Machine breakdown register and maintenance log for a factory

Press 2 stopped on Tuesday afternoon. The mechanic came, changed a seal and left. On Friday it stopped again, and nobody could say what had been done the first time, which seal, or how long the press had stood. The owner hears "the press keeps giving trouble" and has nothing to decide with. A breakdown register turns "keeps giving trouble" into hours, causes and dates.

The Excel file below has two sheets. The first records every breakdown as it happens. The second is a short plan of routine checks, so that some of the breakdowns never happen.

Breakdown register format: one row per stoppage

Write the row when the machine stops, not when it is repaired. A row written at the end of the day from memory loses the time, the problem seen and often the hours.

A maintenance plan that fits on one sheet

The second sheet, "Maintenance plan", has one row for each routine check of each machine:

• Machine and check: oil level, belt tension, filters, grease points, the electrician's round.
• Every (days): 7 for a weekly check, 30 for a monthly one.
• Last done: the date of the last check. Change it every time the check is done.
• Next due and days to due: these fill themselves. An overdue check turns red.

Start with the checks your mechanic already knows by heart. A plan of ten real checks that are done beats a plan of a hundred that nobody opens. Take the intervals from the machine's own manual where you have it, and from your mechanic's experience where you do not.

Three rules that keep the register honest

1. Every stoppage gets a row, even a short one. Twenty minutes lost twice a day is more than one bad afternoon a month.
2. A row is closed only with an action. "Fixed" with an empty last column goes back to the person who repaired it.
3. After a breakdown, ask whether a check would have caught it. If yes, add that check to the maintenance plan the same week.

What to look at every Monday

• Red rows on both sheets. Machines still down since last week, and checks that are overdue.
• Hours lost per machine for the last four weeks. Filter by machine and add the hours. The machine at the top is where the next spare part, or the next conversation with the mechanic, should go.
• Causes that repeat. If "tool or die" comes up every week, the problem is in the tool room. If "power cut" leads, it is not a maintenance problem at all.
• "Fixed for now" rows. Each one is a proper repair that has not been done yet.

Breakdown report for the owner

At the end of the day, one WhatsApp line from the supervisor is enough: "Breakdowns today: Press 2, 3 hours, hydraulic, fixed for now. Compressor waiting for relay, due tomorrow." The register is where that line comes from.

Sheet or system?

A shared sheet is enough while one supervisor writes every stoppage and the owner reads it once a week. It builds the habit that saves hours: every stoppage written down, with a cause and an action.

The sheet starts to fail when a machine that stops is known only the next morning, when the jobs waiting on that machine are not told to sales, and when several supervisors keep their own copies. At that stage we set up a Production Job Tracker on your own job cards and machines, in which a breakdown is reported in one tap, the job on that machine goes on hold with its reason, and the owner gets one report in the evening. You can try the live demo without signing up.

For the count of pieces and minutes lost in every shift, keep the daily production report format beside this register.