Maintenance & Reliability worked example

Downtime Cost per Hour with downtime hours basis of 2.5 hr: a worked example

Push downtime hours basis up to 2.5 hr and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. Use it when a reliability engineer needs a defensible hourly loss rate for bad-actor ranking, root cause analysis (RCA), or capital justification.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Downtime hours basis: 2.5 hr (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 1)
  • Lost production revenue per hour: 8,500 $ / hr (unchanged)
  • Direct labor waste per hour: 900 $ / hr (unchanged)
  • Scrap, restart, and fixed overhead per hour: 1,800 $ / hr (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Downtime cost per hour = downtime hours basis × lost production revenue per hour + direct labor waste per hour + scrap, restart, and fixed overhead per hour) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 23,950 $ / hr for downtime cost per hour, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 9,580 $ / hr for cost per downtime hour basis.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 21,250 $ / hr for lost production component.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 2,700 $ / hr for labor, scrap, and overhead.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where downtime hours basis sits at 1 hr and the headline result is 11,200 $ / hr, this scenario comes in 114% above the baseline at 23,950 $ / hr.
  • It sums lost production revenue per hour, direct labor waste per hour, and scrap, restart, and fixed overhead per hour, scaled by the downtime hours basis, to give cost per downtime hour. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Downtime Cost per Hour: 23,950 $ / hr (headline result)
  • Cost per Downtime Hour Basis: 9,580 $ / hr
  • Lost Production Component: 21,250 $ / hr
  • Labor, Scrap, and Overhead: 2,700 $ / hr

Run it with your numbers

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

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.