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Downtime Calculator

Fill in your numbers and see the result instantly. No registration required.

A conservative estimate of what unplanned downtime costs you per year, based on your own numbers. Takes two minutes.

Your data

people
Operators, planner, mechanic
Count everyone who can't do their normal work during a downtime event: machine operators, the planner who has to reschedule, the mechanic who drops everything.
euro/hour
Rule of thumb: gross hourly rate x 1.3
Use the fully loaded cost, not just gross salary. A common rule of thumb: gross hourly wage times 1.3 to cover employer taxes and social charges.
%
Rent, energy, depreciation (30-50%)
Facilities don't stop costing money when production stops. Rent, energy, equipment depreciation and insurance keep running. 30-50% is typical for manufacturing.
euro
Used to calculate what each hour of production is worth in revenue terms. This gives the 'lost production value' component.
hours
Typically 1,600 - 2,000 hours
Total hours the production line actually runs per year. Excludes holidays, weekends, planned maintenance. Typically 1,600 to 2,000 for a single-shift operation.
times
Unplanned stops only. Planned maintenance doesn't count. Think breakdowns, jams, software failures, supply interruptions.
hours
From the moment production stops until it's fully running again. Include diagnosis time, waiting for parts and ramp-up.

Result

Labour cost per hour of downtime -
Overhead per hour of downtime -
Lost production value per hour -
Cost per hour of downtime -
Estimated annual cost -

This is a conservative estimate. Indirect costs such as late deliveries, customer loss, overtime and rush orders are not included. Actual costs are almost always higher. Source: TeamSense / Aberdeen Research.

How this calculator works

This calculator estimates three components: idle labour, overhead that keeps running, and lost production value. Indirect costs like late delivery penalties, customer churn, overtime and rush orders are deliberately excluded. The real number is almost always higher.

The methodology is based on published research by TeamSense and Aberdeen Research. For context: according to Aberdeen, the average manufacturer loses around 800 hours per year to unplanned downtime. Siemens puts the cost between 40,000 and 2,000,000 euro per hour. And over 80% of manufacturers have experienced unplanned outages in the past three years (MachineMetrics).

Imperial Automation — imperial-automation.eu