When a technician spends more time searching for parts than fixing machines, it’s not only wasting time, but tanking reliability metrics. And this is the core issue calculating wrench time exposes. Wrench time wants to know, “How much of a technician’s day is spent actually turning wrenches versus everything else they do?”
Across the industry, maintenance teams watch their time constantly evaporate into travel, miscommunication, paperwork, or inventory delays. A multitude of factors can contribute to this on a day-to-day basis. Regardless, the outcomes are the same. Productivity is low, resulting in high operational costs.
In this guide, we’ll explain what wrench time really measures, why it directly impacts your plant’s efficiency, and how leading operations are turning this metric into a competitive advantage.
What Is Wrench Time?
Wrench time measures the portion of a technician’s shift spent performing actual maintenance tasks, including using tools, executing repairs, and restoring equipment to its working condition. It’s a metric used to track direct, value-adding labor on the floor, as opposed to the time lost to indirect activities.
This includes hands-on work like part replacements, system adjustments, mechanical inspections, and equipment testing. However, technicians might spend hours each day on paperwork, waiting for approvals, walking across the plant floor, or hunting down the right part. Yet, none of this enters the calculation.
That’s because, in most operations, these non-productive activities quietly eat into the day. Without a wrench time baseline, it’s easy to underestimate how little time is spent on the work that actually keeps assets running.
How Wrench Time Is Calculated
The formula to calculate wrench time is straightforward. Divide the amount of time a technician spends on direct maintenance activities by their total shift duration. Then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage. Here’s what it looks like:
Wrench Time (%) = (Direct Maintenance Time ÷ Total Shift Time) × 100
That percentage reflects the share of their shift dedicated to actual maintenance. The higher that number, the more efficient your maintenance operation is. The lower it is, the more time and money you're losing on avoidable delays and non-productive tasks.
Understanding what falls inside or outside that equation is what allows teams to diagnose inefficiencies in process and organization with precision. This is the first step toward transforming how maintenance impacts the entire operation.
Why Wrench Time Matters
Wrench time is one of the clearest reflections of how well your maintenance team actually performs. It reveals the gap between where your labor hours are spent and where you think they’re being used. More often than not, that gap is larger than expected.
Low wrench time exposes structural issues in how maintenance is planned and executed. So, it’s not simply traditional inefficiencies. When technicians are stuck chasing parts, waiting on approvals, or figuring out what to do next, you’re burning through high-value labor on low-value tasks.
Poor wrench time also creates a cascade of problems across your operations. Preventive maintenance is delayed, reactive work piles up, and backlogs begin to grow. Before long, the team shifts from proactive care to constant firefighting.
High wrench time, on the other hand, drives reliability. It gives technicians the bandwidth to stay ahead of failures, complete jobs thoroughly, and respond faster when breakdowns happen. It’s the difference between running a maintenance team and one that’s always playing catch-up.
Typical Benchmarks for Wrench Time
Knowing your current wrench time is essential, but you also need to know how it stacks up. Most maintenance teams operate in the 25 to 35 percent range, meaning that, on average, technicians spend only a quarter to a third of their day performing actual maintenance work. The rest of their shift is consumed by everything from travel and part searches to planning gaps and administrative tasks.
That’s why world-class operations don’t settle there. The top-performing maintenance teams consistently reach 55 to 65 percent wrench time. They get there by removing friction from the process. This can be done by tightening up planning, improving access to tools and parts, and using technology to eliminate the delays that drag everyone down. In these environments, maintenance isn’t just a reaction to problems. It becomes an organized and well-controlled system.
But benchmarks aren’t one-size-fits-all. The nature of your industry plays a role, too. In process industries like chemical plants and refineries, where equipment is centralized and static, hitting higher wrench time is more achievable. On the other hand, discrete manufacturing facilities with spread-out assets often struggle with travel time and coordination inefficiencies, which naturally push wrench time lower.
Still, that performance gap between average and top-tier represents one of the biggest untapped opportunities in industrial operations. Closing even part of that gap means more preventive work gets done, more issues are resolved on the first pass, and your team becomes more productive without needing more headcount or overtime to make it happen.
How to Measure Wrench Time
Now that you're familiar with the concept of wrench time, how do you turn that understanding into measurable, actionable change?
First of all, without data, there’s no way to improve. Measuring wrench time gives you the baseline needed to identify inefficiencies, benchmark performance, and track progress over time. So, here are some ways you can do that:
Direct Observation Methods
This method is the most hands-on and often the most accurate. It involves shadowing technicians during full work shifts and documenting how they spend their time. The goal is to capture a clear picture of actual work patterns rather than relying on assumptions or estimates.
To make this approach effective, observations must be structured. Select a representative group of technicians across different shifts, job types, and days. Record their activities in fixed intervals, such as every 15 minutes, and classify each one as either wrench time or non-wrench time.
