What is stop reasons, when do we use it and why?
In every manufacturing environment, production lines experience interruptions. These interruptions, or stops, can be either planned (such as changeovers, cleaning, or preventive maintenance) or unplanned (such as breakdowns, material shortages, or quality issues).
Stop Reasons are the standardized categories used to record and explain why a machine or line is not running. By assigning a clear reason to each stop, organizations create visibility into production losses and enable fact-based decision making.
Recording these events consistently allows teams to:
Understand where and why downtime occurs.
Distinguish between planned and unplanned losses.
Compare each activity against its target or standard time, to evaluate performance gaps.
Identify recurring problems and their root causes.
Prioritize corrective actions that will have the greatest impact on performance.
Managing Stop Reasons effectively is essential for accurate OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) measurement, continuous improvement initiatives, and performance management. Without it, downtime remains hidden or misclassified, making it difficult to drive sustainable efficiency gains.
Standard OEE Waterfall
A standard OEE waterfall shows the defined stop groups as a visual representation. It provides a clear, structured breakdown of production losses and efficiency. It typically starts with availability, showing planned versus unplanned downtime, followed by performance, highlighting slow cycles or minor stops, and finally quality, indicating rejects or defects. Each category is well-defined and sufficiently large to show meaningful trends. The visualization is clean and easy to interpret, helping teams focus on the problem itself rather than assigning blame, and enabling data-driven improvement actions.
Here is a standard OEE waterfall, built as we described above. It clearly shows the stop groups, categorized and visualized in a structured way, making it easy to identify the main sources of time loss and where improvement actions should be focused.
After seeing the standard way to view our stops, here is an example of an non-standard OEE waterfall, which makes it harder to understand downtime, identify root causes, and take effective improvement actions.
Groups are too small – the chart becomes noisy and hard to interpret.
Unclear problem from the group title – it is not obvious why the machine did not operate as expected during this time (e.g., system, operation).
Focus on the responsible party instead of the problem itself – shifts attention away from improvement.
No separation between planned and unplanned time – it is unclear where to focus, which issues have the greatest impact on performance, and which corrective actions are most relevant.
Stop Reasons Customization
The following screen allows you to manage and customize stop reasons used in your production environment.
Stops groups (such as Set Up, Cleaning, Breaks, Breakdowns, Waiting) help organize different types of downtime.
Within each group, you can add specific stop reasons to capture detailed information about production interruptions.
Web > Settings > Stop Reasons Customization
We recommend working with the following standard stop groups to ensure consistent reporting and accurate OEE analysis:
Not Scheduled – time when the line is not planned to produce (for example: weekends, holidays, R&D activities).
Setup - planned stops required to prepare the line for a new product, format, or recipe.
Cleaning - planned downtime for sanitation, CIP (clean-in-place) etc.
Breaks - scheduled operator breaks (such as lunch, safety training etc.).
Breakdowns – unplanned stops caused by equipment or machine failures.
Waiting – unplanned downtime due to missing materials, tools, or labor.
how to add group?
To create a new stop group, click “Add group”. A window will open on the right side of the screen where you can define the group’s details:
Planned or Unplanned – select whether this stop group represents planned time (e.g., cleaning, changeovers) or unplanned time (e.g., breakdowns, material shortages).
Color – choose a color to easily identify the group in reports and dashboards.
Target – set a benchmark or standard time for this group, so actual stop durations can be compared against it.
Machines scope – decide whether this stop group applies to all machines or only to specific machines.
Once saved, the group will appear in the Stop Events list, and you can start adding detailed stop reasons under it.
How to add a new reason to the group?
To add a stop reason within a stop group, simply go to the relevant stop group and click the “+ Add stop reason” button at the top of that group.
a new panel will open on the right side of the screen. In this panel, you can fill in the following fields:
Select the work type: manual work, downtime, or idle.
You can assign a unique color or icon to the stop reason (optional).
Choose whether to apply the stop reason to all machines or only to some of them.
How to search?
To search for a specific stop reason, simply click the search button (magnifying glass) on the right side of the screen and type in the requested stop reason.
How to filter active groups only?
To filter for active stop groups only, click the filter icon on the right side of the screen.
In the panel that opens on the right, under the Active Groups field, select ACTIVE only.
Stop Events Groups Targets
You can set a target for each stop group. This target will helps us determine whether the actual duration met the standard and whether any improvement actions are needed.
To set a target for a stop group, just click on the desired stop group. In the panel that opens on the right, under the Target field, enter the desired target as a percentage. When finished, click the Save button.
How to report a stop event?