The real cost of one hour of unplanned downtime

Placeholder article for layout and system review. Replace with a finished, reviewed piece before publishing.

Ask what an hour of unplanned downtime costs and you will usually get one number: the product that did not get made. That number is real — and it is the easy part.

The costs that hide behind the obvious one

• Recovery, not just the stop. Restarting a line, re-qualifying a batch, and clearing the backlog often take longer than the outage itself.
• The scramble. Expedited parts, overtime, and pulling technicians off planned work all carry a premium.
• The knock-on. A missed shipment can cost a customer's confidence long after the line is running again.

Why the number is worth getting right

You cannot justify prevention against a cost you have not measured. Building the real figure — for your plant, from your data — is what turns "we should fix this" into a business case a board will approve.

Measure before you model

The honest version of this article ends with your own numbers, not ours. That is the point: defensible ROI comes from your operation, not from an industry average.

This is placeholder copy. No figures here should be read as product claims.