The Best Machine Downtime Monitoring Software: Features & What to Look For

Machine downtime is one of the costliest aspects within manufacturing. Every minute that machines aren’t running is wasted productivity and wasted revenue. Unplanned downtime is the biggest killer, contributing to 90% of total downtime. As such, manufacturers should always be striving to reduce their unplanned downtime and ensure their machines are maintained as well as possible.

One of the best ways to track machine downtime is by using advanced software that can identify every minute of downtime, and provide you with the causes of that downtime. But with so many different options on the market, how do you know which is the best one? This blog is going to dive into what you should look for in order to identify the best machine downtime monitoring software for your business.

Real-time Tracking

An absolutely crucial feature every downtime monitoring software should have is real-time tracking. You don’t want a software that collects data and only gives you a report at the end of the day, telling you what went wrong. You need real-time tracking so that you can tell exactly which machines aren’t running and fix the issue as soon as possible. Our product, Busroot, has real-time tracking that enables you to be able to monitor your entire shop-floor with a simple and intuitive dashboard.  

Automated alerts 

In a similar vein, you need to make sure your software can set up automated alerts. It would be highly inefficient to have someone monitoring the software 24/7, waiting for something to go wrong so that they can address it. Automated alerts mean that people can get on with their jobs, and only step away from this where there is an actual problem that needs addressing.  

Building even further on this, you should be able to programme in the correct person for a number of different issues, so that when the issue occurs, the software automatically alerts the right person. It’s all well and good alerting someone, but if they need to then spend time finding the right person and handing over the issue, then you’re just wasting really precious time that could be spent on fixing the issue. Busroot can do exactly this!

Issue Identification

A key part of any machine downtime monitoring software is issue identification. According to research, 80% of manufacturers really struggle to identify the causes behind downtime. Equipment can be extremely complicated and hard to pinpoint issues, such as CNC machines that function based on a significant amount of code, so identifying the reason for the malfunction can be extremely time consuming. Having your software do this for you saves you a massive amount of time and means you can get the issue fixed as quickly as possible.

Predictive Maintenance

If you’ve checked out our “ways to reduce downtime blog”, you’ll know that implementing a predictive maintenance routine is a key way of significantly reducing downtime. Carrying out essential maintenance at the opportune times lowers the rate of breakdowns. As such, you want a software that can put this in place for you. Busroot takes your data and creates a comprehensive maintenance programme for you. It learns from the rate and type of breakdowns that you’re experiencing and puts the perfect plan in place in order to reduce machine downtime. 

Tracking of OEE and Other Performance Metrics

Machine downtime is generally just one metric that production monitoring platforms track. There are many different metrics that manufacturers need to be tracking and optimising, and that platforms offer. These can include OEE, asset utilisation, and cycle time. Why not get a bit more for your money and add another few metrics in?

As such, it’s important to be clear on what you want from your software, and identify the key metrics you’d like to track. Certain software’s may not offer everything you need, and it would be a shame to only find this out after purchasing. Create a list and ensure you see a demo of each feature, to ensure you are confident the software gives you what you need.

Price

Price is obviously a very important factor to take into consideration. You want to ensure you are getting the most for your money, but not focusing too much on getting the cheapest product and end up going for something that isn’t fit for purpose. Our advice would be to have a look at a lot of different products and get an idea for the general price of machine downtime monitoring software. This way you’ll be able to identify whether you’re being ripped off, or whether their low price might be a red flag.

Busroot is an extremely affordable option, with plans starting from as little as £10,800 per year for tracking of 6 machines. We also offer tiered price reductions depending on the number of machines you chose to track. So 6-10 machines are £150 per machine, whereas 50+ are only £80 per machine. Not many software’s on the market offer this feature, but we want to give back to our customers and reward them for trusting our software! Check out more pricing information here.

Support

It’s imperative that your software provider offers a support plan. Although set up using IoT devices is generally very straight forward, there will always be questions and issues that pop up. You don’t want your supplier to take your money and then shut the door. So make sure they offer flexible support plans with a dedicated contact that you can turn to.

Check Your Suppliers Track Record

Another piece of good practise when purchasing from any supplier is checking their track record. Check their online reviews and ask them to provide you with case studies of how their product has reduced downtime and improve profit margins. They should be able to evidence how their product has positively impacted businesses, and if they can’t then it’s questionable about how effective their product actually is. Our client, A1 Bacon, saw a 14% increase in production output since implementing Busroot, and had this to say about our platform:

“We now feel like we’re at the forefront of production. We now finally know what’s happening in real-time on the shop-floor, not at the end of the day or next morning”. Robert C, A1 Bacon

Yes we may be slightly biased, but Busroot truly is an amazing platform that offers everything you could possibly want from machine downtime monitoring software, at an affordable price. Get in touch now to schedule a demo and we can show the power of Busroot!