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Manufacturers aim to reduce production downtime actively to improve efficiency, meet production targets, and enhance overall competitiveness in the market. Achieving this goal requires enforcing efficient scheduling, proactive and predictive maintenance, and utilizing advanced technologies for monitoring. Various factors in manufacturing settings can contribute to production downtime, often categorized using the 5M 1E framework. This framework breaks down potential causes into five elements – Manpower, Machines, Materials, Methods, and Measurement and Environment. Each of these elements can contribute to production downtime in distinct ways.

Production Downtime

 Manpower

•  Skill and training issues
•  Absenteeism and turnover
•  Miscommunication

 Machine

•  Software/ system issues
•  Tooling issues
•  Inadequate maintenance
•  Equipment failures

 Materials

•  Incorrect inventory management
•  Quality issues
•  Supply chain issues

 Methods

•  Inadequate training
•  Lack of standardization
•  Process issues

 Measurement

•  Lack of real-time monitoring
•  Inaccurate metrics
•  Quality control failures

Environment

•  Accidents
•  Regulatory changes
•  Power outages
•  Natural disasters
•  Safety incidents

This fishbone is a fine example of a root cause analysis done on Production Downtime. The Ishikawa diagram contains the main reasons for the failure of an ongoing manufacturing process.

Who should use the Production Downtime template?

• Anyone who wants to know the reasons for downtime in manufacturing.

Why use this template?

• This template imparts insights into the factors affecting production downtime and delays in the manufacturing process.
• Anyone can modify the structure or extend the template in the smartQED environment while investigating the problem.
• Draft or redesign your templates for problem and incident analysis in smartQED.

Curated from community experience and public sources:

• https://www.thechecker.net/stories/blog/the-5-most-common-causes-of-production-downtime
• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ishikawa-diagram-production-downtime-reasons_fig1_335766288