Blog · Published · Updated
One stoppage, two entries in the production report
Short answer
Downtime report automation links an operator's note to the stop recorded by the machine when both describe the same event, and keeps that link at the next import. In the example, a report of 100 rows shows 85 real events after reconciliation. At Syntalith the automation costs from €3,000 net, and at 2,000 downtime entries a month of 2 minutes each it pays back in 1.5 months.
How we workDetails ↓
- 01Call30 minutes with an engineer, free
- 02PrototypeA working system on your process and data, free
- 03ImplementationTarget and fixed price in the contract; 50% at signing
- 04Acceptance50% once the agreed target is met
- net for the automation of one process, build paid once
- from €3,000
- from signing the contract to acceptance
- 2–6 weeks
- free prototype on your cases
- €0
We belong to the OpenAI and Anthropic partner programmes and learn through their official courses. What this means ↓
Author: Syntalith · 3 min read
Statistics
Manufacturing and automation: statistics 2026
1.5 mo.
payback of a €3,000 automation at 2,000 downtime entries a month: €2,327 of work today, €358 with checking and the model. Scenario.
20.0%
According to Eurostat (2025), 20.0% of EU companies with at least 10 employees used AI.
Source: Eurostat, 20% of EU enterprises use AI technologies (2025) ↗
53.6%
According to Eurostat (2023), 53.6% of EU manufacturing companies used ERP software.
50%
According to the European Commission (2026), half of EU SMEs and mid-caps name high investment costs as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 578 (2026) ↗
48%
According to the European Commission (2026), 48% of EU SMEs and mid-caps name a lack of expertise as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 578 (2026) ↗
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
The note describes a stop already in the machine log
The machine log holds the start and end of a stop, and later the operator adds information about the same event in a separate form. Both entries reach the report as separate rows and raise the number of stoppages. The manager deletes the row by hand in the spreadsheet, but at the next refresh the note comes back as a separate stoppage.
If the note has a confirmed reference to the machine and the event, it is attached to the right entry: the report shows one stoppage with the operator's description and links to both sources. When there is no clear link, the note waits for the manager's decision. Once the correction is approved, the manager sees which two records were counted separately before, and the link stays at the next import.
- Rows in the report
- 100
- Notes describing events the machines already recorded
- 15
- Real events
- 100 − 15 = 85
- Overcount of events
- 15 ÷ 85 = 17.65%
No more explaining at each import: 15 × 4 min
1 h per report
Hypothetical numbers. Each of the 15 notes concerns a separate event. Correcting the report does not change the physical duration of the stoppage.
- The source of the start and end of a stoppage, agreed by the team
- Differences in times between the records are visible
- The note explains what happened, and the cause may remain unknown
- New and changed entries checked at every import
What downtime report automation costs and when it pays back
- Today
- 2,000 downtime entries × 2 min = 66.7 h (€2,327)
- With the system, a person checks the output in 15% of the time
- €349
- Model, 1 call per case, Claude Sonnet 5.5
- €8.95
- Cost of one case
- €1.16 today, €0.18 with the system
- Saving
- €1,969 a month
Payback of €3,000
1.5 months
The volume, the time and the checking share are the scenario's assumptions. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat. Model: 1,500 input tokens and 200 output tokens per call at Anthropic's rates, converted at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026.
The count covers the work around a case: searching, reading, writing and passing things on. What stays is the time to check the result, 15% of today's work in this scenario. Before the quote we measure both times on 20 to 100 cases the team has already handled, in a free test that takes 5 working days.
The payback scenario assumes 2,000 downtime entries a month with 2 minutes of reconciling each. The numbers in the example are hypothetical, and the arithmetic is the same for every report.
Check the report in your current production system
Production systems record machine activity separately from notes: the machine activity record in Tulip keeps the state and the time data apart. If your system lets an operator link a note to a machine event when saving it, configuring the operator form is enough. Automation makes sense when notes and logs reach the report from different sources and the link has to be rebuilt at every import. The boundary between IT and control systems is described in the post about automation in industry, and grouping event descriptions in fine-tuning for maintenance events.
The note can name the event when it is saved
configure the operator form
no build
Logs and notes from different sources
automation that keeps the links at import
from €3,000
Descriptions written in different ways, to be grouped
a model with assessed examples
priced after the analysis
Define the scope around a report your team corrects today
The first scope covers one line and the report for the shift meeting. The reporting scope is described on the reporting in maintenance page. We build this kind of system as part of our AI automations. For the free analysis, a description of one case from the last few weeks and the tools it went through is enough. You do not need to send confidential documents, and you get a written plan within 2 working days.
Worked example · Scenario
How we count the payback: production reports
We run the same count for your lines in the free analysis.
€1,815
a month for 12 h a week of report preparation
Payback: 1.9 mo.
The hours for each firm size and checking in 15% of the old time are our assumptions. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat, for companies with 10 or more employees. We measured the model cost in our report system: a commentary with a check of the figures costs about €0.0002, converted at the NBP rate of 21 October 2026 and the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026.
See the full calculation →
