What is OEE?

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness and is a key figure used to measure the efficiency of production equipment.

Today, OEE is an important part of many companies’ continuous improvement strategies. It is used to identify bottlenecks, reduce downtime and improve the quality of the goods produced. By measuring OEE, companies can gain insight into their production processes and find ways to improve efficiency.

OEE takes into account three main factors:

Accessibility: How much of the planned production time the machine is actually in operation.
Performance: How fast the machine runs in relation to its maximum speed.
Quality: The percentage of units produced that meet quality standards.

Where do OEE figures come from and how can PLEET help:

With PLEET, there are several options for collecting the data needed to calculate an OEE, and the technique you choose depends entirely on your production.

You can create a relatively simple interface where PLEET collects a running signal from your machine through an IoT box, when there is a signal, it means the machine is running, if there is no signal, the machine is stopped.

Another, somewhat safer way is for PLEET to communicate directly with the machine controller. This means that stop time and reasons for stopping can be collected automatically.

PLEET has a wide range of standard protocols implemented for communication with controllers, including

Furthermore, PLEET can interface directly with most PLCs to retrieve stop causes, error codes and speed.

Finally, you can have a completely manual registration, where an operator selects on the PLEET screen that the machine has stopped and gives a reason.

In order to calculate the performance you need to know the theoretical capacitywhich PLEET typically retrieves from the order in your ERP system. While in the same way as when registering stops, you have several options for collecting a clock signal from the machine.

The last value – quality, can be entered manually by a simple count of rejects or, as before, by retrieving the number of rejects directly from the machine controller.

Below are three examples of how OEE is calculated in the real world.

Examples of the value of OEE.

Typical manufacturers: Most manufacturers achieve an OEE of 60-75%. This means there is significant room for improvement.
World-class manufacturers: World-class manufacturers achieve an OEE of 85% or higher. This level indicates that production is highly efficient with minimal downtime and high quality.
100% OEE: An OEE of 100% means that the machine runs at maximum speed, without stopping, and all units produced are of high quality.

By focusing on improving OEE, your business can reduce costs, increase capacity and improve product quality without necessarily investing in new equipment.

Typically, an OEE system like PLEET will will visualize the causesso you get a clear picture of where you are wasting time due to unplanned stops.

Here are three examples of calculating OEE in three different industries

Example 1: Refrigerator production line

A refrigerator manufacturer wants to improve the efficiency of their production line. They measure the following over a month:

Planned production time: 720 hours
Uptime: 648 hours (72 hours lost due to maintenance and machine breakdown)
Actual production: 5,832 refrigerators
Ideal production: 6,000 refrigerators (based on maximum speed)
Approved units: 5,540 refrigerators (292 refrigerators rejected due to quality issues)