and cons, and how to choose the right mix for your plant.
Root Cause Analysis: 5 Whys & Fishbone
Find the underlying cause so problems stop coming back: the 5 Whys and Fishbone methods, a worked example, and the common mistakes.
Planned vs Unplanned Downtime
What counts as each, how they hit OEE, why unplanned is the costly kind, and the practical levers to cut both.
Availability vs Performance vs Quality
The three OEE factors: what each measures, what drags it down, how to improve it, and which to attack first.
SMED & Changeover Reduction
Internal vs external setup, the four SMED steps and the quick wins that free real capacity.
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
The pillars, autonomous maintenance, and how TPM drives OEE toward zero breakdowns.
The 8 Wastes of Lean (DOWNTIME)
All eight wastes with the DOWNTIME acronym, shop-floor examples, and how they overlap with OEE.
5S: Workplace Organisation
Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise, Sustain: the foundation that makes problems visible.
Kaizen & Continuous Improvement
Kaizen events, daily kaizen and the PDCA cycle, and how to make it stick.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
Map material and information flow, expose lead-time waste, and design a future state.
Maintenance KPIs & Metrics
The core seven numbers, leading vs lagging, how they get gamed, and a weekly review that works.
Building a PM Program
From zero to a working preventive maintenance system: criticality, tasks, intervals, pruning.
Bottleneck Analysis & ToC
Find the constraint, exploit it with the five focusing steps, and stop improving the wrong machines.
OEE Data Collection Methods
Manual, sensor/PLC and camera capture compared honestly: what each sees, what each misses.
Autonomous Maintenance
The TPM pillar in practice: the 7 steps, cleaning-is-inspection, and the maintenance handshake.
Spare Parts Management
Criticality-driven stocking, min/max in plain terms, insurance spares, and killing dead stock.
How-to: formulas with worked examples
The exact formula, a step-by-step method and a worked example for each metric, paired with a free calculator.
How to Calculate OEE
Availability times Performance times Quality, with a full worked example (74.7%).
How to Calculate Availability
Run time over planned time, and what counts as a stop.
How to Calculate Takt Time
The demand pace your cycle time must beat, with an example.
How to Calculate MTBF
Mean time between failures, the core reliability measure.
How to Calculate MTTR
Mean time to repair, the maintainability measure.
How to Calculate Scrap Rate
Scrap rate, first pass yield and the cost of poor quality.
How to Calculate TEEP
OEE against all calendar time: find your hidden, sellable capacity.
How to Calculate Cycle Time
Your actual pace per unit, and how it compares with takt time.
How to Calculate First Pass Yield
The share made right first time, plus rolled throughput yield.
OEE benchmarks by industry, more how-to formula guides, and the 2026 benchmark report.
See your real OEE and the losses hiding behind it, in 60 seconds.
Every guide here pairs with a free, no-signup calculator. Enter one shift and get Availability, Performance, Quality and the euro cost of what you cannot see.
One practical loss-reduction idea, every couple of weeks.
Short, useful, no spam. Written for people who run lines, not for a newsletter algorithm.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.