The 6 Major Production Losses: A Complete Guide to Identifying and Eliminating Them

Your production line is running at 65% of its OEE. You’re losing 35% of productive capacity, without knowing exactly where or how. What if I told you that 6 types of loss explain almost all of these inefficiencies?

In the 1980s, Japanese engineer Seiichi Nakajima revolutionized industrial maintenance with TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). His major contribution? The precise identification of the Six Big Losses, six categories of losses that silently sabotage your performance. Today, in the age of Industry 4.0, this framework remains absolutely relevant for optimizing your OEE.

TeepTrak supports you in this process with a complete solution for real-time monitoring and performance analysis.

Why Six Big Losses Impact Your Competitiveness

OEE is calculated according to the formula: OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality

The Six Big Losses directly attack these three pillars. A plant with an OEE of 60% potentially generates €4M in annual losses of uncreated value for sales of €10M. This loss reduction directly improves your competitiveness.

With TEEPTRAK, you can visualize in real time the impact of each loss on your OEE, and have the precise data you need to prioritize your actions.

Loss of availability: Analysis of machine downtime

Availability measures the cycle time during which your equipment is actually operational. Two major losses sabotage it.

Loss 1: Equipment breakdowns and failures (Impact: 5-10%)

What are we talking about? Unplanned shutdowns caused by technical faults that paralyze the production line and require corrective maintenance.

How TeepTrak can help :

• Automatic alerts as soon as a machine stops
• Complete history of all faults with reaction time
• Maintenance dashboards to visualize critical equipment
• MTBF/MTTR reports in a click

Typical action plan :

1. FMECA analysis using TEEPTRAK data
2. Preventive maintenance based on actual statistics
3. Predictive maintenance with drift detection
4. Work instructions for autonomous maintenance level 1

Expected ROI: 40-60% reduction in breakdowns in 12 months.

Loss 2: Adjustments and Series Changes (Impact: 3-8%)

How TeepTrak can help :

• Automatic stopwatch for every change
• Comparative analysis by team and position
• Track set-up times to identify time-consuming steps
• Dedicated KPIs to measure your SMED performance

Real-life case: A manufacturer equipped with TEEPTRAK reduced its mold changes from 45 to 12 minutes, increasing its availability by 6%.

Performance Losses: Solutions for Optimizing Cadence

Loss 3: Micro-stops and slowdowns (Impact: 5-15%)

These stops of less than 5 minutes represent a massive waste: 2 minutes every 15 minutes = 13% loss!

TEEPTRAK: Your solution to microstops

• Automatic detection of every stop, even for 30 seconds
• Real-time capture via connected sensors
• Intelligent categorization of causes
• Frequency and pattern analysis
• Proactive alerts on recurring stoppages

Action plan with TEEPTRAK :

1. Total visibility with configurable detection from 10 seconds
2. Integrated, automatically generated Pareto analysis
3. 5 Why with historical data
4. Monitoring actions and measuring impact

ROI: 8-12% performance gain in 6 months. TEEPTRAK customers report a 45% reduction in microarrests after 8 months.

Loss 4: Reduced speed (Impact: 3-5%)

How TeepTrak optimizes your charge rate :

• Comparison of actual vs. theoretical real time rates
• Degradation evolution graphs
• Internal benchmarking between teams
• Rate drift alerts

Quality loss and materials management

Loss 5: Production defects (Impact: 3-7%)

Each non-compliant part = loss of material + machine time + wasted energy.

How TeepTrak improves product quality:

• Real-time scrap registration
• Automatic quality rate by reference
• Cause analysis with categorization
• Correlation between machine parameters and quality

Case study: An automotive subcontractor equipped with TEEPTRAK reduced its scrap rate from 4.2% to 1.1% in 10 months, improving customer satisfaction.

Loss 6: Start-up losses (Impact: 2-5%)

TEEPTRAK follows :

• Parts scrapped within minutes
• Post-startup quality curve
• Comparing performance between workers
• Average time to target quality

Methodology: Setting up TEEPTRAK on your production site

The TeepTrak ecosystem:

1. Connected cycle sensors

• Automatic detection of the production process
• Identification of microstops
• Real-time cycle time measurement

2. Touch-sensitive operator interface

• Simplified declaration of stops and causes
• Accessible from any device
• Offline mode with automatic synchronization

3. Real-time dashboards

• Direct OEE by machine and workshop
• Automatic alerts (SMS, email)
• Historical pattern analysis
• Excel/PDF export for meetings

Advantages :

• Quick installation: 1 to 3 days
• Universal compatibility: all brands
• French support from our experts
• Average ROI: 8-14 months

Prioritization: Automatic Pareto Analysis with TEEPTRAK

How TeepTrak builds your Pareto:

1. Automatic collection 24/7
2. Time and cost quantification
3. Instant Pareto generation
4. Interactive visualization with details
5. Identify the 20% of causes responsible for 80% of losses

Exclusive feature: Integrated Action Plan

• Create actions from Pareto
• Assign production manager and deadlines
• Track progress
• Archive best practices

Case Study: Summary of a Success Story at an Automotive OEM

Context: French SME, 120 employees, specialized in stamping. Initial OEE: 58%.

Solution deployed :

• 12 presses equipped
• 3 monitored lines
• Training 35 operators
• Installation: 2 weeks

Results after 12 months:

Availability: +5.8 points

• Breakdowns: -42
• Changes : -35%

Performance: +7.2 points

• Micro-loans: -48
• Speed: -22% difference

Quality: +1.4 points

• Defects: -31
• Start-up: -25% discount

Overall impact :

• OEE: 72.4% (+14.4 points)
• Downtime: -30
• Production up 24
• ROI: 11 months

Director’s testimonial: “TeepTrak revealed that 40% of our losses were invisible. Micro-losses were costing us 380k€ a year. In 12 months, we recovered 1.2M€ of capacity. This experience in managing our continuous improvement projects enabled us to optimize every part of our production flow. It was the first step in a constantly evolving transformation.”

Conclusion: Take action with TEEPTRAK

Six Big Losses are identifiable, quantifiable and eliminable. This case study shows that with visibility and reliable data, loss reduction is measurable.

TeepTrak offers you :

✅ Automatic detection of all losses

✅ Precise quantification of OEE impact

✅ Intelligent Pareto prioritization

✅ Real-time stock tracking

✅ Fast ROI (8-14 months)

Your next steps :

1. Request a customized TEEPTRAK demo for your industry
2. Test TEEPTRAK on your critical machines
3. Join the 200+ manufacturers who have already transformed their production with TeepTrak.