What Makes a Good Digital OEE?
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is an internationally recognized metric that provides an easily-measurable method of evaluating and quantifying the efficiency of a manufacturing process. This makes it possible for factory managers to identify ways to maximize the efficiency of their processes through better maintenance, improved protocols, and more streamlined procedures. OEE not only allows factories to save time and money by reducing machine downtime, but also provides valuable feedback on how resources are being best used throughout their operations. Moreover, implementing OEE helps ensure that manufacturers keep up with industry demands while keeping costs low and maximizing profits.
How do you measure OEE?
There are two ways to measure OEE. The first is to focus on the three key areas of availability, performance, and quality; each of which can be measured to generate a comprehensive analysis in industrial production environments.
- Availability focuses on downtimes and maintenance schedules used to keep the equipment running at its most efficient state.
- Performance measures speed at which production tasks are completed and how it meets predefined time duration standards.
- Quality looks at scrap rates, defects, and rework to understand how well products meet desired specifications.
Generally speaking, if any of these metrics is inadequate, overall OEE suffers in terms of output goals and cost-effectiveness. By tracking and improving all three components in an interconnected manner, manufacturers can ensure their processes and operations remain productive.
The second way to evaluate OEE is to essentially categorize all the Non Value Added operations (i.e., all activities that do not add value to the product) and represent all the process steps in the time domain. For example, there are 24 hours every day and your daily production, in the optimal condition, could have been done in 9 hours. How have the remaining 15 hours been categorized? Good digital OEE would suggest where you can improve your scheduling, or your changeover sequence, or your machines’ performance ― or all of them ― and highlight the impact of each operation on the total losses.
The difference a good digital OEE makes
OEE is an important indicator in the growing digital age of manufacturing. A good digital OEE, one that is ideal, allows manufacturers to have control on their end-to-end processes, while a digital OEE that is less than ideal will focus only on the data collected from the machines. An ideal Digital OEE will measure how well the entire process, from planning, to material replenishment, to machines, performs compared to its ideal capacity, and set goals for continual improvement. It should also be simple enough for those without technical expertise to understand, use and learn from. Moreover, it will also identify the major root causes for inefficiencies, and define and manage actions to reduce or eliminate them.
How to improve your company’s digital OEE
Optimizing your business’s digital OEE is essential for boosting productivity, efficiency, and the quality of output. To improve digital OEE, take the time to evaluate your existing operational processes and pinpoint potential areas of improvement. Invest in a leading platform like Decisyon’s Digital OEE Optimizer or various automation technologies to reduce the manual labor and automate routine tasks to increase output speed. Develop an informative training program for your team members to ensure that they understand how important is to use these advanced tools efficiently, in order to implement a solution that is easy-to-use and thereby minimize the adoption impact. Additionally, incorporate regular checks into your operations timeline to identify key elements that are hindering performance so you can take steps to address them quickly and effectively. Overall, taking these measures will significantly boost OEE across your entire operation.
Good digital OEE delivers competitive advantages
Having a good digital Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is essential to optimizing production and improving quality. It allows organizations to track, analyze, and compare their performance based on measured times, and gives an accurate, holistic view of department performances in different perspectives relative to industry standards and best practices. A good digital OEE also helps with setting goals and priorities for continuous improvement as it provides both current performance metrics as well as historical data to measure progress. By using real-time data to inform decision making, organizations can take proactive measures to quickly identify areas that require attention and make implementing necessary changes easier. Combining this visibility with identified areas of inefficiency gives organizations access to powerful insights that they can use to better prioritize improvement activities and rapidly increase efficiencies.
Ultimately, having a good digital OEE will bring many benefits like decreased downtime, reduced waste and increased consistency and it is often the first step in tackling any type of digital transformation. If your company is struggling to improve its Digital OEE, help is available — contact Decisyon’s manufacturing experts to quickly implement an effective solution.
