Free tool
Downtime Sheet Field Audit: Keep, Fix or Cut Every Field
Your team fills in the downtime sheet every shift. If the report built from it still gets argued over in the morning meeting, some of its fields are costing operator time and giving you numbers nobody trusts. This audit finds them.
Works on any shop-floor form. Free, and nothing you enter leaves the page.
Why use it
A form can be filled in every shift and still give you bad data
Shop-floor forms grow one field at a time, and each field made sense when someone added it. Over time some stop being read, some get filled in from memory, and some fill up with whatever is quickest to enter.
Most stops end up coded Other or General.
The reason list is too long, so people pick the quickest option.
Caught byThe Validation test
Stop times get written at the end of the shift.
The value comes from memory, hours after the stop.
Caught byThe Source test
Nobody can say who reads the Duration or Sub-reason boxes.
Operators fill them in every shift for a reader who isn’t there.
Caught byThe Use test
Wrong die numbers stay wrong.
Nobody is assigned to correct them.
Caught byThe Owner test
If any of these sound like your floor, the audit tells you which fields to keep, fix or cut, and which one to start with.
Who it’s for
Use it before you trust the numbers
Anyone who owns a shop-floor form, or relies on the data from one, can run it. Each run covers one form: a downtime sheet, a scrap log, a changeover checklist, a quality check sheet or a shift handover.
Plant managers
Before you approve a new report or dashboard, check the form that feeds it.
CI leads
At the start of a downtime, scrap or changeover project, so your baseline comes from fields you trust.
Quality leads
Before an audit, to confirm required fields are recorded at the event and have a named owner.
Supervisors
When operators push back on paperwork, to find the fields you can drop without losing anything someone uses.
Engineers going digital
Before you rebuild a paper form in an MES or tablet app, so you only carry over the fields worth keeping.
How it works
Three steps
List the fields
Type them in, or paste them one per line or straight from a spreadsheet row. Tick any field a machine fills in and any field a regulation or customer requires.
Answer four questions per field
Who reads it, when it’s recorded, what stops a wrong value, and who corrects it. Not sure is always an option.
Take the list to your next review
You get keep, fix and cut lists, one change for each failed test, and the field to start with. Copy it or print it for the shift review.
The four tests
What each question checks
A field is any box someone fills in on the form, like Stop start time or Reason code. Each test checks one way a field’s data goes wrong. The examples come from the sample press downtime sheet in the tool below.
Use
Which report, meeting or decision reads this field?
Passes whenA report, meeting or decision you can name reads it.
A field nobody reads still costs operator time every shift, and mistakes in it go unnoticed.
PassesReason code feeds the weekly downtime report.
FailsSupervisor initials: nobody can name what reads them.
Source
When is it recorded?
Passes whenIt’s recorded at the event by the person who saw it, or by a machine.
Values written later from memory drift, and copied values carry the first mistake forward.
PassesPress number is written at the stop by the operator who saw it.
FailsStop start time is filled in at the end of the shift from memory.
Validation
What stops a wrong value from saving?
Passes whenA scan, a list of 10 options or fewer, or a range check stops bad entries.
Long pick lists and free text tend to collect whatever is quickest to enter.
PassesOperator ID comes from a badge scan.
FailsReason code is picked from a list of 40 options.
Owner
Who corrects it when it’s wrong?
Passes whenOne named person knows it’s their job to correct it.
When nobody is assigned, wrong values stay on the record.
PassesThe area supervisor corrects a wrong press number.
FailsDie number: someone fixes it now and then, but nobody is assigned.
What you get
Keep, fix or cut, with one place to start
Every field lands in one of three groups. Each failed test comes with one change to make, written for the answer you gave. The fix to make first is marked Start here, with the reason it was picked.
Keep
Passes all four tests, or Use and Owner for a machine-filled field. Leave it as it is.
ExamplePress number. The weekly report reads it, the operator records it at the stop, a scan stops bad entries, and the supervisor corrects it.
Fix
Someone reads it, and at least one other test fails. You get one change for each failed test.
ExampleStop start time. The weekly report reads it, but it’s written at shift end from memory. The change: take it from the machine, or stamp it when the event happens.
Cut
Nothing you can name reads it. Fields marked required are never cut.
ExampleSupervisor initials. Nobody can name a report, meeting or decision that reads it. Check it isn’t required, then take it off the form.
Not sure counts as a fail
Choose Not sure. It counts as a fail, and your results list it as something to find out before you make the change.
Required and machine-filled fields
Fields a regulation, customer or certification requires are never cut. Fields a scanner, PLC or MES fills in skip the Source and Validation questions.
Try it
Score a form
Open the example to see finished results, or list the fields on your own form. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Get started
Pick a starting point
Have the form in front of you, or a list of its fields. Your answers stay in this page and clear when you close it.
Site assessment
A second set of eyes on every form on your floor
Our fixed-fee site assessment reviews your floor processes, records and reports and ends in a written findings report.
About the site assessment