Heat Treatment, Furnaces & Thermal Processing worked example

Furnace Downtime Cost at 110% share of hourly cost actually incurred: a worked example in heat treatment, furnaces & thermal processing

This scenario runs the furnace downtime cost calculation on the strong side: 110% share of hourly cost actually incurred, with every other input held at its documented default. Use it when unplanned downtime, failed elements, burner trips, vacuum pump issues, belt stoppages, or controls faults interrupt production.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Furnace hours lost to downtime: 8 hr (unchanged)
  • Cost per idle furnace hour: 650 $ / hr (unchanged)
  • Share of hourly cost actually incurred: 110 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 100)
  • Fixed restart, purge, or service charge: 1,200 $ (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Captured furnace downtime cost = lost furnace hours × downtime cost rate × downtime cost capture) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 6,920 $ for total furnace downtime cost, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 865 $ / hr for downtime cost per lost hour.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 5,720 $ for captured downtime loss.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,200 $ for fixed restart or service cost.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where share of hourly cost actually incurred sits at 100% and the headline result is 6,400 $, this scenario comes in 8.13% above the baseline at 6,920 $.
  • Use it after an unplanned outage to quantify impact, or before approving PM spend, spares, or redundancy to weigh the cost of a hypothetical failure. Treat this as a target state: the delta against the baseline quantifies what the improvement is worth before you commit to chasing it.

Results at a glance

  • Total furnace downtime cost: 6,920 $ (headline result)
  • Downtime cost per lost hour: 865 $ / hr
  • Captured downtime loss: 5,720 $
  • Fixed restart or service cost: 1,200 $

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Furnace Downtime Cost calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.