While direct observation provides valuable real-world data, it’s not without challenges. The presence of an observer can influence technician behavior, and assigning personnel to collect data can temporarily pull resources away from productive tasks. Still, when done right, this method delivers high-quality insights into how maintenance time is actually being used.
Work Sampling Studies
Work sampling provides a more efficient method for measuring wrench time without requiring full-shift observation. Instead of tracking technicians continuously, this method captures random snapshots of their activities during the day. Over time, these data points build a statistically valid picture of how time is being used across the team.
However, accuracy depends on both the number of observations and how they’re spaced, so try doing it in random intervals to help eliminate bias and minimize disruptions. It’s important to gather enough samples from each technician to ensure the results are meaningful and accurately reflect their actual behavior.
This approach also minimizes the observer effect, since technicians are unaware of when they’re being observed. It also requires fewer personnel and can cover more ground over longer periods. For organizations looking to strike a balance between insight and operational efficiency, work sampling is often a practical choice.
Digital Tracking Systems
Modern digital tools make it possible to measure wrench time continuously without manual tracking. Mobile work order platforms and digital check-in systems automatically log start and finish times, giving you precise visibility into how long tasks take and how time is distributed across the shift.
As technicians update job statuses, record parts usage, or close work orders, the system captures real-time data. This integrates seamlessly with daily routines and minimizes the reporting burden for both techs and supervisors.
Digital tracking builds a deeper data set over time, exposing patterns that occasional studies might miss, but its accuracy depends on consistent usage. If technicians delay updates or skip steps, the data may become unreliable. Success depends on proper training, clear expectations, and an easy-to-use system that fits naturally into the technician’s workflow.
Common Causes of Low Wrench Time
Improving wrench time starts with identifying what’s getting in the way. Most losses don’t come from major breakdowns. They come from everyday inefficiencies that teams accept as routine. And the only way to fix them is to stop treating them as if they were normal. Here are some of the most common causes of low wrench time:
Poor Planning and Scheduling
This is the number one source of lost wrench time in most facilities. When technicians arrive at a job without full context or with missing information, tools, or parts, they waste hours resolving problems that should have been addressed before the job even started. It’s a systemic efficiency drain.
Reactive Maintenance Culture
When emergencies dominate the schedule, planned tasks get bumped, resources are scattered, and the team is forced to work around production priorities instead of controlling them. Reactive maintenance nearly always takes longer and is more error-prone because it happens under pressure, without the prep work that makes proactive maintenance fast and effective.
Inefficient Parts Management
Disorganized stockrooms and inaccurate inventory data turn simple repairs into time-wasting searches. If a technician needs a part and it’s not where it should be, or even worse, is not available at all, your wrench time drops instantly. Without clear visibility into what’s in stock and where, even a basic task becomes a major delay.
Excessive Travel Time
In large or multi-building facilities, it’s easy to lose productive hours just walking from one job to the next. And it gets worse when tasks aren’t scheduled efficiently. If a technician has to visit the same location multiple times in a shift because work wasn’t grouped by zone or equipment type, that’s a waste of time and resources.
Administrative Overload
Documentation is necessary, but too often, the way it’s handled drags down wrench time. Excessive paperwork, redundant reports, or poorly structured digital workflows all cut into the time technicians could spend on actual equipment. Meetings and approvals can be just as costly, especially when they pull skilled labor off the floor during peak hours.
Steps to Improve Wrench Time in 2025
Once you’ve established a reliable wrench time baseline, improvement stops being theoretical and becomes something you can act on. The key is to eliminate common time drains that slow down your technicians and replace them with processes that drive consistency, speed, and accuracy. These steps target the biggest inefficiencies and create long-term performance gains across your maintenance operation:
1. Plan and Schedule Better
While planning determines what work gets done, it’s also about ensuring that every job hits the floor with everything in place—information, parts, tools, and instructions—so technicians can start immediately and finish without unnecessary delays.
This involves preparing work orders with detailed descriptions, safety notes, and clear, step-by-step procedures. Technicians shouldn’t need to decipher vague instructions or figure out the process in the middle of a task. The more structured and complete the plan, the faster and more confidently the work is executed.
Parts availability must also be confirmed before scheduling a job. If the materials aren’t already on hand and assigned, the work shouldn’t be on the calendar. Too often, tasks are scheduled based on assumptions about inventory, which is one of the most common causes of delays.
And pay attention to task sequencing. Jobs should be grouped geographically and by required skill set. When technicians stay in the same area or focus on similar types of work, they avoid wasting time moving between locations or switching tools and mindsets unnecessarily. Planning at this level of detail directly increases wrench time by allowing techs to spend more of their shift on tools, rather than on logistics.
