Your company’s true operational foundation is its assets. Those include machines, equipment, technicians performing day-to-day tasks, and more. One of the most important functions across your facility is having equipment up and running as much as possible.
Keep assets operating smoothly by understanding what causes breakdowns and how often repairs are made. An equipment downtime report puts this information at your fingertips.
When it comes to creating an asset downtime report, consider your options:
- Manually enter downtime for every work order in an Excel spreadsheet, only to have to navigate back through every time another repair is needed.
- Create a clean, searchable database of your assets, historical repair data and the location of each in your facility.
While an organized equipment report seems like the clear option, 48% of maintenance managers still rely on manual methods like spreadsheets.
With an easy-to-understand, connected reporting system, you’re able to produce downtime reports quickly, gather accurate and real-time data, and minimize downtime altogether. If it seems to good to be true, it’s because you haven’t found the perfect computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) just yet.
Read on to learn how CMMS helps you create fast, legible asset downtime reports.
How to Create Equipment Downtime Report
1. Quickly organize all equipment in one place
You know it’s frustrating to navigate through spreadsheets if your company still relies on manual asset tracking and reporting. Eliminate the need for spreadsheets (with thousands or rows of assets for each location) with a CMMS.
When you implement a CMMS, you gain real-time visibility and insights that minimize downtime and reduce lost profits. You’ll gain the opportunity to organize all assets in one place in a hierarchical structure, rather than a list for an easy-to-scan downtime report.
A CMMS allows you to add equipment to work orders as you populate them. From here, you can sort by overall asset, brand or lifecycle stage, or choose to see asset by location. In one click, you’re able to sort assets or locations by downtime to generate quick, data-driven reports for future decisions.
2. Add updates and new equipment with ease
It could take hours or even days to update a manual asset log. Each asset has unique descriptions, needs, specifications and a location to inventory. Without a CMMS, new or old asset management is a messy, manual process.
A top-notch CMMS offers significant advantages over the outdated, manual methods of spreadsheet data input and reporting. With features like drag-and-drop functionality for adding new assets and robust search and filter options, a CMMS allows you to make quick updates and efficiently navigate your database, ensuring your assets remain well-organized and on track.
3. View historical data to implement preventive maintenance
What if you could tackle machine downtime and repairs before they even occur? This idea is a reality with the proper preventive maintenance strategy.
According to a study by Plant Engineering, 31% of survey respondents indicated that they plan to implement preventive maintenance to decrease future unscheduled downtime. While it would be great to predict when a breakdown occurs, it’s rather tedious without the right database.
With a CMMS, you can input data ranging from the description of an asset model and past service history, to create or follow recommended predictive maintenance schedules. This enables organizations to automatically assign preventive care tasks to open technicians minimizing the risk of downtime before it occurs. In turn, you’ll also boost technician productivity, as preventive repairs are often less intensive and costly.
Benefits of Equipment Downtime Reports in a CMMS
Implementing equipment downtime reports within a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) like Maintenance Connection offers transformative benefits for maintenance operations:
- Minimized Unplanned Downtime: CMMS platforms automate preventive maintenance scheduling, helping organizations address issues before they escalate.
- Improved Asset Reliability: By tracking historical performance and failure patterns, downtime reports support predictive maintenance strategies that extend equipment lifespan.
- Cost Savings: Downtime reports help identify inefficiencies and reduce emergency repair costs by enabling timely interventions.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: Real-time data and analytics empower maintenance managers to make informed decisions about asset replacement, resource allocation, and process improvements.
- Regulatory Compliance: CMMS systems centralize documentation and automate reporting, which simplifies compliance with standards like FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and ISO 27001.
What Data is Included in an Equipment Downtime Report?
An effective equipment downtime report includes a variety of data points that provide a holistic view of asset performance:
- Asset Identification: Equipment name, model, location, and unique identifiers.
- Downtime Duration: Start and end times of each downtime event.
- Cause of Downtime: Categorized reasons such as mechanical failure, operator error, or scheduled maintenance.
- Work Order Details: Associated work orders, technician notes, and repair actions taken.
- Maintenance History: Frequency of breakdowns, previous repairs, and service intervals.
- Impact Metrics: Production loss, cost of downtime, and affected operations.
- KPIs: Metrics like Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
These data points enable organizations to identify trends, prioritize maintenance tasks, and optimize asset performance.
Methods for Tracking Equipment Downtime
Organizations can track equipment downtime using several methods, each with varying levels of efficiency and accuracy:
- Manual Tracking: Using spreadsheets or paper logs. While accessible, this method is prone to errors and lacks scalability.
- CMMS Software: Automates data collection, integrates with work orders, and provides real-time reporting. Maintenance Connection, for example, allows users to sort assets by downtime and generate reports instantly.
- IoT Integration: Sensors and connected devices monitor equipment status and automatically log downtime events.
- Maintenance KPIs Dashboards: Visual tools that aggregate downtime metrics for quick analysis and decision-making.
CMMS platforms like Maintenance Connection offer the most comprehensive and scalable solution, combining automation, analytics, and integration capabilities.
Maintenance Connection Downtime Tracking Capabilities
Maintenance Connection by Accruent
is a robust CMMS designed to streamline downtime tracking and improve maintenance efficiency:
- Real-Time Downtime Reporting: Automatically logs downtime events and links them to work orders and asset history.
- Preventive Maintenance Scheduling: Reduces unplanned downtime by proactively scheduling tasks based on historical data and asset conditions.
- Mobile Access: Technicians can report downtime and complete work orders from any location using mobile devices, improving responsiveness.
- Customizable Dashboards: Visualize downtime trends, labor costs, and asset performance with configurable reports.
- Integration with IoT and ERP Systems: Enhances data accuracy and operational visibility by connecting with external systems.
- Automated Notifications: Keeps teams informed of downtime events and maintenance tasks through alerts and reminders.
Maintenance Connection empowers organizations to reduce downtime, improve asset availability, and make data-driven decisions that enhance operational performance.
Move away from manual equipment reports with a top-notch CMMS. Start a free trial of Maintenance Connection to see how your organization can benefit from a smooth, organized CMMS.
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