The real cost of production downtime in the food industry, and how to prevent it
In every plant, productivity and output are vital metrics that teams work towards. To ensure the set targets are being met, you need to make sure everything is moving smoothly and efficiently.
Unexpected downtime – such as a faulty system or machine failure – in your plant will obstruct your ability to meet your productivity and financial objectives. This is even more significant in the food industry as products have an increased risk of damage, leading to increased waste and additional costs.

With manufacturers seeking ways to facilitate post-pandemic recovery, ensuring continued and better levels of productivity matters more than ever. Thankfully, there are ways to minimise downtime risk and curb periods of inactivity through machine maintenance, effective processes and spare parts management.
In this guide, we have outlined the real cost of downtime to food processors and the approaches you should take to prevent a machine fault from stopping your production line.
- The cost of downtime
- How to prevent downtime
- Regular maintenance
- Well-kept systems
- Effective spare parts management
The cost of downtime
Besides the obvious inconvenience of unexpected downtime, there is a real risk to profitability for businesses that experience it. Manufacturers lose up to £180 billion a year through lost productivity, showing the actual cost attached to your plant’s disruption due to system faults and other issues.
For food manufacturers, downtime can account for 5% to 20% of their working time. This suggests that it is far beyond a minor delay for many plants, who instead lose a sizeable chunk of working hours that could otherwise be dedicated to producing goods. During this time, manufacturers lose money through paying salaries for staff who cannot do their job, machines sitting idle and product not going out the door for which revenue could be generated.
On top of these costs associated with downtime, there’s the increased risk of delivery delays, potentially leading to dissatisfied customers, and staff safety being compromised as a result of malfunctioning machinery.
In the food industry, downtime may also create additional expenses through increased waste. Food processors will often be working with delicate products, and delays in getting them across production lines can result in spoiled goods. Broken machines and disruption also heighten the risk of damage and contamination to these goods. If this happens, they will often need to be disposed of and the production process restarted, further pushing back timescales and costing manufacturers through unusable supplies.
Due to the consequences of production downtime, there is a threat to revenue and profitability for individual businesses. Naturally, every manufacturer wants to avoid this – which is why it is vital to take steps to prevent downtime and keep your production line running efficiently.
How to prevent downtime
While there may be times where planned downtime is required, most unexpected downtime can be avoided before it takes hold. Below, we have listed our top three tips for reducing disruption to productivity, helping you to meet objectives and maintain costs.
Regular maintenance
Downtime often comes from a broken machine or part, which then goes on to disrupt entire production lines. More often than not, these are due to faults that have been present for some time.
Regular maintenance of your machinery enables you to identify issues ahead of time and fix them before they lead to disruption. It is essential to have maintenance scheduled frequently or take advantage of an external maintenance contract that ensures your machinery is systematically reviewed.
As well as this, you should have an adequate reporting structure where staff can raise equipment faults – particularly as these are the people working with those systems every day. Once issues are reported, they should be dealt with in a timely fashion to prevent a full breakdown.

By ensuring regular maintenance and reviewing known faults with equipment, you will uncover flaws early on, enabling you to identify production issues and put repairs in place swiftly to avoid them culminating in a bigger, more costly problem later on.
Well-kept systems
If you are repeatedly experiencing problems with your operating systems and machinery, it could signify that they are not being used correctly, that they are not set up correctly or that there is some other fault occurring.
Improper use can put added pressure onto machines, resulting in increased wear-and-tear, damage and eventual breakdowns. By ensuring equipment is used correctly and kept well, you minimise the risk.
Usage problems often boil down to user error. So, it is essential that any staff who operate your systems are trained how to do so correctly, with regular refresher courses to ensure best practice is not forgotten. This will reduce strain and optimise your internal processes. Many machine manufacturers will offer this training and user guidance, in line with the equipment’s intended use.
Another common error source is using machines that are not compatible with your applications, leading to issues with your goods and your production line. It is crucial that when you begin a new project, you ensure the solutions you use match your products and goals to prevent problems arising and maintain quality across your output.
It is also fundamental to regularly clean systems to keep them in good shape. In the food industry, this is especially significant as you will often be working with sticky, messy or liquid substances, which can culminate in a build-up of unwanted deposits on your production lines. As this grows over time, it can cause parts of the line to stop working effectively and possibly cause damage. By incorporating systems into your factory cleaning plans, you will reduce the impact of the build-up of unwanted deposits while ensuring compliance with hygiene standards.
Effective spare parts management
While the steps above will help you to drastically reduce the risk of machine breakdown before it happens, there will be cases where it is unavoidable. Often, this occurs at the most unexpected and inconvenient time.

When a break does happen and halts production, you need to react quickly to fix the issue and get things moving again. The sooner you do this, the less downtime you will experience – and the lower the cost implications.
Effective spares management is the best way to allow for speedy repairs. By having the parts you need to fix a machine in-house, you can save time compared to calling out an engineer and waiting for them to arrive. It will also help you save money, particularly if you don’t have a contract in place that covers repairs.
Build an inventory of spare parts that can be stored on site. This inventory should encompass spare parts for all of your machines so that you are equipped no matter what goes wrong. You should also make sure you only use genuine spare parts that are compatible with the systems you own, as using pirate or fake parts could lead to inefficiencies, further damage down the line and reduce the integrity of the machine.
Some machine manufacturers and suppliers will offer guidance alongside their spare parts to help you make a good repair. There should be live technical support available to talk you through the process, making it simple and cost-effective for you to carry out your own repair.
There may be times when you cannot repair them yourselves, such as more complex issues. In this case, it is essential that you contact a trained engineer who knows how to fix the problem to ensure a lasting repair and prevent more downtime later on.
Conclusion
There is no denying that downtime is a costly, disruptive and unwanted annoyance that manufacturers need to avoid. The risk to profitability is a concern that all businesses must eliminate, particularly as companies continue to overcome the challenges brought by COVID-19.
However, by ensuring consistent maintenance, proper use and cleaning of equipment and robust spare parts management, you will reduce the threat to your plant, enabling your production to run smoothly and continue to meet output goals. With this, you will enjoy enhanced profit and reduced costs.
If you need support in addressing the issue of unexpected downtime in your production lines, we are here to help. We can provide maintenance contracts, staff training, project planning, provision of genuine spare parts and technical support, all with the aim of preventing downtime and maintaining productivity levels.