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Each minute that a machine is out of operation or fashioning a flawed component; your production facility is hemorrhaging cash and wasting latent power. Plant heads, and people in maintenance departments, are well aware of this every day, exasperating struggles with unscheduled failures and operational waste.
Within the context of the industry 4.0, intuit, paper logs, and manual guesswork to monitor the equipment performance are just not cutting any more. Innovative manufacturers are moving towards Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to convert raw production information into standardized and usable information that can show their real operational condition.
The only way to close the gap between tracking these metrics and their actual improvement is to have a modern solution such as Cryotos CMMS that helps automate the workflows and promote proactive maintenance. We will further discuss in the sections below what exactly OEE is, the unseen costs of its poor tracking, and the best-practiced methods of transforming those numbers into a more profitable business.
The internationally accepted gold standard for assessing the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing plants is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). It will respond to a very practical question: what we planned to produce, how much of it was productive?
The score is computed because of multiplying three different manufacturing elements:
OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality
Rather than just giving you a single percentage, this three-pronged approach pinpoints exactly where productivity is leaking. It differentiates itself from Total Effective Equipment Performance (TEEP), which measures utilization against 24/7 calendar time. OEE only cares about the time you actually scheduled the equipment to run.
A bad OEE calculation is worse than no calculation at all. When you track it poorly, you create a metric that looks precise but tells a completely wrong story, giving management a false sense of security.
It is at this point that inefficient and inaccurate tracking consumes your resources:
To eliminate these hidden costs, the focus must shift from manual spreadsheets to automated data capture at the machine level.
To turn raw data into increased capacity, you need a systematic approach. Here are the core best practices for driving genuine OEE improvements on the shop floor:
Embed these practices into a continuous loop of daily lean methodologies to ensure your efficiency gains stick.
Plant optimization is a step process. These four steps will guide you on the way of transforming your data into an operational benefit in the day-to-day operations.
It is impossible to refine a process that cannot be measured. Introduce machine-level IoT links or MES to concentrate data. Make sure that your baseline is sound by gauging planned time and setting real cycle time.
Stop diluting your efforts. Attack the monetary loss factor. Apply systematic approaches, such as the 5 Whys and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), to go beyond the symptoms and find the structural cause of equipment failure.
Strike down industry wise losses. Enhance Availability Predictive maintenance using real-time machine condition data. Eliminate Problems caused by slowing down improvement through automatic comparison of real cycle times against optimal values to identify minor decreases in speed. Increase Quality by changing the end-of-line inspection to real-time and in-process controls to prevent scrap at all times.
Technology alone cannot work. Eliminate information overload by providing operators with customized views of the metrics they manage. Guarantee commitment by meeting daily, training extensively, and turning efficiency into an ongoing cycle as opposed to a one-time initiative.
Stability within these four stages will convert raw production data into an unalterable competitive advantage at the factory floor.
The measurement of OEE is just the beginning; the actual implementation of the maintenance that needs to be done to enhance it is where the fight is won. Cryotos CMMS helps to fill the disconnect between rudimentary manufacturing information and proactive shop floor initiatives.
The following is the way the platform directly addresses the main pillars of equipment effectiveness:
Switching to automated data collection as opposed to the manual tracking exercise gives you the real picture of the health of your manufacturing floor, as it can reveal the hidden capacity and micro-stoppages. Using the foundations of Availability, Performance, and Quality, you will be able to go deep into the source of downtime instead of merely reporting it.
The association with these specific methodologies and the deployment of a powerful tool such as Cryotos CMMS directly equates to reduced downtime spent on repairs, increased usage of assets, and quantifiable growth at the bottom line.
Stop letting invisible inefficiencies drain your profitability and schedule a customized Cryotos demo today to unlock the full potential of your production lines.
