Little Known Ways to Improve your Overall Equipment Effectiveness
When considering your factory’s bottom line, you probably use a number of factors to measure performance. One of those should be overall equipment effectiveness (also known as OEE). In a manufacturing world where competition is tough and margins are slim, you want to be able to maximize your production line’s efficiency as even a small change can have a big impact.
Overall equipment effectiveness is a calculation that tells you how much of your planned productive time is actually productive. For example, if your OEE is 100%, then every minute of the time you expected your machines to produce products without any defects has been used properly. Your production line has worked exactly as planned. We all know that nothing is perfect, so it’s very rare to actually have 100% overall equipment effectiveness. 85% is a good number to aim for – and we are going to share some tips using one of the lesser known ways to get there.
Focus on Performance Losses
Overall equipment effectiveness takes into account machines’ availability (i.e. is the machine working when it’s meant to or not), performance (i.e. is the machine working at its peak capacity), and quality (i.e. is the machine producing defective items). Oftentimes, it’s easiest to see and make adjustments for both availability and quality, but focusing on performance losses is also an important way to improve your overall equipment effectiveness.
When you have performance loss, your machinery is still operating, just not as efficiently as expected. This makes it harder to measure because it’s not as black and white as “is this machine working or not?” Instead, you need to look at two particular scenarios: idling machines and machines working at a reduced speed.
Idling Machinery
If a machine stops running for less than 5 minutes, it may seem like such a minor blip in the system that it’s not even worth considering. But, if you don’t monitor even seemingly insignificant interruptions, they will add up and your overall equipment effectiveness number will diminish over time. Here are a few action items you can take:
- Act Quickly – give machine operators the freedom to immediately respond and fix any small issue that they see that is causing a machine to stop working for a few minutes. Chances are, if it’s really just a small issue, it can be resolved in less time than it would take to escalate it through whatever process is used to fix bigger technical issues. Solving a small problem quickly will prevent a larger problem from developing that could significantly impact overall equipment effectiveness.
- Look for Patterns – keep track of when the minor breakdowns and stoppages take place. You might start to see a pattern that will help you determine why the machine is idling. Does it always happen at the same time of day, maybe after a particularly heavy time or usage? Or maybe it’s always during one particular employee’s shift. Any of these details will be able to give you insight into why this idling is happening and then you can address the problem and fix it and ensure that your overall equipment effectiveness stays on track.
- Take Preventative Measures – one of the easiest problems to fix is the lack of clear instructions and processes in place for all workers to follow. Idling and other minor shutdowns of machinery can easily be caused by human error that can just as easily be avoided by documenting work processes so that all employees know exactly what steps to take in different situations. This is a simple, but often overlooked, way to reduce minor stoppages and improve overall equipment effectiveness.
Machines Operating at Reduced Speed
It is virtually impossible for a machine to run at its maximum speed 100% of the time, but the aim is always for it to be as close to maximum as possible. When a machine starts running slower, it is likely a sign of wear and tear or a maintenance issue. Speed-particularly reduced speed – is an important factor to consider when trying to improve overall equipment effectiveness because it is relatively easy to address. Here are two ways to address this issue:
- Keep up with Maintenance – never miss a scheduled maintenance for any of your machinery. Preventative maintenance means fewer unanticipated mechanical issues, machines that run better, and increased overall equipment effectiveness.
- Seek out Improvements – keep a constant eye out for subtle changes in your machinery and the flow of operations and you’ll be able to spot issues that are causing your machines to slow down. Then you can quickly address those issues and watch your overall equipment effectiveness improve.
In the same way that minor setbacks can end up having a big negative impact on overall equipment effectiveness, taking small steps to prevent or minimize performance losses can go a long way in improving overall equipment effectiveness.