OEE calculation — Top 5 mistakes & remedies

OEE is considered to be the best practices metric and it has become an integral part of every manufacturing industries. Since it points out the critical areas in production, it has become more familiar among production managers. However, OEE calculation is often wrongly used or misunderstood. Measuring OEE alone does not implies the improvement in production. The correct usage of measured OEE is necessary to attain great level of accuracy in production. Here the common mistakes in OEE measurement is highlighted along with remedies.

Lacking Focus on Losses

Problem: OEE score obtained from a production line determines the production capacity of your machines. Monitoring OEE score alone will not help you in improving production. The production losses behind OEE score related to Availability, Performance and Quality should be understood individually. By targeting and eliminating these losses will automatically improve OEE.

Remedy: Focus on losses rather than monitoring OEE. By focusing on losses and taking action to reduce them, OEE will increase. So that most importantly the production capacity will increase.

Unrelated OEE Comparisons

Problem: Comparing OEE score with each other will be meaningful only if it is compared with same machines producing the same product with the same asset. The problem arises when the two different machines with different shifts and changeovers are compared. Such comparisons will not provide correct insights.

Remedy: You should do a fair comparison. You can never compare apples to oranges. Compare OEE with similar machine producing similar products should be compared.

Not Focusing on each machine

Problem: OEE measurement implies the critical areas or defects in production. But unfortunately managers concentrate only on OEE whole shop floor. It won’t point out where the loss is. Hence OEE should be measured for each machine so that the flaws or defects in the production could be easily identified and rectified.

Remedy: Focus on each machine with data on availability, performance and quality so that you can gain more opportunity on improvement. Analysing each machine and identifying the rejects will help you increase productivity.

Manual OEE Calculation

Problem: Collecting and measuring OEE manually is not the best way to improve production. Because it is difficult to track microstops and downtime events occurred in the production line. The use of real time production monitoring system will track the production events more accurately and measure OEE with great accuracy. So that you can focus more on improvement rather than spending time in measurement.

Remedy: Analysis of production data will be easier with real-time production monitors. Tracking the production flow with live production report will be a great asset in improving production.

Not Empowering Operators

Problem: Operators are essential for OEE process. They are the ones who can make improvements in production line by understanding OEE. Without them OEE value is just a number. Empower your operators so that they could win each shift.

Remedy: Provide them a training on OEE calculation and implementation. Getting correct inputs from operators is necessary for any industries to implement OEE . so that they can make every shift a successful one.

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Originally published at https://www.bevywise.com on July 9, 2019.