One of the most elusive metrics in our industry is wrench time. Everyone knows it matters, but few agree on how to measure it – and fewer still take consistent action on what it reveals.
Wrench time isn’t about micromanaging craftspeople. It’s about understanding how much of the paid maintenance labor force is actually engaged in value-added work — and how much time is quietly lost to barriers we’ve learned to accept.
Wrench time isn’t about working harder – it’s about removing the barriers that waste it.
The challenge? Much of that lost time doesn’t show up in a report. It hides in transition points, coordination gaps, or small delays that feel routine.
You can’t manage what you don’t see, but you can uncover it by asking the right people the right questions.
The Real Challenge: “Invisible” Waste
Let’s acknowledge the uncomfortable truth: we often don’t know where our wrench time goes. Most craftspeople show up ready to work. They care. They want to get the job done. But between waiting for permits, waiting for equipment to be taken down, lockout/tagout delays, walking to get parts, hunting down approvals, or simply unclear priorities, productive time slips away.
And that waste is expensive.
Even losing just one hour per day per craftsperson adds up fast. For a 10-person maintenance team, that’s 50 hours per week – the equivalent of 1.25 full-time people. That’s not just cost – that’s lost work capacity, missed improvements, and uptime left on the table.
So how do you uncover and address it?
A Practical, People-Centered Approach with Real ROI
One of the most effective methods I’ve used doesn’t require stopwatches or surveillance. It simply requires engagement, collaboration, and teamwork.
We asked everyone on the team – especially the craftspeople – to help identify at least one hour per day per person of time that wasn’t being used productively. We didn’t point fingers or assign blame. We asked: Where do you lose time? What gets in your way? What could make your day flow better?
The results were eye-opening.
This wasn’t a formal study. It was a continuous improvement conversation – and it led to tangible ideas, ranging from procedural bottlenecks to material staging to communication gaps. Most of the issues were fixable. And almost none of them were showing up on a report. Most plants didn’t just find one hour per craftsperson per day worth of waste opportunity – many found two.
To make the effort stick, I partnered with the business unit operations leader. We made it a cross-functional initiative, not just a maintenance effort. Together, we reached out to each facility, asked plant managers to take the lead, and gave simple guidance:
- Engage the maintenance and operations team
- Identify where one hour per day per craftsperson time is being lost
- Submit and report out on 3–5 real improvement opportunities
Across our 16-plant business, we received honest, actionable input – and patterns began to emerge:
- Delays in lockout/tagout approvals
- Walk time to tool rooms and staging areas
- Missing or incomplete job kits
- Scope confusion on work orders
- Work planning inefficiencies
- Permit approval delays
- Equipment not being taken down as scheduled
Each of these problems costs productive time daily – but when addressed, they create meaningful results.
In fact, the improvements were so effective that we reduced our dependence on third-party contractors — realizing a seven-figure annual savings in outsourced labor. That’s not theoretical value. That’s real dollars recovered by making better use of the people we already had.
Why This Works
This approach works because:
- It respects the people doing the work. Craftspeople aren’t the problem — they’re the best source of insight into the real problems.
- It focuses on improvement, not blame. The goal is to make time flow better — not catch someone wasting it.
- It creates ownership. When teams help identify the problems, they’re more invested in the solutions.
We set targets and goals for improvement at each site and required regular reporting.
It also builds something harder to measure but just as important: trust. And when teams trust the process, the improvement never really stops.
One Hour: A Small Ask, a Big Impact
Targeting one hour per person per day isn’t just realistic — it’s strategic. It avoids overwhelm and forces teams to focus on the most meaningful barriers. It’s enough to generate results, but not so much that it feels unattainable.
And that one hour often unlocks far more: better schedule compliance, more PM completion, fewer emergencies, and more time for that all-important proactive work.
What It Wasn’t
This wasn’t a wrench time audit in the traditional sense. We didn’t shadow technicians or build dashboards. We didn’t implement strict tracking or time studies. Those methods can have value, but they’re not always the best starting point.
We created space for people to speak freely, document their existing knowledge, and take swift action on what mattered most. And in doing so, we reclaimed lost time without pushing harder — just by working smarter.
Don’t Leave Time on the Table
Wrench time is one of your biggest levers for improving reliability — and one of the least understood. You don’t need perfect data to find a big opportunity. You just need to ask the people who live it every day.
If you’re looking for more output, more uptime, or more improvement work without adding headcount, start here:
Ask your team to help you find one hour per person per day. Then go fix what’s in the way. You’ll be surprised how quickly it adds up.
