when employees are not engaged in productive activities it can have serious implications for employers according to a 2018 study from the harvard business school 78 1 of workers find themselves on a weekly basis with involuntary idle time which costs employers an estimated 100 billion per year 1 
types of idle timeidle time can be classified either as normal or abnormal normal idle time is categorized as downtime for regular maintenance and repair regularly scheduled downtime for manufacturing assets is a normal business practice and cannot be controlled by management abnormal idle time such as a worker strike is out of the ordinary and can in many cases be controlled by management time management is extremely important in any business particularly when there are high fixed costs idle machinery or equipment generates depreciation expenses and also reduces output productivity idle workers who are on fixed salaries are a detriment to company profitability and a drag on overall productivity examples of idle timecompany managers who do not efficiently schedule work shifts or operations flow may cause idle time employees themselves too may be responsible for causing idle time for instance if a car factory assembly team makes 100 cars in an eight hour shift and the quality inspection and testing group processes only 50 cars during that shift the assembly line would have to idle for a period of time until the quality control group caught up to pace a natural disaster could also be the reason for idle time floods for example frequently result in stoppages of loading and unloading of containers at shipping ports or railway terminals which would have a ripple effect on factories that rely on these transportation networks with a surplus of finished inventory factories would be forced to idle both workers and manufacturing facilities until goods started moving again the bottom lineno business runs at 100 efficiency over long periods of time and idle time is inevitable however the goal is to minimize this cost to the company through careful scheduling and coordination with connected groups in addition it is advisable for managers to draw up contingency plans to keep operations running when an unexpected event arises 