What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)?
Overall equipment effectiveness, often known by the acronym OEE, is the gold standard for measuring operational efficiency and productivity in plants and factories. OEE is a powerful Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that identifies the percentage of time a manufacturing process makes products that meet quality standards. Essentially, it measures the manufacturing performance compared with the maximum possible performance of a production line, machine or workstation.
The most successful manufacturers understand that measuring OEE is vital. When measured and visualized in near real time OEE is a metric that helps operators spot problems quickly to minimize downtime and identify opportunities to reduce waste and improve productivity. Crucially, OEE and related availability, performance and quality detail data can determine the root causes of productivity losses and ways to improve production line or plant capacity utilization.
To achieve all this, the best OEE solutions combine state-of-the-art software with Internet of Things (IoT) -enabled censors and edge devices. They can also integrate with existing automation.
But calculating, tracking, and making the best use of OEE metrics is challenging. That’s where AVEVA comes in.
How our OEE solutions can benefit your business
AVEVA’s OEE solutions help you monitor and visualizse your production line in real time. This enables operators to see clearly how efficient it is, identify areas for improvement and spot problems before they disrupt production. After all, your production process is only as effective as the poorest performing equipment on your line.
For example, our solutions deliver real-time OEE visibility that empowers operators to compare idle and unplanned downtime with scheduled run times, and take corrective measures swiftly. Short stoppages can be captured along with reason codes to determine the root cause of capacity losses and identify areas for continuous improvement. And preventative maintenance can be scheduled based on equipment utilizsation, helping to reduce machine repair costs and pre-empt production line shutdowns.
AVEVA’s OEE solutions are unique
Our OEE software, tools and solutions replace manual paperwork and after-the-fact reporting with real-time dashboards and analytics. They enhance the speed and flexibility of your manufacturing processes, helping you align production and operations with your business objectives.
Measure
Consistent reporting is the basis for comparing data across the business, so our OEE solutions start by standardizsing equipment performance metrics and KPIs.
Visualizse
Real-time performance metrics give you a clear and detailed view of the production process and deliver actionable information to reduce equipment downtime.
Improve
Our OEE solutions help you improve equipment efficiency, increase equipment uptime and manufacturing capacity, reduce costs and enhance product quality.
Key features of AVEVA’s OEE solutions
Measure
Consistent digitalisation and unification of metrics across the business are key to managing and improving the performance of equipment.
- Reliable and standardizsed reporting across the operation
- Improved effectiveness of equipment investments
- Improved business decision making
- Easier best practice sharing
Visualize
Visible real-time performance metrics and drill-down analytics deliver actionable information to stakeholders.
- Reduced equipment downtime and increased capacity
- Increased operating efficiency
- Improved profitability
- Operators freed from manual data collection tasks
Improve
Operations that have used OEE solutions as part of their continuous improvement strategy report significant performance gains.
- OEE up by 20%–30%
- Equipment uptime increased by up to 20%
- Manufacturing costs reduced by up to 30%
- Product quality improvements of up to 5%
OEE FAQs
OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. In simple terms, it refers to a system for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of a process. In manufacturing, OEE determines the percentage of time a production process turns out products that meet quality standards. It tells you the time a production line is working as well as it should. The most successful manufacturing companies understand that measuring OEE is vital to maintaining and improving efficiencies, and minimizsing losses and downtime.
OEE is calculated using three key sets of data relating to machinery availability, performance and product quality.
OEE = availability x performance x quality, where:
- Availability reflects the time production is down when it should have been running = Operating Time / Available Time
- Performance reflects anything that causes the manufacturing process to run at less than optimum speed = Total Production / (Target Production Rate x Operating Time
- Quality reflects the percentage of manufactured items that do not meet quality standards = Good Production / Total Production
An OEE score of 100% means that a factory is manufacturing products that meet quality standards as fast as possible without stopping during the scheduled running time. In practice, this perfect score is unachievable. Many production lines score only 60%, which means there is ample room for improvement. According to some analysts, an OEE score of 85% is exceptional and a realistic long-term goal. Meanwhile, an OEE score of 40% is low but not uncommon and can be readily improved.
One of the most effective ways to improve your OEE is to make sure you are measuring it effectively with the most up-to-date solutions. You also need to focus on data from machines that are critical to your business, rather than collecting information from every single machine in the process. Gathering real-time or live data is also key, so you know what is happening in the moment, rather than using historical metrics. Using an OEE formula that is designed for your particular business is important as well. For example, in some manufacturing processes, performance and quality are the top priorities, as minor product defects don’t matter.
OEE is key to maintaining and improving the efficiency of a manufacturing process, and ensuring product quality. Monitoring OEE over time yields information that can be used as the foundation on which a manufacturing operation can increase production, improve operational efficiencies, and make a process more cost-effective. For example, OEE can help operators ensure equipment is being used to its maximum capacity, which is vital when launching new products, for example. It can help operators determine the effectiveness of each part of the manufacturing process, identify problems and prioritise them. OEE can also reduce machine repair costs because the data allows you to schedule maintenance in a timely manner and pre-empt production line shutdowns.
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