Over at Augury’s online community ‘The Endpoint’, I wrote an article outlining how a Machine Health solution can engage shopfloor teams in amplifying Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The key is clarity: breaking it down to specific losses.
Making The Losses Tangible
It’s easy to get distracted by the many different definitions of OEE – as well as the many types of losses it involves. But the article, ‘Overall Equipment Effectiveness & 6 Losses’ keeps its eye on the ball: “to define how to look at the losses in the context of using Machine Health data to improve the performance and health of the machines.”
The article is currently being actively discussed by Augury’s relatively fresh online community ‘The Endpoint’ – read all about it.
The 3 Components and 6 Losses of OEE
First, let’s get a definition for OEE, we can all get behind. The one from Seiichi Nakajima’s classic book Introduction to Total Productive Maintenance is certainly a good place to start:
OEE = Availability x Performance Efficiency x Rate of Quality
The article then clearly breaks down the equation into its parts – which each have two associated losses. “By breaking down OEE into the losses and using Machine Health (MH) data, the shopfloor teams are empowered to solve problems and address the items causing the losses. Making the losses tangible to their work environment enables them to be involved in the solution of the performance gaps.”
A) Availability
Availability is the amount of time the line is scheduled to produce products minus any downtime, with two essential losses:
1) Equipment Failures
2) Setup and Adjustments
How Machine Health can help the maintenance team in maximizing availability: In short, anomalies are also flagged – so they can be dealt with before they become a problem. Also, with the right data you can plan your downtime, and also after a repair verify the machine is indeed healthy.
B) Performance Efficiency
Performance Efficiency is how many pieces were produced versus how many were meant to be produced if everything went to plan. It’s associated with two specific losses:
3) Idling and Minor Stops
4) Speed Losses
How Machine Health can help the maintenance team in maximizing performance efficiency: By comparing your data with data across similar products and factory lines, problems can be avoided and root causes identified.
C) Rate of Quality
The rate of quality is a measure of how many good products are produced versus the total number produced. Its two losses are:
5) Running Waste
6) Startup Waste
How Machine Health can help the maintenance team in maximizing the rate of quality: It’s not only about creating a quality product, it’s also about minimizing the waste of resources and utilities. In other words, accurate data is essential for going after sustainability goals.
Good For Business, Good For Culture
In summary, OEE is more than a tool to assess the performance of a business – in other words, it’s not just a simple management tool. OEE can also be broken down into specific goals that can inspire shopfloor teams to help solve problems and make improvements. The combination of good machine health data and an empowered workforce boosts both the business performance and the work culture – the classic win-win scenario.
Read the full article – filled with lots of handy hands-on solutions on how teams can fight waste.
