What Started

Set up your plant

Downtime reasons

Downtime reasons are the buttons operators see under Why is it stopped? when they scan a machine's QR sticker. Picking one puts the machine in that reason's status and records why it stopped. Reports then show lost time by reason.

Every plant starts with a list, such as Breakdown, Tooling, No material and Planned maintenance. Change it under Settings → Reasons. Owners and admins can edit the list; other members can see it.

What each reason has

  • Name: the words on the operator's button. Up to 60 characters.
  • Code: a short ID, up to 16 letters, digits, - or _, like NO_MAT. It is filled in from the name as you type, and you can change it before you add the reason. Codes stay fixed once added, because exports, the API and webhooks carry them.
  • Puts machine in: the status the machine goes to: Down, Idle, Waiting or Off. Running has its own button on the sticker.
  • Planned: tick it for stops that are part of the plan, such as breaks, planned maintenance or not scheduled.

Add or change a reason

  1. Open Settings → Reasons.
  2. Under Add a reason, fill in Name, check the Code, pick Puts machine in, and tick Planned if it applies.
  3. Click Add reason.

To change a reason, edit its name, status or Planned box in the list and click Save. The code cannot be changed.

Order and archive

The sticker shows reasons in the order of the list. Use the arrows to move a reason up or down. Put the most common ones first.

A plant can have up to 24 reasons in use, so operators can find theirs. Reasons cannot be deleted. Click Archive to hide one from operators; past stops keep it. Archived reasons are listed under Archived, with Restore to bring one back. An archived reason's code cannot be used for a new reason.

Planned and unplanned stops

Time in a reason marked Planned comes off planned production time, so it does not count against OEE. Time in any other reason is lost time and lowers availability. A machine that goes to off with no reason given also counts as planned.

The starting list marks Planned maintenance and Not scheduled as planned. See How OEE is calculated.

When a machine stops cycling

A machine can report run while making nothing: the PLC says run, but its cycle count has stopped. What Started can catch that and mark the machine as not producing. This needs a plan with machine counts (Pro or Plant), and a machine that sends its cycle count in its pings. See Send pings from a machine.

Turn it on for each machine:

  1. Open the machine.
  2. Under Not producing, set Minutes without a cycle, from 2 to 1440. The page suggests the time for three parts at the machine's target rate, or its ideal rate if there is no target.
  3. Click Save. Leave the box empty to turn it off.

A machine that pings less often than once a minute is given at least two pings' time before it is flagged. The page tells you when it waits longer than you set.

The check runs every minute. It flags a machine when all of these are true:

  • The machine is in run and has a signal.
  • It is inside one of its shifts. A machine without a schedule is always in a shift.
  • No new cycle has come in for longer than the gap, counted from the last cycle or the start of the run, whichever is later.

The machine then gets the plant's no-cycles reason, so the time counts as downtime and shows on the board. Owners and admins get an email, and your webhooks get alert.opened. The machine page shows Not producing with the time of the last cycle.

It clears when:

  • The cycle count moves again. The machine goes back to run.
  • An operator logs the real reason at the sticker, or a ping reports another status.

A ping that says run without a new cycle does not clear it.

Machines counted by hand have no counter to watch, so this does not apply to them. Parts logged at the QR sticker do not count as cycles.

The no-cycles reason

Under When a machine stops cycling on Settings → Reasons, pick the reason these machines get. It starts as No cycles (unexplained), which puts the machine in idle and is not planned. You can rename it or change its status like any reason. Choose No reason, just idle to set plain idle instead. Operators never see this reason on the sticker and cannot log it.

Scrap reasons

Scrap reasons say why parts were bad. Operators can pick one when they log bad parts at the QR sticker, which is on plans with machine counts. The list is under Scrap reasons on Settings → Reasons, with a name and a code like downtime reasons, but no status. Add one under Add a scrap reason. Order, archive and restore work the same way, also up to 24 in use.

The list is for the whole plant. To hide a scrap reason on one machine, open the machine and click Turn off next to it under Scrap reasons.

See also Print a QR sticker.