Downtime reasons

What are downtime reasons?

A downtime reason is a specific, named cause for a production stop. It sits one level below the category and gives operators and engineers the detail needed to understand and act on downtime data.

Why does it matter?

Knowing that a line stopped for 45 minutes of unplanned downtime is not enough to drive improvement. Knowing that 30 of those minutes were caused by a recurring feed material shortage on line 3 is. Reasons turn downtime data into actionable information. They are also the unit of analysis in OEE reporting, root cause analysis, and improvement projects.

How does it fit in the system?

Each reason belongs to one category. Reasons are used in two places: in state transition tables as the automatically assigned initial reason when a stop is detected, and in reason trees as the options presented to operators when they classify a stop manually. A reason can carry tags for grouping in reports, and can require a comment or equipment reference when assigned, enforcing data quality where it matters most.

Example

The category Downtime can contains reasons such as Planned downtime, Process issue, and Maintenance. When an operator classifies a stop, they pick the most specific reason available. That reason, and any tags attached to it such as a Time Utilisation Code, flows into the reporting layer without any further transformation.