# Unplanned downtime cost in India: what the one survey actually says

The one India downtime cost figure, close to INR 7 million an hour, comes from an ABB-commissioned, self-reported 2023 survey of large plants. What the release and report actually say, who was left out, how the number gets distorted, and how to work out your own figure.

Here is a situation we'll use as an illustration. It is invented, not a reported case. A maintenance head at a spinning mill opens a vendor deck. Slide two says unplanned downtime costs Indian businesses INR 7 million an hour. The mill's whole monthly maintenance budget is a small fraction of that. So is the number wrong, or is the mill doing something very right? Neither. The number is real, but it describes somebody else's plant.

There is one widely quoted India figure for downtime cost. The articles we found that use it trace back to the same press release. This post reads that release, the report behind it, and the other India data we could find, and sets out what each one actually measured.

**Short answer:** The India figures come from an ABB-commissioned survey run by Sapio Research in July 2023. ABB India's release says 88% of Indian industrial businesses have unplanned outages at least once a month (69% globally), costing the typical Indian business close to INR 7 million an hour. The figures are self-reported, vendor-commissioned, and say nothing about your plant.

**Applies to:** Indian plant and maintenance teams, and the vendors and consultants who quote downtime cost figures to them. **Last verified:** 13 Nov 2026. **Author:** Muhammed Fahiz

## What does the ABB survey say about India?

It says Indian plants report outages more often than the global sample, at a lower cost per hour. These are the India numbers, quoted word for word from ABB India's press release (Bangalore, dated 11 Oct 2023):

| Claim in the ABB India release | Exact wording |
|---|---|
| How often | "88 percent of Indian industrial businesses experience unplanned outages at least once a month, compared to 69 percent globally" |
| Cost per hour | "This costs the typical Indian business* close to INR 7 million per hour*, compared to INR 10.3 million globally" |
| Maintenance approach | "19 percent of Indian businesses surveyed still rely on run-to-fail maintenance" |
| The asterisk | "*The survey is based on information provided by third parties in response to a questionnaire, rather than reviewing actual accounting records." |

The global release from ABB in Zurich, published the same day, gives the global figure as "close to $125,000 per hour" and adds a note that "the median value was used rather than the mean/average." The INR 10.3 million global figure in the India release works out to about INR 82.4 per US dollar against that $125,000. At the same rate, INR 7 million is roughly $85,000, about two-thirds of the global figure. That conversion is our arithmetic, not ABB's.

## Where do the India numbers come from?

They come from a single global questionnaire. Only the India press release breaks the results out for India. According to both releases and the full report, "Value of Reliability: ABB Survey Report 2023":

- **Who ran it:** Sapio Research, commissioned by ABB, in July 2023. ABB sells drives, motors and maintenance services, so it is a vendor-commissioned survey.
- **Who answered:** 3,215 "plant maintenance decision-makers" worldwide. By role, 49% senior managers, 18% C-level, 16% directors, 13% owners and 4% partners.
- **Where:** the report's methodology page shows 16 country flags, India among them. It doesn't give the number of respondents per country, so we don't know how many Indian plants are behind the 88% and the INR 7 million.
- **Sectors:** energy/power 29%, oil and gas 12%, food and beverage 12%, metals 11%, utilities 10%, chemical 8%, plastics/rubber 7%, rail 4%, marine 2%, water/wastewater 2%, wind 1%.
- **Company size:** 38% had 200-999 employees, 36% had 1,000-4,999, 16% had 5,000-9,999 and 10% had 10,000+.

Two things follow from that. First, the 27-page report has no India section. The only India-specific line in it is that "Indian respondents valued experts with technical knowledge 11 percent higher than the average" when choosing a service partner. The 88%, the INR 7 million and the 19% appear in the India press release only, so you can't check them against a table in the report. Second, the release's own footnote says the cost figures come from questionnaire answers, not accounts. Every cost number here is a respondent's estimate.

![Ink line drawing of a plastic injection moulding machine with its safety gate slid open and the two mould halves parted, beside a small steel trolley holding spare heater bands and a boxed thermocouple, with a coil of hose on the floor beside it](/blog/media/unplanned-downtime-cost-india-mwevrh4k.webp)

## What do the 88% and INR 7 million actually measure?

The 88% is a share of respondents who said outages happen at least monthly. The INR 7 million is a typical hourly cost estimate. Neither is a total, and neither measures hours lost.

