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With this beginner-friendly guide to OEE, you’ll learn how OEE is related to other terms in manufacturing, how to improve OEE in 3 steps, and implement OEE with the help of your machine operators
Published 28 Apr 2022
OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a measure of manufacturing productivity. It describes (in percentage) how much of the equipment’s full potential is being used. The metric is primarily based on the evaluation of OEE factors: availability, performance, and quality.
OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality
Here are brief answers to some frequently asked questions about OEE:
TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is a system that helps minimize the Six Big Losses, which are unplanned stops, planned stops, small stops, slow cycles, production defects, and startup defects. TPM was developed by Seiichi Nakajima, who also invented OEE. The main goal of a TPM program is to increase OEE.
OPE (Overall Production Effectiveness) is a metric to be used alongside OEE. Also known as TEEP (Total Effective Equipment Performance), OPE is the ratio of total production time to all time. In contrast to OEE, which is all about equipment, OPE takes a look at the wider manufacturing capacity of a plant.
While OEE focuses on the equipment’s availability, performance, and quality, MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), MTTR (Mean Time To Repair), and MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) are metrics that indicate the equipment’s reliability and durability.
OEE is important because it is a recognized standard in the manufacturing industry. Improving OEE also has a number of benefits such as increased capacity, reduced costs, and boosts in quality and efficiency of production.
OEE calculation can also be used as a diagnostic tool to spot equipment inefficiencies before they harm the plant’s bottom line. Since OEE is broken down into categories, it’s easier for quality managers to identify where the equipment is lacking and where the equipment is performing.
OEE calculation is simply multiplying the availability, performance, and quality scores, and then multiplying that number by 100 to get the OEE in percentage.
Learn how to get each OEE score by referring to the guides below:
Follow these steps to get the OEE availability score:
Follow these steps to get the OEE performance score:
Follow these steps to get the OEE quality score:
Generally speaking, 85% is considered a world-class or good OEE number/level. The maximum number/level for OEE is 100%, which is perfect production. However, most equipment will not be able to achieve that number/level, and even an 85% OEE is considered hard to achieve.
While the benchmark for an “average” OEE is 60%, it’s common for equipment to only reach an OEE of 40%, which is classified as a low score.
For quality managers aiming for 85% OEE, here are 3 key steps to improving overall equipment effectiveness:
Machine operators can also do the following to help improve OEE:
To make using OEE easy, follow these tips:
Below is an example OEE report for a manufacturing company. The report uses an OEE template that addresses the Six Big Losses: unplanned stops, planned stops, small stows, slow cycles, production defects, and startup defects. These are considered as the greatest hindrance for improving OEE.
Preview Sample Report | Download & Customize OEE Template
Developed by SafetyCulture, iAuditor software can be used to implement and improve OEE. Unlike other OEE software, iAuditor is a flexible solution for all of your operational needs. With iAuditor, you can perform equipment maintenance, conduct inspections and quality audits, and empower machine operators to be the best at their job. Learn more about how iAuditor can be used in manufacturing.
Using this template, both quality managers and machine operators can regularly check for the Six Big Losses and create actions to address them. Get a shareable report right after using the template. The OEE report template also has the following features:
This OEE manufacturing checklist is used by quality managers to periodically evaluate the overall equipment effectiveness of a plant. This checklist helps them look into the general practices of a company when it comes to OEE. It covers the following:
Machine operators can use this equipment maintenance log to record the maintenance work performed on equipment. With the template, they can do the following:
Zarina Gonzalez
Zarina is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. She enjoys discovering new ways for businesses to improve their safety, quality, and operations. She is working towards helping companies become more efficient and better equipped to thrive through change.
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