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Six big losses worksheet

The six big losses are the TPM way of sorting everything that keeps a machine from making good parts at full speed for all of its planned time. Breakdowns and setups and adjustments cut availability, small stops and reduced speed cut performance, and startup rejects and production rejects cut quality, so each loss lands in one of the three OEE factors. Turning every loss into minutes shows where the time goes: the six losses always add up to planned time minus fully productive time, the time spent making good parts at the ideal cycle time. Page 1 of this template is a week's record of planned time, the minutes lost to breakdowns, setups and small stops, the counts, and the reasons behind the biggest losses. Page 2 shows how each loss feeds availability, performance and quality, a loss tree from planned production time down to fully productive time and a worked example. The Excel version works out operating time, availability, performance, quality and OEE for each day and the week, the minutes lost to each of the six losses, ranks them in a Pareto chart and checks that they add up.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the six big losses worksheet: fields for line, week, product, ideal cycle time and recorder, a key of the six losses, a table of seven days with planned time, availability, performance and quality losses, counts, operating time, fully productive time and OEE, and a table for the reasons behind the biggest losses.
Planned time per dayBreakdowns and setupsSmall stops and reduced speedStartup and production rejectsMinutes per loss, rankedLoss treeWorked example

When to use it

When to use a six big losses worksheet

  • When OEE is tracked but nobody can say which loss to work on first.
  • To show a team that reduced speed and small stops can cost as much time as breakdowns, or more.
  • Before a kaizen event or a TPM project on one machine, to pick the loss worth the effort.
  • Next to an OEE tracking sheet: the tracking sheet gives the number, this worksheet shows where the time went.

How to fill it in

  1. 1

    Agree planned time and the ideal cycle time

    Planned time is the shift less the stops you plan, such as breaks. The ideal cycle time is the fastest proven time per part. Use the same rules as your OEE tracking.

  2. 2

    Record the stops in minutes

    Breakdowns and setups and adjustments in minutes, with the reason. Time small stops if you can; if you only count them, the Excel version can use an average number of minutes per stop.

  3. 3

    Record the counts

    Total count, good count, and the startup rejects made after a setup or restart. The rest of the rejects are production rejects.

  4. 4

    Turn every loss into minutes

    Reduced speed = operating time − small stop minutes − ideal cycle time × total count. Each reject costs one ideal cycle time.

  5. 5

    Check the sum

    The six losses add up to planned time − fully productive time (ideal cycle time × good count). If they do not, a number is wrong.

  6. 6

    Rank them and act

    Rank the losses, largest first, and work on the top one. Write the reasons behind it on page 1 and take the biggest to a 5 Whys or a kaizen.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: one shift on a filling machine, the same shift as in the OEE tracking sheet example (illustrative numbers).

  • Planned time 450 minutes. Breakdowns 20 and setup 25 minutes, so operating time is 405 minutes and availability 90.0%.
  • Ideal cycle time 30 seconds and 700 parts: 350 minutes of ideal time. The 55 minutes lost to performance are 22 minutes of small stops (44 stops, timed) and 33 minutes of reduced speed.
  • 14 rejects: 8 after the setup and 6 in steady running, 4 and 3 minutes at 30 seconds each. 686 good parts, so quality is 98.0%.
  • Fully productive time is 686 × 0.5 = 343 minutes, so OEE is 343 ÷ 450 = 76.2%, and the losses check: 20 + 25 + 22 + 33 + 4 + 3 = 107 = 450 − 343.

Ranked, reduced speed is the biggest loss at 33 minutes, ahead of setup at 25 and small stops at 22. The first question is why the filler runs below its ideal rate, not how to cut breakdowns.

Common mistakes

  • Leaving reduced speed out

    Reduced speed is never recorded, only worked out. Skip the sum and the biggest loss can stay hidden.

  • An ideal cycle time that is too slow

    A slow ideal cycle hides the speed loss and can even make it negative. Use the fastest proven rate.

  • Mixing up small stops and breakdowns

    Agree a rule, for example stops under five minutes cleared by the operator are small stops, and keep it every week.

  • Forgetting startup rejects

    Rejects after a setup are part of what the setup costs. Count them apart from rejects in steady running.

  • Ranking by count instead of minutes

    Ten one-minute small stops cost less than one 30-minute breakdown. Rank the minutes.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite you upload loss data from a spreadsheet, each record is sorted into a cost bucket and a causal or resultant loss, and a loss tree ranked by cost shows which losses to work on first, with a Kaizen started from any loss.

FAQ

Six big losses worksheet: common questions

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