**The frequency question.** The report prints the exact question: "How often does the plant or site you manage experience unplanned outages on critical equipment?" The words "on critical equipment" are in the report but not in either press release. The global answers were:

| Answer (global, from the report) | Share |
|---|---|
| Every day | 8% |
| Several times a week | 14% |
| Once a week | 14% |
| A few times a month | 19% |
| Once a month | 13% |
| Every quarter | 14% |
| Yearly | 8% |
| Less than once a year | 8% |
| Never | 1% |

The first five rows add up to 68%. The report rounds it to 69%. By region, the report gives 77% for the Nordics, 74% for Europe, 67% for North America, 63% for the Middle East and Africa, and 62% for APAC. It doesn't publish the Indian answers row by row, so the 88% can't be split into "daily" and "once a month". A plant with one outage a month and a plant with one every day both count towards it.

**The cost figure.** The report calls its global number a median: "By calculating the median value, we found that outages cost the typical industrial business a hefty $124,669 USD per hour." The answers behind it are spread wide:

| Cost per hour band (global, from the report) | Share |
|---|---|
| Up to $10K | 10% |
| $10K - $50K | 13% |
| $51K - $75K | 10% |
| $76K - $100K | 10% |
| $101K - $150K | 11% |
| $151K - $200K | 9% |
| $201K - $300K | 8% |
| $301K - $500K | 9% |
| $501K - $750K | 7% |
| $751K - $1M | 6% |
| $1M+ | 3% |
| I don't know | 3% |

Adding the first four rows, 43% of respondents put an hour at $100K or less. The median sits in a band that only 11% chose. The report's sector medians run from $71,047 (metals) to $179,056 (energy/power). The India release doesn't say whether its INR 7 million is also a median. Like the global figure, it is one "typical" answer from a wide spread.

## Who is not in the sample?

Plants with fewer than 200 employees aren't in any company-size band the report shows, so the survey says nothing about them. The sector list also has no textiles, auto components, machine tools or pharma as named sectors. If you run a 60-person machine shop in Rajkot or a spinning unit in Tiruppur, nobody like you is visibly in the data.

That doesn't make the survey wrong. Its sample is plants with 200 or more employees, in 11 sectors, across 16 countries. It can't tell an Indian MSME what an hour of downtime costs.

## How does the figure change as it gets repeated?

Each retelling drops a qualifier. A sponsored piece on ETCIO (ETCIO's "Brand Connect Initiative", by Kaustubh Ramchandra Purohit of Kyndryl India, published 27 Jun 2025) puts it this way: "A nationwide reliability survey found that 88 percent of industrial sites suffer at least one unplanned outage every month, and every lost hour costs the average plant roughly [INR] 7 million in scrap, overtime and idle labour." (The original uses the rupee symbol, shown here as [INR].)

Set against the source:

| Source says | Retelling says |
|---|---|
| 88% of Indian industrial businesses that answered a global questionnaire | "A nationwide reliability survey", "88 percent of industrial sites" |
| Typical business (the global figure is a median) | "the average plant" |
| Self-reported, not from accounting records | No mention |
| No breakdown of the cost | "in scrap, overtime and idle labour" |
| Vendor-commissioned (ABB, run by Sapio Research) | Survey not named |

The fix is cheap. When you quote the figure, keep "ABB-commissioned", "self-reported" and "industrial businesses" attached to it.

## Is there other India data on downtime?

Not that we could find in a form you can cite. The obvious place to look is SIDBI's "Understanding Indian MSME Sector: Progress and Challenges" (May 2025; unabridged version June 2025), which is based on "a survey of 2,097 MSMEs across 19 sectors in manufacturing, services, and trading". We searched all 443 pages of the unabridged version. It doesn't measure downtime, machine breakdowns or repair time. What it does report that touches maintenance:

- "Around a fourth of the surveyed MSMEs cite the lack of skilled manpower as one of their major challenges."
- "Lack of adequate infrastructure appear to be having a material impact on sectors like auto components, iron and steel and transport and logistics." (quoted as written)
- In one regional profile (food processing): "the Chittoor region faces frequent power cuts". The report gives no hours or costs for this.

We also searched Siemens' "Industrial Machinery and Component Manufacturers in India - Benchmark 2025", an online survey of 124 participants, and found no downtime frequency or cost figures in it.

So for most Indian plants, the honest answer to "what does downtime cost in India?" is that nobody has published a number that fits your plant. The only way to get one is to work it out from your own records.

