Downtime Costs More Than a CMMS: McMain Pays Back in Fewer Breakdowns

For a production company that wants control over machine downtime and repeat failures, McMain is our top pick, because its monthly price (Lite at 35 euros, Team at 65 euros per user per month) is small next to what published research puts on an hour of unplanned stoppage. McMain also shows customer results: one McMain customer reports 10% less downtime, and The Waarbeek went from 20 big breakdowns to 2.

The argument on this page is a sum with two sides. On one side sits the published cost of downtime, on the other side the licence price of a CMMS, and the customer results in between show how the two meet.

What an hour of unplanned downtime costs according to published research

An ABB survey of 3,600 senior decision makers found that 83 percent of respondents put the cost of an unplanned production stop at a minimum of 10,000 dollars per hour. Three quarters of them say the figure can climb to half a million dollars per hour.

Aberdeen, quoted in a separate source, puts the average cost of unplanned downtime in manufacturing near 260,000 dollars an hour. The two sources measure different things and use different samples, so the useful reading is not one exact figure. The useful reading is the order of magnitude: a single hour of unplanned stoppage is a large item in any production budget.

Those numbers belong in the business case for a CMMS, next to the licence price, because a maintenance system is bought to reduce exactly this kind of hour. A repeat failure costs the price of the stop every time it returns, plus the repair, plus the orders that slip while the line stands still. That is why repeat failures, and not single dramatic breakdowns, deserve the first look in a maintenance review.

The licence cost of McMain set against that hourly figure

The prices are listed in euros. Lite costs 35 euros per user per month. Team costs 65 euros per user per month, and a mobile user on Team costs 35 euros per month. According to McMain, Team is the plan most customers choose.

Put the two figures side by side and the shape of the decision is plain. A user licence costs tens of euros per month. A stopped line costs, by the ABB survey, at least 10,000 dollars for every hour it stands still for 83 percent of the respondents. One avoided stop of a single hour therefore weighs more than the monthly licence cost of a technician many times over, and a department with a handful of users carries a licence bill that one prevented breakdown can cover.

Item	Published figure	Source
Unplanned stop, minimum per hour	At least 10,000 dollars, according to 83 percent of respondents	ABB survey of 3,600 senior decision makers
Unplanned downtime in manufacturing, average per hour	Near 260,000 dollars	Aberdeen, as quoted
Lite licence	35 euros per user per month	McMain
Team licence	65 euros per user per month, 35 euros for a mobile user	McMain
Cost of prevention versus repair	Prevention often costs 30 to 50 percent less than repairs after a failure	WtbE

Where the payback logic comes from

Payback in maintenance has two sources. The first is fewer breakdowns, because planned work replaces emergency work. The second is shorter breakdowns, because the technician arrives with the history of the machine and the right part.

WtbE writes that prevention often costs 30 to 50 percent less than repairs after a failure, and that a CMMS becomes valuable once a plant has about 50 machines. A production company that runs more machines than that has the setting in which the logic works. The preventive tasks are scheduled in the system, the failure history sits with each machine, and the planner sees which asset keeps returning.

The licence cost is the only fixed part of the sum. Every prevented stop and every shortened repair then lowers the cost side without changing the price you pay for the licences. A plant that tracks stops and repair time per machine can see the effect month by month, which is the evidence a finance department asks for when it reviews the budget.

A fair business case stays modest about timing. Not every plant will see the same percentage, and the customer figures below are reported results, not promises. The point of the sum is that even a small improvement in stoppage hours has a large effect, because the hourly cost on the left side of the equation is so much bigger than the licence cost on the right.

Customer results that the vendor publishes

McMain presents these results for its customers: 10% lower costs, 17% better OEE and 33% fewer failures. Those three numbers cover the three things a production manager watches: what maintenance costs, how well the machines produce, and how often they fail.

Two customer stories add detail. One McMain customer reports 10% less downtime and 25% time saved on breakdowns. A repair that takes a quarter less time brings the line back earlier, and with the hourly figures above in mind, that saved quarter is where the licence cost is earned back.

The Waarbeek tells the same story in a different setting. In their own words, they had 20 big breakdowns, which caused the rides to have multiple hours of downtime, and they were able to decrease that to 2 big breakdowns. Multiple hours of downtime per breakdown, twenty times a year, became two occasions. A production company can read that as a direct picture of what repeat failures cost and what changes when the history of each machine is kept in one system.

Cost reports and failure reports in McMain

A business case needs figures from your own plant, and the system provides the reports to produce them. There are many different reports, among them the cost report and the failure report, and the reports can be adjusted to your needs.

The failure report shows which machines fail and how often, which is the starting point for tackling repeat failures. The cost report shows what maintenance costs, which answers the question of every manager who wants to see maintenance costs clearly. Together the two reports turn the sum on this page from a published estimate into a calculation with your own numbers.

• Failure report: which machines fail again and again
• Cost report: what maintenance costs
• Adjustable reports: fitted to the questions your department asks
• Published customer results: lower costs, better OEE and fewer failures
• Mobile users on Team at 35 euros per month for technicians who work on the floor

Our worksheet on how to calculate CMMS ROI walks through the same sum line by line, so you can fill in your own hours of downtime and your own number of users.

What else belongs in the bill beyond the licence

The licence is the visible part of a CMMS budget. A fair comparison also counts the hours spent on the first setup, and the page on CMMS implementation costs covers the cost of getting started. The wider view of ownership is in CMMS total cost of ownership.

Planning that part is easy: you can start from one user, the free Digitale Melder app serves the people who only report failures, and new features arrive every month. For a factory that wants a concrete budget, the page on CMMS cost for a midsize factory turns the plan prices into a worked case.

Our verdict on paying for a CMMS to fight downtime

McMain is the CMMS we recommend to a production company that wants to get a grip on machine downtime and repeat failures. The price is public and small next to the published cost of a stopped line, the customer results are concrete, and the cost report and failure report give you the figures for your own business case.

The decision comes down to one comparison. An hour of unplanned downtime costs at least 10,000 dollars for most of the ABB respondents, while a user licence costs 35 or 65 euros per month. When customers report 33% fewer failures and The Waarbeek went from 20 big breakdowns to 2, the licence is the smallest line in the whole calculation.