Non-Production vs. Non-Productive Minutes

Last updated: June 19, 2026

Non-Production Minutes 

Non-Production Minutes are primarily planned periods of downtime: scheduled PMs, lunches, breaks, safety meetings, fire drills, etc. Possibly changeovers, training, and similar times when it is not possible to build product. 

 

Non-Productive Minutes

Non-Productive minutes refers to those periods of time during which it is possible to produce, to build product; i.e. there are no active Down-Impacting Dispatches open and the line or cell is running. Another term for Non-Productive Minutes is Non-Execution time. 

Non-Productive Minutes metric is designed for you to be able to see the impact downtime has on the operator time. The calculation for NPM is Operator Count x Downtime minutes.

Example: During the shift, you have 60 minutes of downtime and there were 2 operators on the line. So for this line, your NPM would be 120 minutes. (2x60=120)

Really that's 2 operators for 60 minutes engaged in non-value added work during the line downtime event measured in minutes. 

Non-Productive Minutes (NPM) can be viewed in the following areas. 

  • Operator Portal and Pitch boards for the line
  • Daily and weekly production summaries reports
  • Raw pitch board data 
  • Production status dashboards for area and line