OEE – Introductions

The best way to think about O E E in production is as a yardstick for measuring improvement. When you look at one production line, there are hundreds of variables that can affect efficiency. How do you work out what to change and what impact it will make to efficiency? After all, by improving a single element in one area, you might be causing inefficiencies further down the line.

That’s where O E E comes in. By looking at Overall Equipment Effectiveness, you can determine the performance of the operation, benchmark it, highlight areas to be improved, and make informed decisions. The more you improve your O E E score, the higher profits and lower manufacturing costs you achieve. In other words, O E E is more than a calculation – it’s a strategy for continuous improvement. It’s not enough to simply capture the data on O E E in production, you need to use the information to drive change.

When using O E E in production, it’s best used on a single piece of equipment or single production line. It’s not much help to calculate O E E for a whole plant, as it can only give you an approximate idea of equipment performance and not much more. O E E is far more valuable when used to measure the performance (and losses) on a specific piece of equipment or synchronised line. That way, when there’s a problem, you can see the breakdown of performance, availability and quality and can take steps to improve.