NASHVILLE, TN—The world’s largest manufacturers lose almost $1 trillion a year because of machine failures. According to a recent study conducted by Senseye, a machine health management company, large facilities lose an average of 27 hours a month to equipment failures, at a cost of $532,000 for each hour of unplanned downtime.

“The True Cost Of Downtime” report claims that Fortune Global 500 manufacturers lose approximately 3.3 million hours a year to unplanned downtime. That translates into $864 billion, which is the equivalent of 8 percent of their annual revenues.

“Unplanned downtime is the curse of the industrial sector,” says Alexander Hill, chief global strategist at Senseye. “When expensive production lines and machinery fall silent, organizations stop earning, and those investments start costing rather than making money. The costs can spiral to well over $100,000 per hour for large manufacturers in almost all industrial sectors.”

Unplanned downtime levels were highest in the automotive sector, where plants lost 29 production hours a month, on average, at a cost of $1.3 million per hour. As a result, automakers and suppliers lost approximately $557 billion and 414,800 hours a year.

Senseye’s study also showed that more than two-thirds (72 percent) of large manufacturers have made predictive maintenance a strategic objective, while 20 percent have established in-house predictive maintenance teams to lead these initiatives.