Key Takeaways
The Six Big Losses are the specific reasons for lost production, categorized under Availability, Performance, and Quality.
OEE software is the tool that diagnoses which of these six thieves is stealing your profitability.
An integrated CMMS provides the cure by giving you the tools to systematically eliminate the root causes of those losses through smarter maintenance and operational workflows.
Mike, a Continuous Improvement Manager, stares at his OEE score. It's 62%. He knows that's not good, but the number itself doesn't tell him what to fix.
Is it because of breakdowns? Are changeovers taking too long? Are the machines running slower than they should be? Without a framework, he's just guessing where to focus his team's limited time and resources.
This is where the Six Big Losses come in. It’s the proven framework used by world-class manufacturers to stop guessing and start targeting the specific problems that are killing their efficiency.
Availability losses are periods when the plant was scheduled to be running, but it wasn't.
The Diagnosis: This is the most obvious and painful loss. A machine breaks down, a tool fails, a conveyor jams. Production comes to a halt unexpectedly. Real-time OEE software instantly alerts you the second it happens and tracks every single minute of lost production time.
The Cure: This is fundamentally a maintenance failure, and the cure lies in a modern CMMS. When Fabrico's OEE module detects an unplanned stop, it can automatically trigger a high-priority work order in the CMMS.
This closes the loop from the problem to the solution in seconds, not hours. Over time, this data helps you track MTTR and MTBF, allowing you to build a smarter preventive maintenance strategy that stops these failures from happening in the first place.
The Diagnosis: This loss occurs during the necessary planned stops for changeovers, tooling adjustments, material changes, or major inspections. OEE software precisely measures this time, often revealing that these "planned" events are taking much longer than people think.
The Cure: A CMMS streamlines and standardizes these planned stops. You can attach digital checklists, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and setup instructions directly to the changeover work order.
This ensures the process is done consistently and correctly every single time. By tracking this data, you can identify opportunities for SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) projects to systematically shorten your changeover times.
Performance losses happen when the machine is running, but not as fast as it could be.
The Diagnosis: These are the short, 1-2 minute stops that operators often don't log. A jammed sensor, a misaligned guide rail, a blocked chute. An operator like Tom quickly clears it and moves on. Automated OEE data collection is the only way to expose this "death by a thousand cuts."
The Cure: The OEE data reveals the pattern of these micro-stops. The CMMS provides the solution. Mike can analyze the data, see that a specific sensor jams 30 times a shift, and create a corrective work order for a technician to investigate and fix the root cause. This turns an invisible problem into a solved one.
The Diagnosis: This is one of the most hidden losses. The machine is running and producing parts, but it's not running at its ideal, nameplate speed. OEE software compares the actual cycle time to the ideal cycle time, instantly showing this hidden loss of performance.
The Cure: Reduced speed is often a symptom of poor machine health. The OEE data is the trigger. The response is to schedule a maintenance inspection via the CMMS to investigate potential causes like worn belts, poor lubrication, dirty filters, or incorrect settings.
This allows you to prevent a minor issue from becoming a major, line-stopping breakdown.
The Diagnosis: These are parts that are scrapped or require rework during steady-state production. OEE software tracks this by comparing the total parts produced to the number of good parts that pass quality control.
The Cure: When your OEE report shows a spike in defects, it's not just a quality issue; it's often a maintenance issue. By cross-referencing this data in Fabrico, you can see if the defects correlate with a machine that's overdue for a calibration or a critical PM.
The cure is to use the CMMS to immediately schedule the necessary maintenance task to bring the machine back into spec.
The Diagnosis: These are the defects and wasted materials that occur in the initial phase of production, right after a startup or a changeover, before the process stabilizes.
The Cure: This loss is almost always caused by an improper or inconsistent machine setup. The most reliable cure is to ensure perfect changeovers every time.
By using the digital checklists and SOPs attached to work orders in your CMMS, you dramatically reduce the risk of setup errors that lead to wasted materials and time on startup.
Always start with your biggest loss. Your OEE system should provide a Pareto chart that clearly shows which loss is causing the most downtime or production loss. This data-driven approach ensures you focus your resources for the maximum impact.
It's a combination of automated data and simple operator input. The software can automatically detect if a machine is running or stopped (Availability) and if it's running at the correct speed (Performance). When a stop occurs, it prompts the operator to select a reason from a pre-defined list (e.g., "Unplanned - Mechanical Failure" vs. "Planned - Changeover").
Yes, but it's unlikely. A high OEE score (e.g., 85%+) indicates that all six losses are well-controlled. However, you could have a very high Availability and Quality score but a poor Performance score, indicating that your biggest problem is Reduced Speed or Minor Stops.
Knowing the names of the Six Big Losses is easy. Having a system to automatically diagnose them is a huge step forward. But the real winners are the ones who have an integrated system to both diagnose the loss and manage the cure.
Ready to see how you can diagnose and cure the Six Big Losses in a single, integrated platform?
Book a personalized demo of Fabrico today.
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