Increasing equipment availability
OEE - Overall Equipment Efficiency is a measure of manufacturing productivity and describes the overall efficiency of the equipment. It is a method of analyzing the performance of a machine or an equipment in comparison with its theoretical maximum capacity. By measuring OEE, companies are able to identify their strengths, understand their losses, evaluate their progress and, ultimately, improve the production process.
The components of OEE are:
- Availability, in which the actual operating time of the equipment is measured compared to the total planned operating time
- Performance, measures the operating performance of the equipment compared to its maximum theoretical performance
- Quality, evaluates the proportion of good products made compared to the total of the products
Increasing the availability of equipment is critical to improve the most effective use of it, reduce maintenance costs and achieve financial goals.
The tools most often used in companies to increase availability are:
- recording, monitoring and analyzing all types of stops to identify, reduce and eliminate unplanned ones
- implementation of periodic preventive maintenance that includes regular checks and maintenance in accordance with standard procedures
- continuous training of the maintenance staff according to the manuals and specific guides of the equipment
- the involvement and development of direct productive employees for interventions and adjustments for which they have been trained and validated
- development of escalation procedures in case of unplanned shutdowns or malfunctions
- the implementation of a notification system such as a light system with color codes to display the operating status of the equipment - Andon, manual or automatic
- defining the optimal stocks of spare parts to reduce their delivery time
- monitoring, evaluating and improving the changeover time from one product to another (SMED)
- improving the organization of the workplace through the 5S methodology to maintain an orderly and clean environment, reducing the risk of improper operation
- the use of a Kanban system to manage the demand and the level of materials used
