The other day I was in a factory analyzing the factory production process. At one point, I saw a driver standing in front of a machine, I approached him and asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was waiting to receive the work order before he could start preparing the machine for production. At that point, I asked the manager if he could tell me what the production rate of that machine was… Great question! He answered me right away.
The Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is an indicator of the performance of our production system and its components. Thanks to this index, work orders can be better prioritized and we know how long it will take to produce them.
This index is calculated on the basis of three other indices:
- Availability: What percentage of the available time the machine is running.
- Quality: What percentage of the production is good and ready to go to the next stage.
- Performance: How fast the machine is running relative to its maximum potential.
Factories typically have production rates of 30%, which is very low, but it could be relatively easy to move to 60%+- by focusing on all processes in the production area, from work order management (MES system) to SCADA and PLC/HMI. And above all, by focusing on how to improve each of the indices that make it up: availability, quality, and performance.