Equipment breakdown process flowchart (unplanned failure)

How it works

1. Rename the lanes to your real roles

   Replace Operator, Shift supervisor, Maintenance technician, Stores and Engineering with the roles you actually have. Smaller sites merge Engineering into the technician lane; sites running around the clock often replace Shift supervisor with the shift lead or the control room. Merge a lane rather than leaving one that only a single step ever touches.

2. Attach your safe isolation rules to the stop step

   'Stop machine and make it safe' is where your safe system of work belongs: emergency stop, isolation and lock-off, any permit needed, and who is competent to do it. In Great Britain the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 require work equipment to be capable of being isolated from its sources of energy. The diagram should point at your existing isolation procedure rather than restate it, so the two cannot drift apart.

3. Define when the downtime clock starts and stops

   Write down the two timestamps: the clock starts when the machine stopped and ends when it is producing acceptable output again. Most arguments about downtime data come from the start point, so fix it once and use the same definition on every asset. Decide at the same time whether you record waiting-for-spares time separately, since that is usually the largest and most fixable component.

4. Set the on-site repair boundary

   Say what makes 'Repairable on site?' a no: specialist tooling, a warranty seal, a sealed or calibrated unit, statutory inspection, or work nobody on shift is competent to carry out. Then name who can authorise a contractor call-out or a replacement unit, and up to what value, so the escalation does not stall waiting for someone to be found.

5. Write the temporary fix rules down

   Decide who may authorise a temporary fix, what may never be worked around under any circumstances — guarding, interlocks and other safety functions — what output or product restriction applies while it is in place, and how the permanent repair gets its own dated work order. Without those four answers the branch becomes an informal habit instead of a controlled decision.

6. Set the repeat failure trigger, then publish a versioned copy

   Define what makes 'Repeat failure on this asset?' a yes, such as the same failure mode on the same asset inside an agreed period, and name where the referral goes. Walk the finished chart with each shift and correct the steps they actually perform, then publish it as the current version with a sign-off so everyone is working from the same revision.

Frequently asked questions

What are the steps in an equipment breakdown process?

Detect the failure and stop the machine safely, report the fault, log it with the downtime start and raise a work order, assess the fault, decide whether it can be repaired on site, obtain the spare or arrange external work, carry out the repair, run a functional test, confirm the machine is operating to specification, restart production and record the downtime, then refer repeat failures for root cause analysis. The order matters in two places in particular: making the machine safe comes before reporting it, and the functional test comes before handback rather than after production has already restarted.

What is the difference between breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance?

Breakdown maintenance is carried out after a failure, when the machine has already stopped. Preventive maintenance is carried out to a schedule or to a measured condition before it fails. Maintenance terminology standards such as EN 13306 make the same split, treating work carried out after a fault has been recognised as corrective maintenance. The practical consequence is that breakdown work sits on the critical path, so this process is built around speed, escalation and a downtime clock, while planned work is scheduled into an agreed window and needs job planning and resource booking instead.

When should the downtime clock start and stop?

It should start when the machine stopped and stop when it is producing acceptable output again — not when the work order was raised, and not when the technician put the tools down. Anything narrower understates the loss, because waiting for a technician, waiting for a part and running the functional test are all time the line was not producing. Use one definition across every asset, since comparisons between lines are meaningless if one supervisor starts the clock at the stoppage and another at the call-out.

Is a temporary fix acceptable during a breakdown?

Sometimes, and the process should say so explicitly rather than leaving it to whoever is on shift. A temporary fix is a decision to run at reduced output, or with something worked around, until the correct part arrives. It should be authorised by the supervisor rather than agreed informally, must never involve bypassing guarding, interlocks or any other safety function, should carry a stated restriction on output or product, and should raise its own dated work order for the permanent repair. The risk this branch guards against is not the fix itself but the fix that is still in place a year later because nobody recorded it.

When should a breakdown be referred for root cause analysis?

When repairing it again is no longer the right answer: the same failure mode recurring on the same asset inside an agreed period, a failure with a safety or quality consequence, or one whose downtime crosses a threshold you have set. This process deliberately ends at production resumed and hands the investigation to engineering, so the line is not held down while somebody works out why the component failed. Referring the asset does not slow the restart; it makes sure the failure is counted and investigated rather than quietly absorbed into the shift.