Build the downtime catalog
Create the downtime catalog, build it out for completeness, and evolve it over time.
All configured downtime reasons together form the downtime catalog. When assigning reasons, employees always pick a reason from this catalog. A well-built catalog is therefore the foundation of every downtime analysis.
Why completeness matters
New reasons cannot be created while assigning. In addition, users with the Operator role cannot edit the catalog (see Roles & permissions). If a reason is missing from the catalog, there are only two ways out: the downtime gets an inaccurate reason, or none at all. Both distort the analysis, for example the Pareto analysis of the most frequent downtime causes.
Build the catalog as complete as possible. It does not have to be perfect from day one: what matters is that it covers the most frequent causes and is then evolved continuously.
Prerequisites
Before building the catalog, downtime detection must be configured for the relevant machine.
Configure reasons
Design a good catalog
These guidelines have proven useful when building a downtime catalog:
Start with the most frequent causes. Go through the downtimes of the past weeks and collect the causes that keep recurring. A catalog that covers the most frequent cases beats a theoretically complete one that never gets finished.
Develop the catalog together with the shopfloor. The people who will assign reasons later know the typical faults best. Use their wording so the right reason is found quickly during assignment.
Choose a manageable granularity. A reason should be specific enough to derive an action from it ("film tear" instead of "malfunction"), but not so fine-grained that picking one becomes a search task.
Use groups for structure. Groups (for example by machine section or fault type) keep even a large catalog easy to navigate.
Use catch-all reasons sparingly. A reason like "Other" is worthless for analysis. If it is picked frequently, concrete reasons are missing from the catalog.
Evolve the catalog
A downtime catalog is never truly finished: new products, retrofits, or previously unknown fault patterns bring new causes with them. Review the catalog regularly, for example as part of your downtime analysis.
Typical signals that reasons are missing from the catalog:
Employees describe the actual cause in a downtime's comment because no fitting reason exists.
Catch-all reasons like "Other" are picked noticeably often.
Many downtimes remain without an assigned reason.
You can add new reasons at any time under Settings > Reasons for downtime. Already assigned reasons are not affected by this.
Related topics
Assign reasons to downtimes: Assign reasons from the catalog to detected downtimes.
Categories & assignment: Background on the three downtime categories and the catalog.
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