Loss Categories
Loss categories provide a business-level grouping for your loss types. While OEE categories (Planned, Unplanned, Performance, Quality) are fixed by the OEE standard, loss categories let you create custom groupings that match how your organization thinks about losses.
When to Use Loss Categories
Loss categories are useful when you want to:
- Report by department: "Mechanical", "Electrical", "Process", "Logistics"
- Track by responsibility: "Maintenance", "Operations", "Quality", "Supply Chain"
- Analyze by root cause type: "Equipment", "Human", "Material", "Method"
:::info Not required for basic OEE Loss categories are optional. Your OEE calculations work without them; they use the OEE categories on loss types directly. Add loss categories when you need additional reporting dimensions. :::
Managing loss categories
Navigate to Admin → OEE → Loss Categories.
Creating a Category
Click + Create and fill in:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Category name (e.g., "Mechanical Failures") |
| Description | No | Explanation of what this category covers |
| Active | Yes | Whether operators and reports can use this category |
Editing and Deleting
- Click the Edit button on any row to modify the category
- Click Delete to remove a category
:::caution Deleting categories Deleting a loss category removes the grouping from reports. Loss types previously in that category are not affected; they keep their OEE category assignment. :::
Active vs. Inactive
Deactivating a category hides it from selection dialogs and new assignments without deleting historical data. Use this when a category is no longer relevant but you want to preserve past reports.
Example setup
A typical manufacturing plant might use these categories:
| Category | Description | Example Loss Types |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | Hardware and mechanical issues | Equipment Failure, Bearing Wear, Belt Breakage |
| Process | Manufacturing process issues | Recipe Error, Temperature Drift, Contamination |
| Material | Raw material and supply issues | Material Shortage, Wrong Material, Quality Hold |
| People | Human-related factors | Operator Break, Training, Staffing Shortage |
| Utilities | Infrastructure and utilities | Power Outage, Compressed Air Loss, Steam Failure |
Next steps
- Loss Types — Create loss types within these categories
- Reasons — Define the specific reasons operators select
- Overview — Back to OEE Configuration overview
Prerequisites
- OEE Configuration Overview
- Introduction — get the overall picture of OpSee
Related
- OEE Fundamentals
- Equipment — complementary module