SiteThe engineer walks onto site at 4am. The job sheet says "Line 3 stopped. Not working. Urgent." The operator who saw it stop went home at two. The shift manager wasn't there when it happened. The HMI has been reset three times and the alarm history has scrolled off the screen.
So the engineer starts from nothing. They ask the same questions everyone else would. What was it doing? What did it sound like? What's been tried? Nobody knows. The first hour goes on finding out what a five-minute note could have said.
Most of the cost of a breakdown sits in that first hour. A good fault report is the cheapest way to win it back.
What "not working" tells an engineer
Nothing at all. Every stopped machine is not working. The engineer needs to know how it stopped, and the person who saw it is the only one who can say.
We'd split a fault report into two halves. The first half is what happened, written by whoever was there. The second half is what was done, written by whoever touched it. Both halves go on one page.
The first half: what happened
Get the operator or team leader to answer these while it's fresh. Ten minutes later they'll have forgotten half of it.
- Which machine, by asset number, and which part of it. "Line 3" is six machines.
- The time it stopped, as close as anyone can say.
- What it was doing. Running, starting up, mid-changeover, on a new product.
- The alarm or fault code, with a photo of the HMI and the alarm list before anyone touches reset.
- Anything heard, seen or smelt before it stopped. A squeal, a bang, smoke, a hot smell, a slow cycle.
- Whether it has done this before, and when.
- What changed recently. New product, new operator, a repair last week, a cleaning crew in overnight.
That last line saves more time than any other. In our experience, a lot of breakdowns follow a change, and the person who made the change rarely thinks to mention it.
If the fault comes and goes, ask for a pattern. Does it happen on the first run of the shift? When the place warms up? Only on one product? An intermittent fault with a pattern is half found. We've written more on catching the fault that won't show.
The second half: what was done
This half is for your own fitter, or for whoever had a go before help was called.
- What was isolated, where, and whose locks are on it now.
- Every reset, and what happened after each one.
- Every part swapped, adjusted or bypassed, and where the old part is.
- Any test readings, with the meter and the points they were taken across.
- What's been ruled out, and how.
Be honest about the bypass. If a sensor was bridged to get the last pallet out, write it down. The next person needs to know, and the bridge has to come out before anyone restarts. A link left in a safety circuit is a live hazard.
Keep the old parts. A burnt contactor, a snapped belt or a chewed coupling shows the engineer more than a description of it.
Why it matters past the next hour
PUWER doesn't make you keep a maintenance log. HSE's code of practice says there is "no requirement" to keep one, though it recommends a record for high-risk kit (L22, paragraph 78). But if a machine does have a log, regulation 5 says it must be kept up to date (regulation 5).
The same paragraph of the code of practice gives the better reason. A detailed log can tell maintenance people "what actions have been taken previously". Fault reports are where that history comes from. Without them, every repeat fault starts from zero. With them, you can spot the machine that trips every second Thursday. Put them somewhere you can search. Our post on a breakdown log that actually tells you something covers how to set one up.
HSE also tells employers to think about "having a reporting procedure for workers who may notice problems while working on machinery" (HSE, maintenance). The fault report is the end of that process. The start is an operator who feels able to say "this sounds wrong" before it stops. See the breakdown nobody reported.
Check whether it's reportable
One question belongs on every fault report: could this be a RIDDOR dangerous occurrence? Most breakdowns aren't. But some are, even when nobody was hurt.
The failure of any load-bearing part of lifting equipment is one. So is an electrical short circuit or overload that causes the failure of electrical equipment and leads to a fire or explosion, within the conditions HSE sets out (HSE, dangerous occurrences). A report must reach HSE within 10 days* of the incident (HSE, when to report).
If the answer might be yes, the fault report becomes evidence. Write it carefully, keep the photos, and keep the broken parts. Our guide to RIDDOR dangerous occurrences goes through the list.
Make it easy at 2am
Nobody writes a good report on a blank sheet at 2am. Give them a form with the questions already on it. Paper on a clipboard by the machine works. So does a form on a phone, if it lets you add photos. What matters is that the questions are the same every time.
Then make it someone's job. On nights, the person who calls maintenance fills in the first half before they hang up. The fitter fills in the second half before they leave the job. The shift manager checks both are there at handover. We've written about handovers between maintenance engineers if your shifts struggle with this.
Here's our view. If you're calling in an outside engineer, a good report is the best money you'll save all night. They arrive knowing what they're walking into. They bring the right meter, the right parts, the right laptop lead. And if the report shows it's a drive fault, you can ask for someone who knows drives, rather than whoever is free.
What to do on Monday
- Put a one-page fault report form, with the questions above, at every critical machine.
- Make the HMI photo before reset a rule, and put it at the top of the form.
- Agree who writes each half on every shift, and have the shift manager check at handover.
- Add "could this be reportable?" as the last box on the form.
* RIDDOR reporting deadline correct as of 6 September 2026. Check HSE's RIDDOR pages for the latest. Paragraph numbers refer to L22, fourth edition (2014, amended 2018).