If you’re interested in machine monitoring, you probably want to try it out before you buy. It’s a difficult product to do a cost-benefit analysis on.

Once you estimate the ROI from machine monitoring then you’ll realise that in some cases machine monitoring is basically free, as long as you hit your expected cost savings.

To calculate your estimated ROI, think of a rough figure for the estimated unexpected downtime per day. This means all the time a machine wasn’t working for reasons other than the expected (part changeover, tool changeover). I’d maybe take 20 minutes per machine per day, time taken finding spanners or waiting for tools on average.

If you can save 10 minutes of those 20 by being proactive or making cultural changes each day, then given a machine hourly rate of £80/h you’d be saving £66 per machine per week. That’s huge compared to the cost of machine monitoring.

Some systems cost a lot more, but TrackMyMachines is only £45/machine/month. It’s basically free when you calculate your ROI.