September 03, 2024

Unlocking Overall Operations Effectiveness

No matter the industry, maintenance, in one form or another, exists. One of the metrics companies use to judge the relationship between maintenance and production is unlocking overall operations effectiveness (OOE). This member of a group of metrics includes both total effective equipment performance (TEEP) and overall equipment efficiency (OEE).

What Is OOE?

Overall Operations Effectiveness (OOE) assesses the availability and performance of production lines. This metric includes planned machine maintenance, even during non-productive periods, such as scheduled maintenance. You can factor in changeover times into the equation.

Calculating OOE

To obtain the measurement of overall operations effectiveness use the following simple formula:

Performance multiplied by Quality multiplied by Availability.

While this seems simple enough, let's look at the factors involved.

Performance This refers to a percentage of the maximum attainable performance. You can't have equipment run at maximum capacity throughout the day. In the course of operations, you'll have normal and unplanned downtime. Plus, the machines and production lines may not run at a consistent speed throughout the day. Also, you should factor in the type of product your company manufactures.

Quality: Quality measures the proportion of defect-free products compared to the total output. While zero defects are ideal, machines can produce a small percentage of defective products.

Availability: Here, you have a percentage of planned availability, excluding sudden defects. Don't think of planned maintenance and product change periods as downtime, but consider the machine available during these times.

Because of this, you have the availability calculation as the actual production time divided by uptime.

What OOE percentage should you aim for? With everything taken into consideration, companies should strive for an OOE of at least 85%.

Effectiveness vs. Efficiency

You often see these terms used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. For more details on this, read this article that discusses the differences.

Regarding this, you have to remember that you can have efficiency but not effectiveness. For instance, a technician completes a job in half the time estimated. While that might represent efficiency, did that person cut corners to finish early? Will a quality review show the need for further attention?

Of course, you shouldn't forget efficiency for the sake of quality and effectiveness. Don't take five hours for a one-hour job because you want meticulousness in every detail.

Strive for both. Often, efficiency comes after effectiveness and a quality review.

How To Obtain Better Overall Operations Effectiveness (OOE)

Let's look at four suggestions to up the OOE.

1. Foster Quality Communication. Every operation in a company starts with open communication. Supervisors must share goals and strategies. Other employees must feel comfortable sharing ideas and offering feedback.
2. Improve Product and Supply Management Processes: Quality products and an efficient production line naturally will improve working conditions. Subsequently, it benefits the OOE.
3. Encourage Innovation and Development. Again, this comes from a company-wide effort. Employees should strive to find better ways of doing routine or everyday tasks. Encourage training to improve or learn new skills. Through better communication, you'll have more collaboration and opportunities for new ideas.
4. Leverage Technology: Invest in the right technology and keep it up-to-date. Stay informed about the latest advancements and assess how they can add value to your operations. Technology upgrades should align with your company's needs.

For production and other departments, this might mean an upgrade/update in equipment, computers, and software. For maintenance, investment in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) has proven beneficial across numerous industries. Key performance indicator reports (KPI) generated by a CMMS can aid in better measuring productivity and costs.

Conclusion

Unlocking overall operations effectiveness (OOE) gives you a better understanding of productivity and efficiency. Used with other formulae and a proper maintenance strategy, OOE makes improvements in several areas of operation.

To unlock your OOE potential, consider using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Proper use of a CMMS by your maintenance personnel organizes your existing strategy. It shows areas for improvement.

You want better overall operations effectiveness. A CMMS gives you one of the best "tools" to reach maintenance management success.

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