Free CMMS and OEE Tracker for Paper and Pulp Mills
Log web breaks, reel turn-ups, and the big single stops that eat a mill shift, then read instant OEE and a downtime Pareto. Free, in your browser, with no account.
The short answer
- Use the free OEE tracker to log paper and pulp shifts in about 2 minutes, no account and no card, with your own downtime reasons for web breaks, roll changes, and grade changes.
- You get instant OEE with availability, performance and quality, a downtime Pareto that ranks your biggest single stops, plus a work order board, PM schedule and asset register at no cost.
- Its honest limits: you type each shift in by hand, you investigate the causes yourself, and it runs on one device for one mill, not across a multi-machine or multi-site group.
- When you need automatic PLC capture, computer-vision true-cause on micro-stops, and a closed loop to auto-routed work orders, book a Fabrico demo.
Paper and pulp is a continuous-run business, and its losses do not look like a discrete assembly line. A single web break can cost you the thread-up, a reel turn-up gone wrong, a felt or wire change, or a grade change that walks the sheet off spec. On a machine meant to run flat out for weeks, one big stop can dominate a whole shift, and the reasons hide inside stock prep, the press section, the dryers, the size press, the coater, and the winder.
The free OEE tracker from OEE Lab lets you log a mill shift in about 2 minutes using your own downtime categories, then shows instant OEE with availability, performance and quality plus a downtime Pareto that ranks the stops actually eating your run time. It also carries a work order board, a preventive-maintenance schedule and an asset register, so you can run early maintenance discipline on refiners, presses, dryer cans and winders without buying anything.
It runs in your browser with no account or card, and your data stays on your device. Because mill downtime is dominated by a few expensive stops, seeing them ranked is often the fastest path to a fix, and the cost of downtime adds up quickly at machine speeds. When manual logging, one-device scope, or the lack of automatic true-cause detection starts to cap you, that is the point to look at Fabrico, the paid platform that automates the whole loop.
What you get, free
Shift logging in about 2 minutes
Log a paper or pulp shift (machine runs, web breaks, roll changes, grade changes, broke) and get instant OEE with the availability, performance and quality split behind it.
Downtime Pareto for mill stops
Tag downtime with your own reasons (web breaks, felt and wire changes, reel turn-ups, dryer and coater issues, winder stops) and see the Pareto that shows which single stop costs the most run time this month.
Per-machine OEE breakdown
Keep the paper machine, pulp line, and winder separate so you see OEE per asset instead of one blended number that hides where the losses actually sit.
Work order board and PM schedule
Raise a work order the moment you spot a loss (a worn felt, a leaking press, a slipping drive) and keep a preventive-maintenance schedule for refiners, rolls, dryers and the winder.
Asset register plus CSV and JSON export
Keep a simple register of machines, sections and critical spares, then export everything to CSV or JSON whenever you want to analyze it elsewhere or bring it into a review.
OEE benchmark against world-class
See your mill OEE next to the widely used 85% world-class mark for context, so you know how far you sit from best-in-class and which loss is worth attacking first.
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 mill shift by hand in about 2 minutes, and your data stays in your browser. | Reads OEE automatically off your PLCs, so machine and line data lands with no manual entry. |
| Micro-stop cause | You investigate the short, repeating stops yourself and note the reason for each one. | Computer vision identifies the true cause of each micro-stop and attaches video evidence. |
| Loss-to-fix loop | You spot the loss on the Pareto, then raise the work order yourself on the board. | A detected loss becomes an auto-routed work order, assigned the moment it happens. |
| Scope and multi-site | One mill on one device and browser, best for a single machine or a single shift. | Every machine and mill feeds one central view through the same automated PLC-to-work-order loop. |
| Integrations | Standalone by design, export to CSV or JSON when you need the data elsewhere. | Connects directly to your PLCs so live OEE flows straight into the closed work-order loop. |
| Access and roles | Local device sign-in with people and roles on that one shared device. | Central roles and access run on EU-built infrastructure certified to ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001. |
| Data residency | Data never leaves the browser on the device you use on the floor. | EU-built with EU data residency, backed by ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001 certification that supports audit-readiness. |
| Reporting | Instant OEE, availability, performance, quality, a downtime Pareto and manual export. | OEE and micro-stop true-cause read automatically off the line, so reporting reflects real machine data without hand-logging. |
| Continuous-run monitoring | You track run time and stops shift by shift, catching whatever someone remembers to log. | Automatic PLC capture times every stop across the run, so recurring web-break causes surface without hand-logging. |
Frequently asked questions
Is the OEE Lab tracker really free for a paper or pulp mill?
Yes. Open the free OEE tracker and log a shift with no account and no card. It runs in your browser and your data stays on your device, with no seat cap and no trial clock. It is simply free to use.
Can it handle web breaks, roll changes, and grade changes?
Yes. You log downtime in whatever categories fit your mill: web breaks, reel turn-ups, felt and wire changes, grade changes, dryer or coater issues, and broke. The tracker computes availability, performance and quality from your entries and gives you an instant OEE plus a downtime Pareto that ranks the biggest single stops.
Does it automatically detect why the sheet keeps breaking?
No, and that is the honest limit of any manual tool. You still investigate each break and tag the reason yourself. Fabrico's computer vision reads short stops automatically and attaches video evidence of the true cause, which is the piece manual logging leaves to you.
Can I run it on the floor with my shift crew?
Yes. It supports local sign-in with people and roles on one device, so an operator, a shift lead, and a maintenance tech can each work on the same tablet or PC. It is built for a single mill on one device, so a live view across several machines or sites is a Fabrico-level capability.
When do I need more than the free tracker?
When manual shift logging becomes the bottleneck, when you need to see more than one machine or one site at once, or when you want OEE read automatically off your PLCs with a work order raised the moment a loss is detected. That is the point to book a Fabrico demo.
Does my mill data stay private?
Yes. The free tracker keeps everything in your browser on the device you use, so nothing is uploaded. If you later need central storage on certified infrastructure, Fabrico is EU-built with EU data residency and ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001 certification that supports audit-readiness.
When free is not enough, Fabrico is the upgrade
A paper or pulp mill that gets serious about OEE hits the same wall fast: the run is dominated by a handful of expensive stops and a long tail of short ones that are hard to reason-code by hand, hour after hour. Fabrico reads OEE automatically off your PLCs across every machine and line, uses computer vision to pinpoint 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. It is EU-built with EU data residency and certified to ISO 27001, 20000-1 and 9001, which supports audit-readiness without extra work from your team. That is the point where manual tracking stops paying its way and a live, plant-wide system starts to. When you are there, book a Fabrico demo.
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