![Ink line drawing of a skid-mounted diesel generator set with its canopy doors open showing the engine and alternator, cabled to a wall-mounted changeover switch cabinet with its door shut](/blog/media/unplanned-downtime-cost-india-mwevrwxz.webp)

## How do you work out your own downtime cost?

Multiply the hours down by what an hour stopped costs your line, then add the repair cost. The full method, with a worked example, is in [MTTR, MTBF and downtime cost: the formulas, with a worked example in INR and USD](https://hangersearch.com/blog/mttr-mtbf-downtime-cost-calculator). In short:

**Cost of downtime = hours down x (lost contribution per hour + idle labour per hour) + repair labour + parts and outside service**

That's our method, not a standard. Its worked example uses invented inputs (a packaging line, 400 packs an hour, INR 30 contribution per pack) and comes to about INR 14,683 per hour of downtime. The ABB India figure is close to INR 7 million. Neither tells you about your line. They differ by a factor of almost 500 because the inputs differ: output per hour, margin, and how much of the plant stops when one machine does.

Three inputs decide your number, and none of them is in any survey:

| Input | Where it comes from | Why a survey figure can't supply it |
|---|---|---|
| Hours down per breakdown, waits included | Your breakdown register | Survey respondents estimated cost per hour, not hours lost |
| Lost contribution per hour | Output per hour x margin, from production and costing | Depends on your product and price |
| Is the machine a bottleneck? | Your line layout and buffer stock | An hour lost on a bottleneck stops the plant. Elsewhere it may not |

If the lost output is made up later with overtime, use the overtime cost for those hours instead of lost contribution.

## What records do you need for a number you can defend?

You need one breakdown register that every shift fills in the same way. At minimum: asset ID, stopped at, back in service, the wait for parts and permits, repair hours, and the cause found. The [breakdown register format (Excel)](https://hangersearch.com/blog/breakdown-register-format-excel) has the columns.

Two common gaps distort the count:

- **The same failure logged under different names.** If one machine's repeat fault shows up as five different descriptions, you can't add up its downtime. See [Same machine, five descriptions: why repeat faults never add up](https://hangersearch.com/blog/repeat-breakdown-same-machine).
- **Breakdowns closed with no cause.** A row that just says "running now" counts the hours but tells you nothing about how to avoid the next one. See ["It's running now" is not a fix](https://hangersearch.com/blog/its-running-now-is-not-a-fix).

With three months of clean rows you have a figure built from your own plant. It will be more use in a budget meeting than any survey number, because you can show every row behind it.

## What this doesn't tell you

We read the ABB India and global press releases and the full 27-page ABB report. We didn't see the questionnaire, the India sample size or the India answers row by row, and ABB hasn't published them. The INR-to-USD conversion, the 68% sum and the 43% sum are our arithmetic from the published figures. The SIDBI and Siemens reports don't measure downtime, so they can't confirm or contradict the ABB figures. Live SERP and search volume for this query were not checked.

## Where does HangerSearch fit?

Much of the downtime in a register goes on working out what was done last time. If the answer to that is usually a person, see ["Who fixed it last time?" If the answer is a name, not a record](https://hangersearch.com/blog/who-fixed-it-last-time).

HangerSearch is private search over your team's own finalized service reports, searched where they already sit. You search by fault code, model or symptom, and it shows the earlier reports that match and opens the cited page. It doesn't calculate downtime cost. It helps with the part of a breakdown spent looking for an earlier fix. See [how we handle your reports](https://hangersearch.com/trust).

Book a 20-minute demo: hangersearch.com

## FAQ

### What is the cost of unplanned downtime in India?

The only widely quoted figure is from an ABB-commissioned survey (Sapio Research, July 2023). ABB India's release says it costs "the typical Indian business close to INR 7 million per hour", against INR 10.3 million globally. The figure is self-reported by large industrial plants and isn't a measure of any particular plant's cost.

### Where does the "88% of Indian businesses" figure come from?

It is from ABB India's press release of 11 Oct 2023. The exact wording is "88 percent of Indian industrial businesses experience unplanned outages at least once a month, compared to 69 percent globally." The report's question asked about unplanned outages "on critical equipment". The number of Indian respondents isn't published.

### Is the ABB downtime survey reliable?

It is a real survey of 3,215 plant maintenance decision-makers, but it was commissioned by ABB, which sells maintenance services, and the release says the figures come from questionnaire answers "rather than reviewing actual accounting records". Plants with fewer than 200 employees aren't in any size band the report shows. Use it as context, not as a benchmark.

