A 7-step method to put a price tag on every production loss and recover output from the equipment you already have, built on OEE practice from R.C. Hansen and lean continuous improvement.
Average plants run at about 60% OEE; world class for discrete lines is about 85%. The gap is your hidden factory: capacity you already paid for.
The method
Scheduled time, good units and the ideal rate. Nothing else. If your OEE doesn’t match what actually ships, trust the lower number.
Example: 4,362 good units ÷ 4 per minute = 1,090 minutes of perfect production, in 1,830 scheduled minutes. OEE 59.6%
No ideal rate? Use the best 4 hours of your last 400. Method and example: R.C. Hansen, Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
A minute with no reason can’t be priced, and a loss with no price won’t be fixed. OEE plus every loss must add up to 100% of scheduled time.
Hansen’s 40-hour example. If the parts don’t add up to 100%, a loss is hiding.
A minute lost at the bottleneck is a minute lost for the whole plant. A minute lost elsewhere may cost nothing.
You only need your selling price and gross margin per product.
Sample: 20 units a minute, €2.40 a unit, 32% margin, €148 an hour labour and overheads. €1,070 per hour stopped
Slow running rarely makes the morning meeting. Priced per year, it often beats the stop everyone remembers.
Slow running after restarts€165,888
Unplanned stop: filler jams€154,022
Changeover overruns€102,682
Scrap: label defects€33,178
Sample data, profit impact per year. Ranked by minutes stopped, filler jams would have looked like the priority.
Finish them fast. Each one gets the same four parts. Look for the cause in the process, not the person.
Not when the task is closed. Compare the loss before and after, in units and in euros: plan, do, check, act.
10 pages with worked examples and a 30-day checklist. PDF for reading, PowerPoint for your team meeting.
Your 30-day checklist
More in the loss price tag toolkit
Five numbers, then every loss ranked by euros, not minutes.
80 CNC machines in 6 weeks, with no PLC changes and no production stops.
The hidden factory is the capacity your plant has already paid for but loses to stops, slow cycles, changeovers and scrap. It is the gap between your actual good output and what your equipment could make in the scheduled time.
Divide good units by the ideal rate, then divide by scheduled time. You only need three numbers: scheduled time, good units and the ideal rate. OEE plus every loss must add up to 100% of scheduled time.
Yes. Leave your name and work email once and download it as PDF or PowerPoint.
See it on your own lines
Bring one line and one week of stops. We'll show you what they cost in Fabrico's financial impact module and which loss to fix first.
A pilot site is operational in days, with minimal disruption to your teams.
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