MANUFACTURING PROCESS RELIABILITY METRIC

2.2 AVAILABILITY
Published on October 12, 2010
Revised on August 3, 2016

DEFINITION
This metric is the percentage of time that the asset is actually operating (uptime) compared to
when it is scheduled to operate. This is also called operational availability.

OBJECTIVES
Availability provides a measure of when the asset is either running or is capable of performing
its intended function. It is a measure of an asset’s ability to be operated if required.

FORMULA
Availability Formula
Availability % = {Uptime (hrs.) / [Total Available Time (hrs.) – Idle Time (hrs.)]} x 100

Uptime Formula
Uptime = Total Available Time – (Idle Time + Downtime)

Downtime Formula
Downtime = Scheduled Downtime + Unscheduled Downtime

COMPONENT DEFINITIONS
Idle Time
The time an asset is idle or waiting to run. The sum of the times when there is no demanded
administrative idle time (e.g., not scheduled for production). Does not include equipment
downtime (scheduled or unscheduled) and no feedstock or raw materials.

Operational Availability
The percentage of time that the asset is capable of performing its intended function (uptime
plus idle time). Also called availability.

Page 1 of 7
Scheduled Downtime
The time required to work on an asset that is on the finalized weekly maintenance schedule.

Total Available Time

Annual Basis: 365 days/year x 24 hours/day = 8760 hours per year (Note: The addition of one
more day per year must be made for leap year.) Daily Basis: 24 hours

Unscheduled Downtime
The time an asset is down for repairs or modifications that are not on the weekly maintenance
schedule.

Uptime
The amount of time an asset is actively producing a product or providing a service. It is the
actual running time.

QUALIFICATIONS
1. Time Basis: Weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
2. This metric is used by corporate and plant managers to capture asset performance data
as a basis for specific improvements related to design, operations and/or maintenance
practices.
3. It should be used in conjunction with overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and total
effective equipment performance (TEEP) in evaluating overall performance.
4. Do not confuse availability with reliability.
5. There are several variations of the definition of availability. SMRP’s chosen definition is
commonly used at the plant level. Academic definitions, such as achieved availability or
inherent availability, correctly relate availability to mean time between failures (MTBF) or
mean time to repair (MTTR). SMRP Guideline 6.0, Demystifying Availability, relates the
SMRP definition to academic definitions and other variations.

Space left blank intentionally

Page 2 of 7
 SAMPLE CALCULATION
An example of the availability calculation based on a performance period of one month (720
hours) for a single piece of equipment is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Example Calculation of Availability

Components Data Comments

Total available time 720 hours 24 hours for 30 days

Power outage 20 hours, no demand
Idle time 240 hours
220 hours
Downtime Summary
Scheduled downtime

Preventative maintenance 30 hours 30 – 1 hour daily PMs

Scheduled shift breaks 19.8 hours

Total scheduled downtime 49.8 hours 30 for PMs +19.8 shift breaks

Unscheduled downtime

Waiting for operator 13.8 hours

Failures or breakdowns 9.9 hours
Setups and changeovers 16.8 hours

Tooling or parts changes 6.9 hours

Startups and adjustments 15.0 hours

No feedstock 30.0 hours

Total unscheduled downtime 92.4 hours

Uptime 337.8 720 – 240 – 49.8 – 92.4

Availability: (% of time an asset is operating) 70.38% 337.8 / (720 – 240) x 100 = 70.38%

Space left blank intentionally

Page 3 of 7
 Total Available Time (365 days x 24 hours per day)

Idle Scheduled
Availability

Scheduled Hours of Production

Time Downtime
Unscheduled
Uptime Hours of Actual Production
Downtime

Best Production Rate

Speed

Speed
Actual Production
Losses

Actual Production
Quality

"First Time
Pass" Quality
Saleable Losses
Production

Figure 1. Overall Equipment Effectiveness Timeline

Space left blank intentionally

Page 4 of 7
 Total Available Time

Available to Run Total Downtime

Scheduled Unscheduled
Uptime Idle Time
Downtime Downtime

Examples of Idle Examples of Scheduled Examples of Unscheduled- Downtime

Time Downtime
No demand Scheduled repairs Unscheduled repairs
Not scheduled for PM/PdM External factors
production Turnarounds No raw material
Set-up No feed stock

Figure 2. Time Element Chart

BEST-IN-CLASS TARGET VALUE

SMRP’s Best Practices Committee research indicates that best-in-class values for this metric are
highly variable by industry vertical and facility type. SMRP recommends organizations become
involved in trade associations within their industry vertical, as these groups often publish such
data about their industry. SMRP also encourages plants to use this metric to help manage the
maintenance management process. Combined with information from other metrics and by
tracking and trending this metric, plants will gain useful information to help make improvements
to plant maintenance and reliability programs. This metric is aligned with 2.1.1 Overall
Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and 2.1.2 Total Effective Equipment Performance (TEEP).

CAUTIONS
Availability target should be set during the long-term or annual plan and based on business
drivers. Drivers in determining the availability target can be raw product availability, market
sales, spare capacity and higher than normal scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.

Page 5 of 7
HARMONIZATION
This metric and its supporting definitions are harmonized with EN 15341 Indicators T1 and T2,
as they all measure the same performance.

Note 1: Both the SMRP metric and the EN indicator use the term availability. The different use
of the term availability reflects the cultural difference.

Note 2: EN 15341 looks at availability from an equipment perspective.

Note 3: The SMRP metric looks at availability from an operation perspective.

Note 4: EN 15341 indicators count only corrective and preventive maintenance as unavailability.

Note 5: The SMRP metric counts scheduled and unscheduled unavailability.

Note 6: The SMRP definition uptime is similar to the EN 13306 term operating time;
consequently, the nominator in T1 is similar to the nominator in SMRP metric 2.2.

Note 7: The denominator in SMRP metric 2.2 is similar to the denominator in T2.

Conclusion: SMRP metric 2.2 is similar to the nominator in T1 and the denominator in T2.

Harmonization with indicator T1 in EN 15341 indicates that differences exist in component

definitions.

This document is recommended by the European Federation of National Maintenance Societies

(EFNMS) as a guideline for calculating indicators T1 and T2. Additional information is available
in the document Global Maintenance and Reliability Indicators, which is available for purchase in
the SMRP Library.

REFERENCES
Association for Manufacturing Technology. (2002). Production equipment availability – A
measurement guideline (3rd ed.). McLean, VA: AMT.

Hansen, R. C. (2001). Overall equipment effectiveness. South Norwalk, CT: Industrial Press,
Inc.

ISO/14226/. (2006). Key performance indicators and benchmarking. Geneva, Switzerland:

International Standards Organization.

Page 6 of 7
McKenna, T. and Oliverson, R. (1997). Glossary of reliability and maintenance terms. Houston,
TX: Gulf Publishing Company.

Moore, R. (1999). Making common sense common practice – Models for manufacturing
excellence. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company.

Moore, R. (2004). Making common sense common practice – Models for manufacturing
excellence (3rd ed.). Burlington, NY: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann.

Narayan, V. (2004). Effective maintenance management: risk and reliability strategies for
optimizing performance. South Norwalk, CT: Industrial Press, Inc.

SAE JA 1010-1. (2004). Maintenance glossary of terms, definitions. Warrendale, PA: SAE
International.

SMRP Guideline 6.0. (2010). Guideline 6.0 – Demystifying availability. Atlanta, GA: Society for
Maintenance and Reliability Professionals.

Page 7 of 7