Free CMMS and OEE Tracker for Food and Beverage Plants
Track the losses that actually hit F&B lines, CIP, changeover, jams, and micro-stops, free in your browser, then see how Fabrico automates the same losses off your PLCs.
The short answer
- Start free: the OEE Lab tracker at oee-tracker.html logs shifts in about 2 minutes with F&B-specific downtime codes (CIP, changeover, jams), no account needed.
- What you get: instant OEE, a downtime Pareto, a work orders board, PM schedule, asset register, and CSV/JSON export, all free and local to your browser.
- Its honest limit: you still enter shifts by hand and chase micro-stop causes yourself, it runs on one device for one plant.
- When to upgrade: once CIP and changeover losses need automatic PLC capture and micro-stops need computer-vision true-cause across multiple lines, book a Fabrico demo.
Food and beverage lines lose OEE differently than a lot of other plants. It is rarely one big breakdown. It is a filler that jams every 40 minutes, a case packer that misfeeds, a CIP cycle that eats the shift, and an allergen changeover that runs long. Each one is small on its own and brutal in total, and most of it never makes it into a spreadsheet because nobody has time to write down a 90-second stop.
The free OEE tracker is built for exactly that: log a shift in about 2 minutes, tag stops with your own F&B-specific reason codes, and get a downtime Pareto that shows you which loss is actually costing the most. No account needed, no software to install, data stays in your browser.
Start with the tracker to get honest numbers on the table. If you want the size of the prize before you touch a keyboard, run your numbers through the downtime cost calculator or the hidden factory calculator first. Once a line is serious about closing the loop, that is where Fabrico comes in.
What you get, free
2-minute shift logging
Log run time, stops, scrap, and good count for a shift in about 2 minutes. Set your own downtime reason codes for the ones that hit F&B lines hardest: CIP, allergen changeover, jams, misfeeds, and blockages.
Instant OEE + downtime Pareto
Get availability, performance, and quality the moment you save a shift, plus a downtime Pareto that ranks your worst loss categories so you know what to chase first.
85% world-class benchmark
Every shift is compared against the standard 85% world-class OEE figure, so you can see immediately how far short a line is running and track the gap over time.
Work orders board
When a shift log turns up a jam-prone feeder or a seal that keeps failing, raise a work order right on the board and track it through to done.
Preventive maintenance schedule + asset register
Keep a register of lines, fillers, and packaging equipment with PM schedules attached, so routine CIP-adjacent maintenance doesn't get lost between shifts.
Shareable scorecard, CSV/JSON export, installable PWA
Export your data whenever you need it elsewhere, share a scorecard with a shift lead or plant manager, and install the tracker as an app on a shop-floor tablet.
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 | Log each shift by hand in about 2 minutes, including CIP and changeover blocks, data stays in your browser. | Reads OEE automatically off your PLCs, no manual entry for fillers, packers, or CIP cycles. |
| Micro-stop cause | You investigate jams, misfeeds, and short blockages yourself and note the reason. | Computer vision identifies the true cause of each micro-stop, with video evidence, exactly the failure mode that dominates F&B lines. |
| Loss-to-fix loop | You spot the recurring jam or seal failure, then raise the work order yourself on the board. | A detected loss becomes an auto-routed work order, assigned automatically to the right technician. |
| Scope and multi-site | One plant on one device and browser, best for a single line or shift. | Plant-wide and multi-site from one central cloud view, useful once you run more than one packaging line or site. |
| Integrations | Standalone, run it on its own, export data when you need it elsewhere. | Integrates with PLCs, MES, and ERP so OEE flows with your stack, including batch and traceability systems common in F&B. |
| Access and roles | Local device sign-in with people and roles on that one device. | Org SSO with roles across the plant and a full audit trail. |
| Security posture and residency | Data stays local in your browser, on the device you use. | EU-built with EU data residency, outside the reach of the US CLOUD Act, and supports audit-readiness (ISO 27001, 20000-1, 9001). |
| Reporting | Instant OEE, availability, performance, quality, a downtime Pareto, and CSV/JSON export you run yourself. | Live plant-wide dashboards plus scheduled reports delivered automatically. |
| Scale | The best genuinely free way to start on one line, today. | The professional platform you graduate to once CIP, changeover, and micro-stops need automatic tracking across every line. |
Frequently asked questions
Is the OEE Lab tracker really free for a food and beverage plant?
Yes. Open the free OEE tracker and start logging shifts with no signup and no account. Your data stays in your browser on the device you use, and export to CSV/JSON any time.
Can it handle CIP (clean-in-place) and changeover downtime categories?
Yes, you set your own downtime reason codes, so CIP, changeover, allergen changeover, blockages, and jams are just categories you name once and log against on every shift.
Why does F&B OEE usually run lower than other industries?
Food and beverage lines lose a lot of time to short, frequent stops (jams, misfeeds, minor blockages) plus mandatory CIP and changeover blocks that other industries carry less of. Each one is usually under 5 minutes, which is exactly the kind of loss that is hardest to track by hand and easiest to undercount. See what is OEE for the full breakdown of availability, performance, and quality.
What is a good OEE benchmark for a food and beverage line?
The free tracker benchmarks every shift against the widely used 85% world-class OEE figure. Most F&B lines sit well below that once micro-stops and changeover are counted honestly. Run the numbers in the OEE benchmark report.
When does a plant outgrow the free tracker?
Once you are running multiple lines or sites and manual shift entry becomes the bottleneck, or you keep re-investigating the same micro-stop causes shift after shift. That is the point to book a Fabrico demo and see automatic PLC-read OEE with computer-vision true-cause.
Do free CMMS tools like MaintainX or Fiix work for a food and beverage plant?
They can get reactive maintenance off paper fast. MaintainX is strongest for lightweight, mobile-first work-order coordination, and Fiix offers a free tier for core CMMS record-keeping. Both center on work-order management, so OEE and micro-stop analysis is where the OEE Lab tracker fits alongside a CMMS. Note that most free CMMS tiers cap users, assets, or history and act as on-ramps to paid plans, so check the limits before you standardize on one.
When free is not enough, Fabrico is the upgrade
The free tracker gets a food and beverage line honest numbers fast, but the losses that dominate F&B (frequent sub-5-minute jams and misfeeds, CIP and changeover blocks eating into run time) are exactly the ones that are hardest to catch by hand, shift after shift. Fabrico reads OEE automatically off your PLCs, uses computer vision to identify the true cause of each micro-stop with video evidence, and closes the loop by auto-routing a work order the moment a loss is detected, across every line and every site, built and hosted in the EU.
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