OEE Lab / Downtime Cost Calculator

Downtime Cost Calculator

Turn downtime hours into the real annual € figure - lost throughput, idle labor, and restart costs. Numbers update as you type.

Your downtime

One line. Use a typical month - the annual figure follows.

h/mo
Total stopped time in a typical month.

Cost per stopped hour

€/h
€/h
Restart scrap, wasted energy, expediting freight.
Per-event breakdown (optional)
How many separate stoppages - gives cost per event.
True cost of downtime - per year
-
Lost production + idle labor + restart.
What it's made of
■ Lost production■ Idle labor■ Other
Cost / hour
-
Per month
-
Per event
-
Downtime / yr
-

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Most of this cost is preventable - once you can see the cause.

Downtime you can't diagnose, you can't stop. Fabrico reads every stop from the machine, shows the true cause on video, and auto-routes a work order - so the same failure stops repeating.

See how Fabrico cuts downtime
OEE Lab is built and operated by Fabrico. Our tools stay free either way.

How to calculate the cost of downtime

The true cost of an hour of downtime is more than lost sales. Add three things:

  • Lost production value = output rate × contribution margin per unit (the profit you didn't make).
  • Idle labor = operators still on the clock × their fully-loaded hourly rate.
  • Other costs = scrap produced at restart, wasted energy and utilities, and any expediting or overtime to catch up.

Multiply the per-hour figure by your downtime hours to get the monthly and annual cost.

Why is the annual number so large?

Because downtime compounds: a few hours a week of stoppage, multiplied by lost margin plus paid-but-idle labor plus restart waste, runs into six figures fast on a single line. That's why even a modest reduction pays back quickly.

What's not included here?

This is the direct, defensible cost. It excludes harder-to-quantify items like missed delivery penalties, lost customers, and safety risk - so treat the result as a floor.

How do I reduce it?

Find the recurring causes. Most downtime is a handful of failure modes repeating - see your hidden factory and OEE, then fix the top causes.

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