Glossary · Automation fundamentals, platforms and components
Downtime
Also known as: Standstill time, Outage time
German: Stillstandszeit
In operations and maintenance, downtime is the period during which a machine or system is not operating, divided into planned downtime (maintenance, changeovers) and unplanned downtime (failures, disturbances).
- Automation components
In one sentence
Downtime is the time a machine or system is not operating, split into planned stops such as maintenance and unplanned stops such as failures.
Example
The line recorded 45 minutes of unplanned downtime this shift, 30 of them caused by a jammed labeler.
How it applies
- Operation: Downtime is recorded with reason codes, often automatically by MES, and analyzed to find the biggest losses.
- Maintenance: Preventive maintenance and Predictive maintenance aim to replace unplanned downtime with shorter, planned stops.
- Documentation: Good troubleshooting information shortens unplanned downtime. Documentation teams can use downtime reason statistics to decide which fault procedures to improve first.
- Engineering: Designing for fast changeovers and quick fault recovery reduces both planned and unplanned downtime; modular spare parts help as well.
Downtime vs. availability
Downtime is measured in time; Availability is usually expressed as a ratio of operating time to planned time. Whether planned downtime counts against availability depends on the metric definition, so reports should state it.