The purpose of this paper is to present a sample of how Swedish manufacturing companies deal with equipment downtime cost, and further how they analyze its reduction. The study was performed by conducting a web-based survey within Swedish firms that have at least 200 employees. The main results obtained from the investigation show that the estimated downtime cost constitute about 23.9 % from the total manufacturing cost ratio, and 13.3 % from planned production time. Additionally, the hourly cost of downtime, whether planned or unplanned, is relatively high. However, there is a shortage of systematic models that capable to trace the individual cost imposed by downtime events. This lack was shown apparently whilst 83 % of surveyed companies they do not have any complete model adapted for quantifying their downtime costs. Moreover, only few companies develop their cost accounting methods such as, activity-based costing (ABC) and resource consumption accounting (RCA) to assimilate and reveal the real costs that associated with planned and unplanned stoppages. Still, the general pattern of downtime cost calculation allocated to direct labor and lost capacity cost. On the other hand, the attempts of decreasing downtime events and thus costs were based on schedule maintenance tactics that supported by overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tool, as an indicator for affirming improvements. Nonetheless, the analysis indicates the need for optimized maintenance tactics by incorporating reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and total productive maintenance (TPM) into companies’ maintenance systems. The maintenance role of reducing downtime impacts not highly recognized. Furthermore, the same analysis shows the requirement for better results of performance measurement systems is by implementing total equipment effectiveness performance tool (TEEP). The advantage of such tool is to provide the impact index of planned stoppages in equipment utilization factor. Finally, the lack of fully integrated models for assessing the downtime costs and frameworks for distinguishing the difference between planned and unplanned stoppages are the main reasons behind the continuation of cost in ascending form. Due to that, the improvements will emphasize on areas with less cost saving opportunities. As a result, this will affect the production efficiency and effectiveness which in return has its influence on costs and thereby profits margin.

Machine downtime, whether planned or unplanned, is intuitively costly to manufacturing organisations, but is often very difficult to quantify. The available literature showed that costing processes are rarely undertaken within manufacturing organisations. Where cost analyses have been undertaken, they generally have only valued a small proportion of the affected costs, leading to an overly conservative estimate. This thesis aimed to develop a cost of downtime model, with particular emphasis on the application of the model to Australia Post’s Flat Mail Optical Character Reader (FMOCR). The costing analysis determined a cost of downtime of $5,700,000 per annum, or an average cost of $138 per operational hour. The second section of this work focused on the use of the cost of downtime to objectively determine areas of opportunity for cost reduction on the FMOCR. This was the first time within Post that maintenance costs were considered along side of downtime for determining machine performance. Because of this, the results of the analysis revealed areas which have historically not been targeted for cost reduction. Further exploratory work was undertaken on the Flats Lift Module (FLM) and Auto Induction Station (AIS) Deceleration Belts through the comparison of the results against two additional FMOCR analysis programs. This research has demonstrated the development of a methodical and quantifiable cost of downtime for the FMOCR. This has been the first time that Post has endeavoured to examine the cost of downtime. It is also one of the very few methodologies for valuing downtime costs that has been proposed in literature. The work undertaken has also demonstrated how the cost of downtime can be incorporated into machine performance analysis with specific application to identifying high costs modules. The outcome of this report has both been the methodology for costing downtime, as well as a list of areas for cost reduction. In doing so, this thesis has outlined the two key deliverables presented at the outset of the research.

The market is developing and a growing competition increases pressure on companies to maintain their competitive advantage. Working with cost savings is a way to enhance earnings in a short term but also in a longer perspective. Volvo Powertrain Production Köping has an overall goal; to reduce costs by nine percentages in three years. To achieve the goal, Volvo Powertrain Production Köping works with World Class Manufacturing where the Department of Processing Technology constitutes an important part. Volvo Powertrain Production Köping lacks a standard for how savings within the metal cutting tool area are to be calculated. This makes it difficult to control and monitor their business outcome but it also causes difficulties in controlling the tool suppliers’ outcome. The suppliers’ outcome is later used as the basis in price negotiations which means that Volvo Powertrain Production Köping lacks information that can improve their outcome of a negotiation. The aim of the project is to increase understanding of how activities of processing technology affect productivity through a spreadsheet model. Starting with a current status report and a literature review revealed that many companies are missing an hourly rate designed at machine level. There are theories saying that the machine hourly rate should be allocated for both producing state and downtime, which in subsequent interviews with other companies proves to be far from being reality. Collected information was analyzed and a model was developed. The model has been tested in two improvement projects and the outcome has been compared with existing calculations from tool vendors. The result of the thesis is a standardized savings model with a machine specific hourly rate, taking into account both producing and downtime states. The savings model is based on the currently used Cost Deployment system. The proposed spreadsheet will monitor the outcome of tool suppliers which will result in a better control of cost savings and price negotiations. The savings model is not solely for savings calculations; the model also helps the user to understand how different parameters affect the cost of manufacturing. The expectation is to increase cost awareness and reduce the risk of sub-optimization in Volvo Powertrain Production Köping´s operations. The developed hourly rate is not specific to processing technology but the entire company can benefit from the spreadsheet. From a wider viewpoint, the model is applicable to manufacturing companies that have a detailed loss monitoring system similar to Cost Deployment. / Marknaden utvecklas och konkurrensen ökar vilket medför ett ökat tryck på företagen att behålla sin konkurrensfördel. Att arbeta med kostnadsbesparingar är det säkraste sättet för att öka förtjänsten på kort sikt men även i ett längre perspektiv. Volvo Powertrain Production Köping har ett övergripande mål som innebär att kostnaderna ska reduceras med nio procent på tre år. För att uppnå målet arbetar Volvo Powertrain Production Köping med World Class Manufacturing där bearbetningsteknik utgör en viktig del. Volvo Powertrain Production Köping saknar en standard för hur besparingar inom bearbetningsteknik ska beräknas. Detta medför svårigheter att kontrollera och följa upp den egna verksamhetens utfall men också svårigheter att kontrollera verktygsleverantörernas utfall som ligger till grund för inköpsförhandlingar. Syftet med examensarbetet är att öka förståelsen för hur aktiviteter inom det bearbetningstekniska området påverkar produktiviteten genom en kalkylmodell. Arbetet började med en nulägesbeskrivning och en litteraturgenomgång som visade att många företag saknade en timkostnad framtagen på maskinnivå. Det finns teori som säger att maskintimkostnaden bör finnas både för producerande tillstånd och stillestånd vilket i efterföljande kvalitativa intervjuer med andra företag visar sig vara långt ifrån verkligheten. Insamlad information analyserades och en modell utvecklades. Modellen har testats i två förbättringsprojekt och utfallet har jämförts med befintliga kalkyler från verktygsförsäljare. Resultatet av examensarbetet är en standardiserad besparingskalkyl med en maskinspecifik timkostnad där hänsyn tas till om maskinen producerar eller om maskinen har oplanerat stillestånd. Besparingskalkylen är baserad på Cost Deployment som redan används inom Volvo Powertrain Production Köping. Besparingsmodellen är inte enbart till för att beräkna besparingar utan modellen kan också hjälpa användaren att förstå hur olika parametrar påverkar tillverkningskostnaden i hopp om att öka kostnadsmedvetenheten och minska risken för suboptimering i den egna verksamheten. Den framtagna timkostnaden är inte specifik för bearbetningsteknik utan hela företaget har nytta av kalkylen vid besparingsberäkningar. I ett större perspektiv är modellen applicerbar på tillverkningsföretag som har en noggrann förlustuppföljning liknande Cost Deployment.