### Does SIDBI publish data on MSME machine downtime?

Not in its May 2025 report "Understanding Indian MSME Sector: Progress and Challenges" (2,097 MSMEs, 19 sectors). We searched the 443-page unabridged version and found no downtime or breakdown figures. It does report that around a fourth of surveyed MSMEs cite lack of skilled manpower as a major challenge.

### How do I calculate downtime cost for my own plant?

Multiply hours down by lost contribution per hour plus idle labour per hour, then add repair labour and parts. Take the hours from your breakdown register, waits included, and use your own output and margin. The MTTR, MTBF and downtime cost post linked above has a worked example in INR and USD.

## Sources

1. ABB India, "ABB survey reveals unplanned downtime costs INR 7 million per hour", press release, Bangalore, 11 Oct 2023: https://new.abb.com/news/detail/108271/abb-survey-reveals-unplanned-downtime-costs-inr-7-million-per-hour. Opened 13 Nov 2026. **Vendor-commissioned; self-reported.** Supports: the 88% / 69%, INR 7 million / INR 10.3 million and 19% run-to-fail figures, the self-reporting footnote, the Sapio Research / July 2023 / 3,215 respondents / sector list.
2. ABB, "ABB survey reveals unplanned downtime costs $125,000 per hour", press release, Zurich, 11 Oct 2023: https://new.abb.com/news/detail/107660/abb-survey-reveals-unplanned-downtime-costs-125-000-per-hour. Opened 13 Nov 2026. **Vendor-commissioned; self-reported.** Supports: "close to $125,000 per hour" and the note that the median was used.
3. ABB, "Value of Reliability: ABB Survey Report 2023 - Industry's perspective on maintenance and reliability" (27 pages, PDF): https://new.abb.com/docs/librariesprovider19/default-document-library/abb_survey-report-2023.pdf. Opened 13 Nov 2026. **Vendor-commissioned; self-reported.** Supports: methodology (p. 3: respondents, role, company size, sectors, 16 countries), the frequency question and answer distribution with regional shares (p. 8), the median $124,669, cost bands and sector medians (p. 9), the line on Indian respondents and service partners (p. 18).
4. SIDBI, "Understanding Indian MSME sector: Progress and Challenges - Unabridged Version" (June 2025; original report May 2025): https://www.sidbi.in/uploads/publicationreport/Understanding-Indian-MSME-sector-Progress-and-Challenges%20-Unabridged-Version-07-07-2025.pdf. Opened 13 Nov 2026. Supports: 2,097 MSMEs across 19 sectors (p. 6), skilled manpower and infrastructure lines (p. 7), Chittoor power cuts (p. 230), and the absence of downtime figures (our search of the full text).
5. Kaustubh Ramchandra Purohit (Kyndryl India), "Transforming Indian Manufacturing: The Shift to AI-Driven Predictive Maintenance", ETCIO Brand Connect Initiative (sponsored), published 27 Jun 2025: https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/brand-solution/transforming-indian-manufacturing-the-shift-to-ai-driven-predictive-maintenance/122104532. Opened 13 Nov 2026. Supports: the retelling quoted in "How does the figure change as it gets repeated?" only.
6. Siemens, "Industrial Machinery and Component Manufacturers in India - Benchmark 2025" (PDF): https://assets.ctfassets.net/17si5cpawjzf/1gYxRV4hah38ZebwgGgzW7/d1a16cca9af91b7a538c70d0ff19a5c4/siemens-benchmark-2025.pdf. Opened 13 Nov 2026. Supports: 124 participants; no downtime frequency or cost figures (our search of the text).

## Related

- [MTTR, MTBF and downtime cost: the formulas, with a worked example in INR and USD](https://hangersearch.com/blog/mttr-mtbf-downtime-cost-calculator)
- [Breakdown register format (Excel) that you can still search in two years](https://hangersearch.com/blog/breakdown-register-format-excel)
- [Same machine, five descriptions: why repeat faults never add up](https://hangersearch.com/blog/repeat-breakdown-same-machine)
- ["It's running now" is not a fix: leave a trail the next tech can find](https://hangersearch.com/blog/its-running-now-is-not-a-fix)
- ["Who fixed it last time?" If the answer is a name, not a record](https://hangersearch.com/blog/who-fixed-it-last-time)
- [How HangerSearch handles your data](https://hangersearch.com/trust)