Vivek SaranIndustrial Packaging Advisor
Cost Reduction

The True Cost of Packaging Downtime

Downtime is not only lost production. It also creates labour waste, rework, consumable loss, overtime, service cost and dispatch risk.

7 min readIncludes downtime calculator

Calculate Your Loss

Estimate downtime cost per incident and annual impact.

Open Downtime Cost Calculator

Most plants underestimate downtime because they calculate only the minutes when the line was stopped. The business cost is much wider.

The Formula

Downtime Cost = Lost Contribution + Labour Cost + Rework/Scrap + Consumable Waste + Overtime + Service Cost + Customer Impact

1. Lost Contribution

Lost contribution is the saleable output you could not make. If a line runs at 120 packs per minute and stops for 45 minutes, it loses 5,400 packs. At Rs 2.50 contribution per pack, that is Rs 13,500 before any other cost.

2. Labour During Downtime

Operators, supervisors, maintenance and quality staff are still paid while the line is stopped. If 8 people are affected at Rs 250/hour for 45 minutes, that is Rs 1,500.

3. Rework and Scrap

Packaging stoppages often create bad packs before and after the stop: missing code, double code, label skew, damaged cartons, wrong MRP, poor sealing or unreadable barcode.

4. Consumable Waste

Ink, make-up, ribbon, labels, film, cartons, tape, glue and cleaning materials are often wasted during unstable restarts and repeated adjustments.

5. Overtime and Catch-Up

If production is recovered through overtime, downtime has not disappeared. The cost has moved into overtime, supervision and utilities.

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