A two-minute calculator built for UK SME manufacturers. Adjust the numbers to match your operation and see the realistic annual cost — plus what predictive maintenance could save.
All inputs in GBP. Estimates are fine — you can refine the answer as you learn the numbers.
If you don't track this, a starting point: 5–10% of total production hours is typical.
Total annual revenue ÷ total production hours. A 200-person manufacturer doing £25m/year on 6,000 production hours = £4,167/hour.
The portion of revenue that actually drops to the bottom line if you produce one more unit. Typical for UK SME manufacturers: 18–35%.
Operators still on the clock when the line stops. Per-hour fully-loaded cost × number of people affected.
Material wasted on startup/shutdown plus rework on out-of-spec units. Per affected downtime hour.
Lost margin + idle labour + scrap. Annualised.
McKinsey, Deloitte, and ARC Advisory have all published research showing predictive maintenance typically delivers 30–50% reductions in unplanned downtime, with best-in-class programmes reaching 70–80%. The savings above scale your specific numbers against those benchmarks.
The headline cost of downtime is rarely the full story. Most manufacturers can quote the maintenance labour bill, but that's a small part of the loss. The bigger components are usually:
We've written a longer explainer on the true cost of unplanned downtime if you want the full breakdown. And our guide to building a business case for predictive maintenance walks through how to present these numbers to finance.