EQUIPMENT RELIABILITY METRIC

3.3 SCHEDULED DOWNTIME

Published on April 16, 2009

DEFINITION
This metric is the amount of time an asset is not capable of running due to scheduled work,
(e.g., work that is on the finalized weekly schedule). See Figure 1.

OBJECTIVES
This metric allows evaluation of the total amount of time the asset has not been capable of
running due to scheduled work. The metric can be used to understand the impact of scheduled
work on capacity and to minimize downtime.

FORMULA
Scheduled Downtime = Sum of Asset Downtime Identified on the Weekly Schedule

COMPONENT DEFINITIONS
Scheduled Downtime
The time required to work on an asset that is on the finalized weekly maintenance schedule.

Weekly Schedule
The list of maintenance work to be done in the week. It is usually finalized three to four days
before the start of the work week.

QUALIFICATIONS
1. Time Basis: Weekly, monthly or yearly
2. This metric is used by plant managers and corporate managers for capital investment
justification and asset rationalization. The metric can also be used to identify latent
capacity.
3. Examples include: preventive maintenance, repair, turnarounds, etc. (See Figure 1)

Page 1 of 3
 4. A company or plant categorizes scheduled downtime at their discretion.
5. Actual hours (not estimated or scheduled hours) should be counted as scheduled
downtime. For example, if the scheduled downtime for an asset was planned and
scheduled for 20 hours, but the work actually took 30 hours, then 30 hours would be
counted as scheduled downtime.
6. Where there is not a weekly schedule or categories of downtime on the weekly
schedule, downtime that is known a week ahead would qualify as scheduled.
7. Downtime will vary by industry. Caution must be used when comparing values across
industry sectors.
8. If downtime is required, the downtime should be scheduled such that outages can be
planned.
9. Every effort should be made to avoid unscheduled downtime.

SAMPLE CALCULATION
For a given asset in a month, downtime identified on weekly schedules included 30 hours of
preventive maintenance (PM) work, 10 hours of repair work and 10 hours of set-up time. These
were the actual hours, not estimated hours. For this example, start-up and shutdown times
have been considered negligible.

Scheduled Downtime = Sum of Asset Downtime Identified on the Weekly Schedule

Scheduled Downtime = PM Time + Repair Time + Set-up Time

Scheduled Downtime = 30 hours + 10 hours + 10 hours
Scheduled Downtime = 50 hours

Scheduled Downtime can also be expressed as a percentage. For a 30-day month:

Scheduled Downtime (%) = [50 hrs / (30 days × 24 hrs/day)] × 100

Scheduled Downtime (%) = [50 hrs / 720 hrs] × 100
Scheduled Downtime (%) = 6.9%

Page 2 of 3
 Total Available Time

Available to Run Total Downtime

Scheduled Unscheduled
Uptime Idle Time
Downtime Downtime

Examples of Idle Examples of Scheduled Downtime Examples of Unscheduled Downtime

Time Scheduled repairs
No demand Unscheduled repairs
Not scheduled for PM/PdM External factors
production Turnarounds No raw material
Set-up No feed stock

Figure 1. Time Element Chart

REFERENCES
None

Page 3 of 3