Guides · 1 Nov 2026

How to reduce unplanned stoppages in the crushing season

Record every stop with its start time, end time and reason code, then rank the causes by hours lost each week and act on the top few. Back that routine with off-season inspection, critical spares on the shelf and a harvest programme that keeps cane arriving evenly.

Why a stop costs more than the lost crush

The obvious loss is the cane not crushed. The hidden loss is what happens to material that waits.

Cut cane loses sugar while it waits. A Zimbabwean study found significant sucrose loss after 72 hours for most varieties.
Bacteria such as Leuconostoc produce dextran in cane that waits. It makes massecuite viscous, and more sucrose is lost to molasses.
A long stop puts the process at risk. An ISSCT paper warns of significant sucrose loss when a factory stops without liquidating the clarifier and it cools enough for thermophilic bacteria to grow.
Restarts stress the boiler. A review of boiler failures in the sugar industry notes that short-term overheating often occurs after start-up.

Keep a proper time loss account

Indian mills already report lost hours under headings such as cane shortage, mechanical, electrical, process, cleaning and miscellaneous. Keep those headings, then add detail under them. Use a fixed list of codes, with each code in one group only, and mark each stop planned or unplanned. Free text cannot be ranked.

Group	Typical causes	Owner
Cane shortage	Harvest gaps, transport delays, yard running empty	Cane manager
Mechanical	Carrier, mill, gearbox, pump, centrifugal faults	Chief engineer
Electrical	Drives, motors, switchgear, power trips	Electrical head
Boiler and steam	Tube leaks, low steam, bagasse feed problems	Chief engineer
Process	Pan or tank full, juice or massecuite handling limits	Chief chemist
Cleaning	Planned cleaning stops	Chief chemist
Other	Strikes, weather, anything rare. Review this group weekly so it stays small.	General manager

Review a few numbers each week

Take the top three causes to a short weekly meeting. Name one owner and a date for each action. Check next week whether the hours fell.

Hours lost by group, as a share of available hours.
Number of stops. Ten short stops and one long stop need different fixes.
Mean time between failures: running hours divided by the number of unplanned stops.
Mean time to repair: repair hours divided by the number of unplanned stops.
Repeat stops on the same machine within the season.

Fixes by cause

Cane supply: match daily harvest permits to crushing rate and transport turnaround, and watch yard stock by the hour. No-cane stops need their own code, because the fix sits with the cane office.

Mills: roller shafts run under heavy fatigue. One study of shafts made in Pakistan found internal cracks and inclusions behind rejections, and used ultrasonic testing to find subsurface flaws. Test shafts in the off-season and record the results by shaft number.

Boilers: a 2002 review of sugar industry boiler failures points to overheating, poor bagasse flow control and inadequate maintenance. Off-season lay-up matters too. A paper on oxygen pitting in a bagasse boiler says it probably occurred in wet storage, through poor control of water level, pH and oxygen scavenger.

Evaporators: scale cuts heat transfer and capacity. Plan cleaning as a scheduled stop. Scale differs by mill, and research reports that a cleaning method that worked one season may not work the next, so sample the scale and record what worked.

Keep the boiler paperwork ahead of the season

Under the Boilers Act, 2025, an owner may not use a boiler without a certificate, and the Act authorises use for a period not exceeding twelve months. A certificate also ceases on an accident or, with exceptions in the Act, on a structural alteration, addition or renewal. An accident must be reported to the Inspector in writing within 24 hours.

The Indian Boiler Regulations, 2026 have replaced the 1950 regulations, according to a Khaitan & Co note. Ask your boiler engineer to check renewals, repair approvals and any remaining life assessment against the new text.

Checklist

Before the season: agree reason codes with all department heads.
Review last season's time loss account and list the top ten repeat causes.
Finish inspection and testing of shafts, gearboxes, turbines and pumps.
Confirm that boiler certificates and repairs are in order.
Check that vital spares are in stock and tagged.
Agree the harvest programme with the cane office.
Decide how the clarifier and process tanks will be handled in a long stop.
During the season: have the shift in charge log each stop before handover.
Have the chief engineer review each stop over a set length.
Write a short root cause note for every repeat failure.

Where SugarOS fits

SugarOS records downtime with reason codes alongside shift logs. Asset and preventive maintenance schedules are built too.

Frequently asked questions

Should planned cleaning count as lost time?

Yes, record it in the time loss account and mark it planned. Keeping it separate shows true breakdowns, while the hours still appear in your season total.

Is a ten-minute stop worth recording?

Yes. Short stops are often the ones that repeat, and they stay hidden if only long breakdowns are logged.

What if two departments dispute the cause of a stop?

Log the first failure in the chain as the reason, and have the chief engineer settle disputes at the weekly review. Keep the rule simple, so that the data stays consistent across shifts.

What is a good target for lost hours?

We could not find a reliable published benchmark for Indian mills, so we give no figure here. Use your own last three seasons as the baseline and set a target for each group.

Sources

Talk to SugarOS