Simplify Parts and Tools Access
One of the fastest ways to improve wrench time is to remove the obstacles that hinder technicians from accessing the materials they need. Every minute spent searching for parts or walking back to the storeroom is time not spent maintaining equipment.
Start with the basics: storerooms need to be clearly labeled, logically laid out, and consistently maintained. When every part has a designated place and is easy to identify, technicians don’t waste time asking for help or digging through disorganized shelves. Standardizing this structure ensures everyone can find what they need quickly and independently.
Kitting is another essential strategy. For routine tasks, assembling all required parts, tools, and consumables into a single package prevents multiple trips and reduces the risk of missed components. When a tech grabs a kit, they should be able to head straight to the job and stay there until it’s done.
Mobile tool carts and strategically located satellite storage areas also make a difference. Stocking them with commonly used items keeps technicians closer to their work zones and reduces the back-and-forth that quietly chips away at productivity.
The goal is simple: keep the right tools and parts within arm’s reach so work can start and finish without interruption.
Adopt Digital Work Orders
Shifting from paper-based work orders to digital systems is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make to streamline maintenance. It eliminates delays tied to paperwork and puts critical job details in the hands of technicians wherever they are on the floor.
With digital work orders, there’s no need to waste time tracking down printed documents or deciphering handwritten notes. Job details are available instantly through mobile devices, whether the technician is at the far end of the facility or right next to a workstation.
From diagrams to procedures and past maintenance records, everything needed to complete a task is centralized and accessible in a single platform. This reduces the back-and-forth technicians face when they have to stop working to find missing information.
Updates, approvals, and problem-solving occur through direct messaging or notifications, eliminating the delays associated with phone calls or physical check-ins. And because digital systems automate tasks such as data entry, reporting, and integration with other platforms, they help reduce the administrative burden that often accompanies maintenance work.
When digital tools are well implemented, they actively support wrench time by removing the friction that keeps technicians from focusing on the job.
Optimize Communication Channels
Misunderstandings, delays, and repeat instructions slowly drain wrench time if there isn’t a system in place to prevent them. Tightening how your team communicates can unlock a surprising amount of productive capacity.
Start with escalation procedures. Every technician should know exactly who to contact for specific issues, whether it’s a safety concern, a missing part, or an equipment lockout. Removing the guesswork prevents wasted time chasing down the wrong person or waiting for responses that never come.
Leaning on mobile communication tools also speeds up resolution. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and even quick video calls often resolve problems more quickly than traditional phone or radio check-ins. When information flows faster, so does the work.
Meetings should be structured, brief, and focused. If a quick message can replace a 30-minute discussion, go with the faster route. The goal isn’t to eliminate communication, it’s to ensure it happens in the most efficient way possible, so technicians stay informed without being pulled away from their tasks.
Refine Training and SOPs
Don’t mistake improving wrench time with rushing jobs. It’s about eliminating uncertainty. When technicians know exactly how to perform a task from start to finish, they work faster without cutting corners, and that comes from strong training and clear procedures.
Every routine task should have a standard operating procedure that outlines each step, lists safety considerations, and defines quality checks. These documents aren’t just for compliance. They guide consistent and efficient execution, reducing guesswork on the floor.
And training should reinforce those standards. Technicians need hands-on experience with the tasks they’re expected to perform. The more confident and capable they are, the less time is spent figuring things out on the job or correcting avoidable mistakes.
In this regard, cross-training enhances flexibility by expanding the pool of technicians capable of handling critical tasks. It prevents delays when specific team members are unavailable and makes scheduling smoother across shifts or locations.
You can also improve that process by building a centralized knowledge base. Documenting solutions to common problems, repair workflows, and troubleshooting steps gives technicians immediate access to proven answers, which keeps them moving forward instead of restarting the diagnostic process each time.
How Tractian's CMMS Can Elevate Your Wrench Time
Boosting wrench time is one of the most practical and high-impact ways to improve maintenance performance. It’s a direct line to better productivity, fewer delays, and more reliable operations overall.
But identifying where time is lost, let alone fixing it, is rarely a simple task. The challenges are everywhere: disorganized parts, vague instructions, slow communication, and systems that don’t reflect the way maintenance actually works on the floor.
This is where Tractian’s CMMS can change the game for your operation. Built for technicians, it streamlines every phase of maintenance, from planning to execution. You can log work orders on the floor, even offline, and access AI-generated checklists that standardize procedures and reduce errors. Real-time dashboards show you exactly what's done, what's delayed, and who’s doing the work, making it easier to plan your team’s day with confidence.
As a bonus, onboarding is seamless. Even if your data is stuck in spreadsheets, we migrate your history and structure it so nothing is lost and your team hits the ground running.
