DowntimeDB Benefits for Saving Money and Time

DowntimeDB provides the data collection sheets, the interface to enter the data, and the reports needed to provide downtime and machine performance information to your organization.

By using a better tool to track and analyze your equipment downtime, you are able to focus your efforts on the most frequent equipment problems and increase your throughput. Throughput increases also reduce the need for costly expansions, allow for faster order fulfillment, and improve the return on your assets (facility, equipment, etc.).

A manufacturing operation is constantly changing; having a tool that shows if the improvement efforts are having favorable results is critical for financial success. Charts are an efficient way to communicate and track improvements. DowntimeDB allows you to create line charts, pie charts, and bar charts of the number of units produced, downtime by category, downtime per shift, and more. With these charts, you will be able to see the impact of your improvements over time.

Our reports will help you pinpoint the reasons for equipment downtime. You can review downtime by category, by product, by product/machine used, and downtime by machine. Finally, if you provide cost information, the Cost of Downtime Report can help you estimate what the cost of equipment downtime is to your organization.

With this cost information, you can make better decisions on capital investments to your existing machines and assign resources to resolve the equipment problems with the biggest financial impact.

By using a database to collect downtime and printing standardized reports, the whole organization saves time and money. Production supervisors, process engineers, maintenance supervisors, and production managers do not have to spend time looking for operational results, crunching data, or generating reports to answer questions about machine performance. All the information is available and ready to be reviewed and analyzed.

By using highly paid personnel to perform non value-added functions, like generating reports, researching problems from the previous week, the organization loses money. This loss is not easy to see, it is composed of all the value-added activities that these people postponed in order to complete the report or research events.

To quantify the cost of these non-value added activities and the cost of equipment downtime, try our Downtime Cost Calculator. This estimate represents how much you can save by using DowntimeDB.

How often do you wonder why you did not achieve your production goals last month, last week, yesterday? If you find that it is difficult or time consuming to obtain data about your operation, DowntimeDB can help.

Having and using a single source to report equipment problems and providing easy access to anyone in your organization that needs this data can improve communication. As an account owner, you can give access to as many or as few people as you want.

By using the same downtime reporting system in all your manufacturing areas, it is possible to standardize the way downtime and machine performance is reported and analyzed. One source for the information, one format, many areas, all downtime reporting standardized.

How should it work? We recommend that the designated personnel (machine or equipment operators) enter their downtime and production information at the end of their shift. After they enter the information, they can print the Shift Report. This report will show how they did during the shift.

This report can be distributed to other employees, supervisors, and managers interested in the performance of a manufacturing area. The report can also be accessed through the Internet at any time. We are currently working to allow you to customize your reports in order to display your company’s logo.

Need a different report than ones available at DowntimeDB? No problem, being the software developer, we can work with you to create a custom report that meets your information requirements. Depending on the complexity of your request, there may be additional charges for developing a custom report.

DowntimeDB provides the data collection sheets, the interface to enter the data, and the reports needed to provide downtime and machine performance information to the organization.

We recommend that the machine operators or production supervisors enter, after every shift, their downtime, and production information. After they enter the information, they can print the Shift Report. This report will show how they did during the shift.

This report can be distributed to other employees/supervisors/managers interested in the performance of a manufacturing area. The report can also be accessed through the internet at any time.

Our database will allow you to create graphs of the number of units produced. With these graphs, you will be able to see the impact of your improvements over time. A manufacturing operation is constantly changing, a tool that shows if the changes are favorable is critical for financial success. Here is a sample of the graphs you can create.

By understanding the main causes of downtime and the corrective actions taken, the operators and mechanics increase their equipment knowledge and are able to take a proactive approach to prevent downtime.

Maintenance personnel can use this data to determine changes needed to improve the existing preventive maintenance programs (PM). In addition, maintenance personnel can review the recent equipment problems just before performing a preventive maintenance task.

Complementing your established preventive maintenance procedures with information about the most recent mechanical and electrical problems observed can be a powerful combination to fix current problems and reduce equipment breakdowns.