Free CMMS for ceramics manufacturing
Track kiln and press reliability, glazing-line stops and inspection rejects on the shop floor. Log a shift in about two minutes, see OEE and your top losses, and keep everything in your browser at no cost.
The short answer
- Yes, it is genuinely free. The OEE Lab tracker runs in your browser with no account, no card and no install, so a ceramics or tile plant can start logging kiln, press and glazing-line stops today.
- You log each shift in about two minutes and get OEE with its Availability, Performance and Quality split, a downtime Pareto, a work order board, a PM schedule and an asset register for one plant on one device.
- It is honestly light: capture is manual, data stays on one browser, and you investigate the true cause of micro-stops yourself instead of the tool proving it for you.
- When manual logging and one device stop being enough, Fabrico is the paid upgrade with PLC-read OEE, computer-vision micro-stop causes and an EU-built, ISO 27001 certified platform.
Ceramics and tile lines lose output in ways a spreadsheet rarely captures cleanly: a kiln that trips and takes hours to recover, a press changeover that drags, glaze-line micro-stops that never get logged, and inspection rejects that only surface at the sorting table. The free OEE Lab tracker turns each shift into a two-minute log so those losses land in one place. Start with the OEE tracker, and read what OEE is if you want the A/P/Q basics first.
Under the hood it is a light CMMS as well as an OEE app. You get a work order board, a preventive maintenance schedule for kilns, presses and dryers, and an asset register, so a tripped burner or a worn press tool becomes a tracked job instead of a note on the whiteboard.
Everything stays in your browser, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to wait for. When you outgrow manual capture, our guide on when to upgrade from a free CMMS and the honest limitations of free tools lay out the trade, and the cost of downtime helps you put a number on a single lost kiln run.
What you get, free
Two-minute shift logging
At the end of each shift, log planned time, kiln and press stops, reject counts and units produced. It is manual by design, so a line lead can capture a glaze-line stop or a firing recovery without an IT project.
OEE with A, P and Q
See Availability, Performance and Quality broken out, not just one blended number, so a big single kiln stop and a run of inspection rejects show up as separate problems you can act on.
Downtime Pareto
Every logged stop rolls into a Pareto, so the reasons that actually cost firing hours, whether burner trips, press changeovers or glaze faults, sort to the top instead of hiding in a shift book.
Work order and PM board
Turn a worn press tool or a flaky kiln thermocouple into a tracked work order, and put recurring jobs like burner checks and roller cleaning on a preventive schedule so they stop slipping.
Asset register and roles
Keep kilns, presses, dryers, glazing lines and sorters in one asset register, and assign people and roles on the device, so each stop and job is tied to a real machine and owner.
Export, report and install
Export everything to CSV and JSON, back up and restore your data, print a PDF report, share a scorecard, and install the tracker as a PWA on the shop-floor tablet. Your data never leaves the browser.
Log one shift and the free tracker shows your OEE, your loss Pareto and how you compare to world-class. Add work orders and preventive-maintenance reminders in the same place.
Where free stops, and Fabrico begins
The free tracker is built for getting started fast and for one plant on one device. When a site gets serious about its losses, the manual steps start to cost more than they save. This is exactly where Fabrico takes over.
| Capability | Free OEE Lab tracker | Fabrico |
|---|---|---|
| Data capture | Manual shift logging in about two minutes per shift, entered by the line lead | PLC-read OEE captured straight from the line, with no manual entry |
| Loss-to-fix loop | You spot a top loss in the Pareto and raise a work order yourself | Closed loop from the PLC straight to an auto-routed work order the moment a threshold is crossed |
| Micro-stop true cause | You investigate glaze-line and press micro-stops yourself from the logged reasons | Computer vision identifies the true cause of each micro-stop with video evidence |
| Scope and multi-site | One plant on one device or browser | Many lines and sites across the business in one system |
| Integrations | CSV and JSON export and import, with no live connections | Live links to line PLCs and shop-floor systems |
| Access and roles | People and roles on the one shared device | Accounts, roles and permissions for teams across shifts and sites |
| Data residency | Data stays in your own browser and nothing is uploaded | EU-built with EU data residency and ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001 certification |
| Reporting | Printable PDF report and a shareable scorecard | Live dashboards, trend history and automated reporting across the plant |
| Kiln and firing loss detail | Log big single stops and continuous-run losses per machine and review the per-machine breakdown | Continuous monitoring of firing and press lines with automatic loss detection and evidence |
Frequently asked questions
Is the OEE Lab tracker really free for a ceramics plant?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no account, no card and no install. You can log kiln, press and glazing-line stops today and keep the data locally at no cost.
How does it handle kiln and firing losses?
Log each firing stop with a reason and duration, and the tracker separates big single stops from continuous-run losses in the Pareto and the per-machine breakdown, so a long kiln recovery does not get averaged away.
Can I track glazing-line micro-stops?
You can log them manually with your own reasons and see them ranked in the downtime Pareto. Proving the true cause of very short, repeated micro-stops is where you would move to Fabrico's computer-vision capture with video evidence.
Does it work on a shop-floor tablet?
Yes. Install it as a PWA on one tablet or PC and log shifts there. It is one plant on one device or browser, so pick the machine the line lead uses each shift.
How do I get my data out?
Export everything to CSV and JSON at any time, and use backup and restore to move or safeguard your data. Nothing is locked in and nothing is uploaded to us.
When do I need more than the free tool?
When manual logging cannot keep up, you need more than one plant or device, you want OEE read straight from the PLC, or you need the true cause of micro-stops with video evidence. At that point Fabrico is the paid upgrade, EU-built and ISO 27001 certified.
When free is not enough, Fabrico is the upgrade
The free tracker is deliberately light, and at some point a ceramics plant needs the losses caught for it rather than typed in. Fabrico reads OEE straight from the PLC and closes the loop by auto-routing a work order the moment a kiln or press crosses a threshold. Its computer vision pins the true cause of glaze-line and press micro-stops with video evidence, so you fix the real problem instead of guessing. It is built in the EU with EU data residency and is ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001 certified, which supports audit-readiness when the data is your production record. Book a Fabrico demo when you are ready to move from logging losses to eliminating them.
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Free OEE tracker · Free manufacturing software · Free downtime tracking software · What is OEE? · Free preventive maintenance software · Free CMMS for cement