SafetyChain Blog

Although many manufacturers have implemented overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) over the last few decades, not every facility has embraced it effectively. Often facilities either knowingly or unknowingly neglect or overemphasize one of the three essential components of OEE. Manufacturers apply OEE inconsistently, include too much, or exclude unpleasant data. When used correctly, OEE is an excellent resource for driving continuous improvement in manufacturing facilities. Facilities that are struggling to meet goals or seeking to move up a few extra percentage points can gain the edge they need by returning to basics and evaluating processes honestly.

Translating Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) into financial terms allows everyone from the plant floor operators to executives, measure continuous improvement and understand the business value of OEE. The challenge is making this a reality. This blog will dive into what it means to measure OEE, why you should translate that into financial terms, why OEE is important, and finally what role software plays.

Many plants are looking for ways to create more efficient processes and develop strategies to better compete with others in the industry. For many, this desire to improve means moving away from traditional manufacturing. It can be a little uncomfortable to look for ways to change when things seem to be working just fine already. However, sticking with processes because “that’s the way we’ve always done them” can work against driving continuous improvement. That’s where implementing OEE comes in.

At its core, manufacturing success is all about quality. Consistently adhering to quality standards ultimately delights your customers and takes you far beyond the benefits of brand loyalty. Determining the cost of quality (COQ) is a complex but essential endeavor; there’s the cost of poor quality to consider and the cost of good quality or preventing issues from happening in the first place. In plants producing hundreds of separate items, tracking the many variables that influence quality can feel like a massive undertaking. And of course, it’s not just tracking this information that facilitates change; the goal is to derive meaningful insights from the data to inform future decisions.

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In many areas of the U.S., businesses are reopening and companies are finding ways to adjust to new operational norms in this second phase of COVID-19. For food and beverage companies, there are many complexities to consider. While many things within manufacturing companies are changing, priorities such as safety and quality remain as important as ever. 

To balance these priorities while adjusting to the evolving expectations of customers and employees, many companies are embracing remote operations. Although there are aspects of manufacturing which can’t be conducted offsite, with the right technology, a significant portion of business can be taken out of the facility. With this approach, companies can minimize the number of people entering and exiting the plant to control risks, keep employees satisfied, and respond to customer demands through new, automated solutions.

Modern manufacturers are facing a unique dilemma. Although there’s a wealth of data flowing throughout their facilities, the insights needed to make strategic decisions are often obscured, buried by the day-to-day processes needed to simply keep operations running smoothly. While each machine, shift, and line has information waiting to be leveraged, the challenges lie in tapping into this data and analyzing it on a consistent basis. Production tracking software addresses these challenges.

In challenging times, every little bit of continuous improvement adds to the bottom line. In 2020, we're seeing more and more F&B companies doubling down on data and leveraging SPC and OEE to boost margins and profits.

Across all food and beverage manufacturing environments, there’s a push for greater efficiency and reduced downtime, both of which are essential to maintaining and increasing profits. While most manufacturers have a general idea of how to drive production improvements, drilling down and understanding the true barriers to efficiency isn’t always clear. In fact, there’s often little visibility into the root causes of production disruptions, whether they stem from drawn-out changeover processes, faulty equipment, or other hidden bottlenecks. For this reason, many manufacturers have turned to OEE data collection software to increase productivity and improve yields.

Manufacturing facilities, rely on OEE—overall equipment effectiveness—as the single best metric for identifying losses and benchmarking progress towards improving the performance of their equipment. Measuring OEE helps managers determine the percentage of manufacturing time that is genuinely productive.

Correctly measuring overall equipment effectiveness OEE in a manufacturing facility delivers several key benefits. By adding sensors to capture run, down, and cycle times, OEE allows facilities to increase production line availability, performance, and quality. The focus of this article is to understand why measuring OEE is so valuable in particular.

There’s no single, definitive OEE software price—perform a quick web search, and you’ll find prices ranging across the board. Some cloud-based OEE solutions feature a monthly license fee which may vary based on factors such as the size of the facility, number of users, or how many machines the company needs to monitor. On the other hand, some vendors price using flat fees. As with any type of technology, you’ll likely find that you get what you pay for: solutions that lie on the low end of the cost spectrum will offer fewer features and user-friendly capabilities compared to those that fall towards the middle or on the higher side.