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 guideOil Analysis for Predictive Maintenance
Wear metals, water and ISO 4406 cleanliness codes, what each one is telling you, how to take a sample worth testing, and the worked economics of a contamination-control program.
How to Track Production Downtime
The downtime you can hand-log is the part that already gets attention. Define your stop states, capture every stop automatically, find the true cause, and close the loop.
Condition-Based Maintenance: A Practical Guide
Trigger maintenance off the machine's real condition, not a calendar. What to monitor, the P-F interval, where it pays, and the loop from signal to fix that makes it work.
How to Increase Production Capacity Without Buying Equipment
When demand outruns output, the answer is rarely a new machine. Size the gap between theoretical and real capacity, find the losses eating it, and reclaim the third most plants leave on the floor.
Infrared Thermography for Predictive Maintenance
What a thermal camera sees, why emissivity makes or breaks a reading, and delta-T severity classification with a worked electrical example.
Vibration Analysis for Predictive Maintenance
What the velocity, displacement and acceleration signals mean, ISO 10816 severity zones, and bearing defect frequencies with a worked example.
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.
How to Reduce Unplanned Downtime
Capture every stop, rank causes worst-first, attack the top failure modes and shrink recovery time, then make the gains stick.
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.
How to Reduce Micro-Stops
Make the short unlogged stops visible, find the true cause of the frequent ones, and mistake-proof them away. The biggest loss most plants can't see.
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.
How to Implement OEE: A Program Guide
Pick one pilot line, define the loss model, capture honestly, baseline, and run the loop. A practical rollout and the mistakes that sink OEE programs.
How to Reduce Scrap and Rework
Price the true cost of poor quality, find where defects are made, and attack them at the source instead of sorting at the end.
How to Improve OEE: A Step-by-Step Guide
Measure honestly, find your biggest loss, then attack availability, performance and quality in order, with the levers that actually move each factor.
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.
What Is an Andon System?
Signals, colours and types, the stop-and-fix rule, and why response time is the number that decides whether andon pays off.
Poka-Yoke: Mistake-Proofing
Stop human errors becoming defects: control vs warning devices, the three detection methods, and floor examples.
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.
FMEA: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Severity, Occurrence and Detection, the RPN formula, and a worked example that cuts risk 75%.
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
The seven RCM questions, consequence-based task selection, and the P-F interval with a worked example.
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.
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