Downtime tracking that catches every stop and the reason behind it

Machine downtime tracking from the sensor with no operator input: SenseAi reads vibration and sound, SenseAi Embedded reads vibration and temperature at the motor, and BeamTracker reads the gap between parts crossing its beam. Status colors that turn a stopped machine orange and then red after two durations you set. Reason codes under None, Low, Medium and High severity headings, with required notes, planned-downtime flags, category types and colors. Classification from the status bar, the machine page, Operator View or the iOS app, one stop or many at once, and a split for a stop with two causes. Four automatic rules (short stops, shift start, shift end and whole-shift stops) plus scheduled break windows. The Downtimes report: a Pareto of reasons, trends by interval and by machine, and a table of every stop, filtered by department, machine, shift, category, severity and notes, exported to CSV or PDF or emailed on a schedule. A maintenance work order from a classified stop, and Machine Down alerts at a warning and a critical time by email, push, SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams or Discord. SenseAi and SenseAi Embedded attaches magnetically in seconds and calibrates in under five minutes; BeamTracker bolts on with the supplied mount in 10 to 20 minutes.

The sensor decides on the device, second by second. SenseAi reads vibration and sound, SenseAi Embedded reads vibration and temperature at the motor, and BeamTracker reads the gap between parts crossing its beam; a gap longer than the downtime filter you set reads as a stop. No PLC, no operator input, no wiring into the controls. Time when a sensor sent nothing is reported as unknown, on its own, so it never counts as downtime.

Operators, from the status bar, the machine page’s activity list, Operator View’s All Downtime tab, or the iOS app. They pick a reason from categories you define under severity headings, with a note where you require one. One stop or many at once.

Yes. Four organization-wide rules put a reason on the stops nobody should have to classify by hand: short downtimes, the start of a shift, the end of a shift, and a machine down for an entire shift. Scheduled break windows add a reason for lunch and breaks. Turn on short downtimes first, and leave the whole-shift rule off until your shift schedule matches the floor.

A downtime category: a reason created under a severity heading, optionally requiring a note, optionally marked as planned downtime, tagged with a type and given a color that carries through to the Downtimes report. Keep the list to about eight reasons, so operators pick from it without scrolling.

Planned downtime is a stop you scheduled: a changeover, a preventive maintenance window, a break. In IoTFlows it is a setting on the reason, so every stop classified under Tool Change is planned and every stop under Machine Failure is not. Planned reasons carry a calendar icon in the picker, which filters to planned or unplanned reasons in one click.

The Downtimes report ranks every reason by the hours it cost, so the biggest cause is the first bar. Split the same downtime by week to see whether a fix worked, and by machine to see whether a cause is spread across the floor or sits on one machine. Filter to stops with notes to read what operators saw, and split a stop that had two causes so each gets its own reason.

Yes. From the activity list you can split a stop that holds two reasons, change an activity’s operation, remove a classification, or delete a false activity.

Yes. The Classify Downtime dialog carries a Create Maintenance Workorder button, so a stop caused by a fault becomes a work order in Maintain with the reason as its title, the note as its description and the machine already set. An event rule or a meter can open one too.

Yes. Open Event Notifications on the machine, set the Machine Down warning time in minutes above your normal changeover, add a longer critical time if you want a second alert, and add the people who should hear about it to each event’s subscriber list. Alerts go to email, push, SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams or Discord, and a hosted webhook can send the same event to your own system.