Productivity is the overall priority in any manufacturing company. With any organization’s quest to improve its output, there needs to be the appropriate metrics in place to measure the overall productivity. This is where OEE comes in, but what is it, and how can it help?
What Is OEE?
OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. This is the gold standard for measuring productivity in a manufacturing environment and identifies the percentage of productivity in manufacturing time. OEE is a manufacturing best practice as it allows you to gain insights on how to improve your manufacturing process which is why an OEE system is crucial.
What Are OEE Systems?
OEE systems are, put simply, an item of software or system in which a company can measure its effectiveness. OEE systems like andon systems tell a crucial story about how operations are running in comparison to their full potential. Many companies have implemented OEE solutions allowing them to analyze what is happening with their facilities in greater detail.
How Is OEE Calculated?
The calculation for OEE incorporates three areas. Quality, performance, and availability:
This assesses products that do not meet the quality standards and will cause quality loss. For example, this could be products that require rework or scrap. After time spent on quality loss has been accounted for in the OEE calculation, the remaining time represents the potential for a fully productive operation.
Performance assesses the factors that cause production to run below its optimum. For example, machinery malfunction can result in performance loss. When you subtract this figure from the total, you are left with the net run time.
This assesses any interruptions through the loss of availability that will halt production for a certain length of time, such as a few minutes. Availability loss incorporates equipment malfunctions, change over time, and other reasons production can be stopped.
The Score of OEE
The overall equipment effectiveness takes into account all of the losses. When you calculate each of these three areas, you are left with a score taken as a percentage. A score of 100% would mean:
- Only good products have been produced.
- Machinery or operations are running at the maximum speed.
- There are no interruptions to business.
Why Are OEE Systems Important?
Many manufacturers use OEE to establish a baseline in a manufacturing environment to track their operations against the industry standards or use it as a way to measure their abilities against past performance or comparing the performance of one product line to another. Using OEE as a baseline allows you to make key decisions and strive for increased quality output.
How OEE Systems Help Companies
The key is about providing insight. Using OEE systems, to receive insights into a variety of metrics including:
- Production trends.
- Net runtime.
- Plan production time.
- Full production time.
Will OEE Systems Help Me?
If you are looking for a method to gain more insight into your productivity and understand your losses, it provides you with a stronger foundation to build up your business in terms of lean manufacturing. OEE can be a structure and a foundation to hang your entire productivity upon.