Free tool
Downtime cost calculator
Work out what one hour of a stopped machine or line costs and what it adds up to in a year, split into lost contribution or recovery cost, other costs and, where it applies, idle labour.
Result
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Why put a price on downtime?
Tracking downtime in minutes or percent shows which machine is the problem; turning it into money shows which improvement comes first and how much budget it deserves. With the example values, a line making 120 parts an hour at a $1.50 margin per part, with $40 of other costs, loses $220 per hour of downtime; 3 hours a week adds up to $33,000 a year. If the 4 people standing idle at $25 an hour are added, it is $320 an hour and $48,000 a year.
How it is calculated
- Lost contribution = output per hour × contribution margin per part (selling price minus variable cost), or an hourly amount entered directly.
- Idle labour (optional) = people standing idle × hourly labour cost per person. Off by default: the regular crew is paid during the stop anyway, and the lost margin or the recovery cost already covers the loss. Add it only if waiting costs extra money or your margin already has labour deducted.
- Recovery cost: if the output is made up later with overtime or an extra shift, it replaces the lost contribution (recovered output earns its margin, so counting both would count the same hour twice).
- Other = hourly costs such as scrap at restart and energy wasted during the stop.
- Annual cost = cost per hour × hours of unplanned downtime per year.
The result is an estimate: indirect costs such as customer penalties, late shipments or lost orders are not included.
Related tools
See how downtime affects OEE with the OEE calculator, and failure frequency and repair time with the MTBF and MTTR calculator. Recording stop times and reasons straight from the machine is covered on our downtime tracking page. All tools are on the tools page.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions
How do you calculate the cost of downtime?
The cost of one hour of downtime is the lost contribution margin (or, if the output is made up later, the cost of recovering it) plus other costs such as scrap at restart and energy wasted during the stop. The annual cost is that hourly figure multiplied by the hours of unplanned downtime in a year.
Why is idle labour not counted by default?
Your regular crew is paid whether the line runs or not, so a stop does not add to their wages. The loss is the margin when output is lost, or the recovery cost when it is made up, and the calculator already counts that; adding the wages too would count the same cost twice. Tick "Add idle labour" only if waiting costs extra money (agency or piece-rate workers, a contractor crew on standby) or if you worked out your margin per part with labour already deducted.
Why use contribution margin instead of the selling price?
While a machine is stopped, no material or variable energy is used, so the money lost is not the full selling price but the margin left after variable costs. Using the selling price overstates the cost.
If lost output is made up later, is the cost zero?
No. Lost output is usually recovered with overtime or an extra shift; because the recovered output still earns its margin, the recovery cost replaces the lost margin. Answer Yes to "Is the lost output made up later?" and enter the recovery cost; the two are never added together. If the line already runs at full capacity, the lost time cannot be recovered and the margin is genuinely lost.
Where do I get the annual downtime hours?
The most reliable source is downtime recorded automatically from the machine. Manual logs usually miss short stops, so real downtime is normally higher than what the logs show.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent to a server. "Copy link" only puts the values into the address bar.
Next step
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