Human Error Is More Common Cause Of Unplanned Downtime In Manufacturing Than Any Other Sector, According To New Research

48% of manufacturers cite considerable room for improvement in proactively preventing problems with equipment assets

LONDON, U.K., 7 November 2017 – User error is a more common cause of unplanned downtime in the manufacturing sector than any other sector, according to a new Vanson Bourne global study, sponsored by ServiceMax from GE Digital, the leading provider of field service management solutions. Unplanned downtime triggered by user error is 23% compared to as low as 9% in other sectors.

The new study, “After The Fall: Cost, Causes and Consequences of Unplanned Downtime,” surveyed more than 100 manufacturers globally at the field service and IT decision maker level in the UK, US, France and Germany. The research also surveyed 350 companies in other sectors globally across the medical, oil and gas, energy and utilities, telecoms, distribution, logistics and transport sectors. “It’s perhaps not surprising that the manufacturing sector has higher levels of human error given the breadth of machinery and equipment that requires maintenance and intervention by service engineers and technicians,” said Mark Homer, Vice President Global Customer Transformation for ServiceMax. “Whilst some manufacturers have started to digitize their service offerings with automated field service management that can trigger remedial action or intervention before a failure or outage takes place, large parts of the manufacturing sector have yet to put such systems in place. The knock-on effect of these episodes of unplanned downtime have obvious repercussions on OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) levels for manufacturing businesses.”

•48% of respondents from the manufacturing sector admit there is considerable room for improvement when it comes to proactively preventing problems with assets for their organisation.

•This proportion is only larger (55%) in the telecoms sector.

•Across all sectors, 82% of companies have experienced at least one unplanned downtime outage over the past three years, with the average number of outages being two.

•The study revealed high levels of asset estate ignorance across organizations in all sectors, with 70% of companies or more, lacking full awareness of when equipment is due for maintenance, upgrade or replacement.
A copy of the Vanson Bourne Whitepaper and Executive Summary, can be downloaded here.

About ServiceMax
ServiceMax, from GE Digital, leads the global industry of field service management software – an estimated $25 billion market worldwide. The company creates solutions for the 20 million people globally who install, maintain, and repair machines across dozens of industries as the leading provider of complete end-to-end mobile and cloud-based technology for the sector. www.servicemax.com

About GE Digital:
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. http://www.ge.com/uk/b2b/digital

About Vanson Bourne:
Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and their ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. www.vansonbourne.com

Media Enquiries:
Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
+44 7768 693779
vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com