What Is OEE, How Do You Determine It, And What Should You Do With It?

By John Henry, www.changeover.com

It's a simple concept, but an ongoing challenge; you need to do more with less. Your customers, the ones who pay hard-earned cash for your products, tell you so daily. You know in your gut that constantly improving efficiency is the only way you can stay ahead of your competition. Every day is do or die. Every little bit is important. Too many people look at a couple points gained and think "Peanuts. It can't amount to much in the overall scheme of things."OEEOEE Wrong. Each 2 percent point gain adds an extra week, or more, of annual production for free.

Some peanut, huh?

Now that I have your attention, what are you going to do about it? You know you want to improve, but how? You will accomplish nothing but frustration without a good measurement system. If you don't know where you are, how will you know where you are going?

This is where OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) comes in. OEE combines three key performance indicators (KPIs), or metrics, to give a single overall result. This allows meaningful comparison between different products, different lines, different plants, and even different industries.