Everyone wants their equipment and assets to perform well at a low overall cost. However, we sometimes end up facing several problems related to equipment. No matter how much you work to keep the equipment on track, you never get the best out of them.
There is now a system known as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). OEE helps to reduce downtime and increase productivity.
What Is OEE?
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), in general, is a way of determining the efficiency of equipment in an industry. Many globally renowned organizations use this method to measure the performance of equipment and asset and look for ways to improve their efficiency.
The method is quite complicated and without getting the correct data, equipment performance may even decline. This can make the process of increasing your OEE more difficult. The OEE formula is measured based on three major components – Availability, Productivity, and Quality.
- Availability
OEE helps to measure the time some equipment is available or being used to run production. If any equipment remains unused or partially used during the production, it will leave a negative impression on the Availability Score.
- Production
OEE measures how many units a piece of equipment can produce in a period. If the equipment does less production than its potential, the score will be lesser.
- Quality
OEE calculation measures how many produced units have passed the quality inspection out of the total produced units. Many companies use OEE to monitor their production rate. Other than that, this also helps to bring out the full potential of your equipment.
Several factors can lower the Overall Equipment Effectiveness score such as the operator taking a break, incorrect operation, lack of maintenance, delays in scheduled maintenance, lack of other necessary equipment, power cuts, etc.
Even though everybody tries to keep their OEE score at 100%, the real score is sometimes disappointing. If you also have a low Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) score, this blog will give you an idea of how you can boost your OEE score.
How To Improve Low Overall Equipment Effectiveness Score?
The process is not going to be that simple. You will need to bring some changes to your manufacturing process. Here is what you need to do:
Understand The Components
As already discussed, the OEE score is based on three components, namely – availability, production, and quality. To improve the OEE score, go through all these components thoroughly, and determine the weak spot.
If your OEE score is low because of less production, you need to find ways to increase it. When you know the reason behind the low score, it becomes much easier to work on them.
Optimize The OEE Formula
The Overall Equipment Effectiveness formula is not the same for all industries. Some industries mainly focus on customer satisfaction, and their sole purpose is quality over quantity. On the other hand, some industries are determined to produce a maximum number of units, and slight defects in those products are acceptable.
Since their goals are different, they measure OEE scores in different ways. As for your OEE score, first, you need to determine whether your goal is quality or quantity. Only then can you measure the right OEE formula that fits your business.
Prioritize Equipment
Determine the equipment that is more important for your production than others.
Prioritizing the most important and critical equipment will bring a significant rise in the Overall Equipment Effectiveness score. Any downtime or failure in this piece of equipment can cause a lower OEE score. As a beginner, start with those machines and eventually move to equipment that is not that critical.
Maintain Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is the primary thing that everybody speaks about to reduce equipment failure. Well, there is no doubt that preventive maintenance is the pillar of the well-functioning manufacturing industry.
Predictive maintenance will boost your OEE score significantly. Your equipment and assets will function more efficiently without any sudden failures.
To do preventive maintenance, keep track of all your equipment and asset, and their pre-determined life cycle. Get your in-house maintenance team to do a thorough inspection of the equipment before hitting its end of service life.
If you do not have an in-house maintenance team, ask the companies that supply your equipment to do the inspection.
Regular Routine Maintenance
Predictive maintenance is a method of forecasting and organizing maintenance at a larger time interval. However, you should also encourage your machine operators and maintenance team to check the equipment condition regularly.
Sometimes, equipment may even fail within its service life due to several reasons. Instead of complaining about the equipment, it is better that you remain ready from your side.
Improve Equipment environment
If you want to improve your OEE score, focus on the environmental conditions around your machines and equipment. Environmental conditions can make a significant difference in the performance of your machinery.
Factors like dust, fumes, temperature, moisture, vibration in buildings, airflow, and several other conditions affect your equipment’s performance. To boost your OEE score, understand the suitable environmental condition for the equipment, and make sure to take care of it.
Gather Real-Time Data
The traditional way of collecting and keeping a history of equipment data will not take your Overall Equipment Effectiveness any further. Leading companies are using real-time data monitoring for equipment performance.
Connect your business-critical equipment to sensors on IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) and gather live data of your equipment and its OEE score. Live monitoring will give you more detailed information about the performance of your equipment. It significantly helps to improve the OEE score.
Today, there are many predictive maintenance applications, such as CMMS, that can help you to gather data as well as keep information about assets and maintenance. It helps to easily coordinate maintenance tasks after understanding asset condition through monitoring.
Conclusion
As an organization, every single machinery or asset plays an important role in its functioning, and any loss of equipment can seriously harm overall equipment efficiency. Hence, it is necessary to keep a clear mind and analyze data about the equipment.
In a huge industry with countless instruments, it will seem like an impossible task. However, if you understand the key parameters, devise your OEE formula, undergo routine inspections, and use predictive maintenance applications, you can keep your OEE score high. It will make sure that your business progresses smoothly in the long run.
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