--- title: Setting Up Stop Reasons and Explaining Stops description: Learn how to set up stop reasons and explain downtime in your OEE tool. Master categorization and splitting stops to drive continuous improvement. --- [Skip to content](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/stop-reason-setup-explaining-stops#main-content) English Show submenu for translations ![sensorfact\_new\_logo](https://support.sensorfact.eu/hubfs/00.%20Archive/sensorfact_new_logo.svg) Open main navigation Close main navigation - English Show submenu for translations - [Go to Best Practices Hub](https://support.sensorfact.eu/resource-hub) [Go to Best Practices Hub](https://support.sensorfact.eu/resource-hub?hsLang=en) What are you looking for? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Help Center](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge?hsLang=en) 2. [Dashboard & Insights](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en) 3. [Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#overall-equipment-effectiveness-oee) # Setting Up Stop Reasons and Explaining Stops ## This article explains how to configure Stop Reasons and how to use them to explain specific downtime events (Stops) within the OEE tool. ### **Stop reason setup** Before you can explain why a machine has stopped, you must first define your list of available reasons. You can create and assign these on the page[linked here](https://app.sensorfact.nl/settings/oee/stop-reasons). **Configuration Guidelines** We recommend assigning 6 to 9 reasons per asset. Providing too many options often leads to a reduced in accuracy in the stop reasons that are selected by operators. There is a hard cap of 20 reasons per asset. However, there is no limit to the total number of reasons you can create in the global library. **Understanding Stop Categories** Every reason you create will have one of three categories. These categories dictate how the downtime affects your OEE data: - **Planned Downtime:** These are scheduled interruptions where no production is planned (e.g., holiday shutdowns, lunch breaks, or staff meetings). This time is not included in the planned production time, and therefore these stopsdo not impact your OEE score. - **Regular Operations Downtime:** These are delays that occur as part of standard operations (e.g., product transitions, required cleaning, or routine inspections). These stops do impact Availability and OEE scores because they represent valuable time that could potentially be recovered through process improvements. - **Unexpected Downtime:**  These are unscheduled interruptions that disrupt production (e.g., equipment breakdowns, pump failures, or material defects). These losses also impact Availability and OEE scores. **Advise on selecting categories:** It can be tempting to categorize more stops as Planned Downtime than is strictly accurate, as this increases the OEE score and makes performance look better on paper. Remember OEE is not simply an exercise to reach the highest possible number. The goal is to gain insight into where processes can be improved and to use that data as a tool for continuous improvement. ### **Explaining Downtime** **Operator View** The operator view notifies users of downtime so they can provide the necessary context for each event. Whenever a stop is detected, or if there are unexplained stops from the past 24 hours, a yellow banner will appear at the top of the screen. Stops are also visualized in the status graph at the bottom of the dashboard. **Explaining a stop** Click directly on the stop in the graph or select "Explain Losses" in the yellow banner. Select the appropriate preconfigured reason from the list. Once saved, the color of the stop in the graph will update to match its category. Optionally an operator can add a note in the input field for further detail. They also have the option to split the stop to provide a unique reason for each part. Note: A stop can only be split once it is no longer ongoing. **Micro-stops and Shift Schedules** By default, operators are not prompted to explain stops shorter than the Micro-stop cutoff or stops that fall outside of the Shift Schedule. If you wish to see and explain these events, you can toggle them on through the Display Options in the stops drawer.     ![](https://support.sensorfact.eu/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Jan-06-2026-04-00-02-2845-PM.png?width=670&height=377&name=image-png-Jan-06-2026-04-00-02-2845-PM.png) - [Hardware & Installation](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Energy Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#energy-management) - [Gas Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#gas-management) - [Predictive Maintenance](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#predictive-maintenance) - [Water Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#water-management) - [Compressed Air Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#compressed-air-management) - [OEE](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#oee) - [Temperature & Humidity](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/hardware-installation?hsLang=en#temperature-humidity) - [Dashboard & Insights](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Energy management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#energy-management) - [Compressed Air](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#compressed-air) - [Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#overall-equipment-effectiveness-oee) - [Reports](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#reports) - [Alerts](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#alerts) - [Ultrasonic Water](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/dashboard-insights?hsLang=en#ultrasonic-water) - [Advice & ROI](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/advice-roi?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Energy Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/advice-roi?hsLang=en#energy-management) - [Predictive Maintenance](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/advice-roi?hsLang=en#predictive-maintenance) - [Compressed Air Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/advice-roi?hsLang=en#compressed-air-management) - [Account & Billing](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/account-billing?hsLang=en) - [Troubleshooting](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/troubleshooting?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Energy Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/troubleshooting?hsLang=en#energy-management) - [Gas / water pulse Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/troubleshooting?hsLang=en#gas-water-pulse-management) - [Ultasonic Water Management](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/troubleshooting?hsLang=en#ultasonic-water-management) - [Product Updates](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/product-updates?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Release Notes 2025](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/product-updates?hsLang=en#release-notes-2025) - [Release Notes 2024](https://support.sensorfact.eu/knowledge/product-updates?hsLang=en#release-notes-2024) [![sensorfact\_new\_logo](https://support.sensorfact.eu/hubfs/00.%20Archive/sensorfact_new_logo.svg "sensorfact_new_logo")](https://www.sensorfact.eu) Copyright © 2026, Sensorfact