Whitepaper Reduce Downtime Raise OEE

7/29/2019 Whitepaper Reduce Downtime Raise OEE

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White Paper

Learn what 5 questions you should be asking

and how to get the answers to critical issues

How to ReduceDowntime & Raise OEE


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How to Reduce Downtime & Raise OEE | 2 o 15

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White Paper: How to Reduce Downtime & Raise OEE

To Stay Ahead, You Need to Measure OEE

One crucial area that every plant can improve on is

eciency, and one o the best measures o eciency

is OEE (overall equipment eectiveness). I you dont

know your OEE, then you dont truly know how e-

cient you are. More importantly, you dont know how

ecient you could be.

There is a lot that goes on at a manuacturing plant

every day. Employees come in and out and work on

the plant oor, machines need to be maintained, and

production quotas need to be met. With so much

happening all the time, it can be hard to see how

things are all working together.

More specifcally, it can be very dicult to deter-

mine i everything is working together eciently,

and what can be improved to increase the plants

overall productivity.

There is so much data to consider when trying todetermine a plants eciency; it can be a daunting

task. This is where OEE can help.

OEE, the overall equipment eectiveness, is a mea-

sure o the eciency and eectiveness o the manu-

acturing processes (i.e. machines, cells, assembly

lines, processes, etc.). OEE is a simple and powerul

metric or tracking and improving a plants eciency.

OEE works by breaking down the reasons or pro-ductivity losses into three main actors: Availability,

Perormance and Quality.

Availability - This actor measures productivitylosses resulting rom downtime. Downtime is any

event that stops planned production or a period o

time. Availability is determined by dividing actual

production time by planned production time.

Perormance - This is a actor that measures a lossin productivity due to slow cycles. Slow cycles occur

when the manuacturing process is running at less

than optimum speed. When you divide the current

production rate by the ideal production rate, theresult is the per ormance ratio.

Quality - This actor measures losses rom manu-acturing subpar products those that do not meet

minimum requirements. The Quality ratio is calcu-

lated by dividing the number o good units by total

units started.

In todays economy the manuacturing industry is more competitive now

than ever. You have to get every advantage you can to keep up with the

competition. I you are already the leader amongst your competition, you

must continually improve to stay ahead o the pack.

5 QuestionsYou Must Answer to DecreaseDowntime and Improve OEE

OEE is calculated by multiplying

each o these actors:

Availability x Perormance x Quality


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When you combine all these actors together you get

the OEE. The OEE is calculated by multiplying each o

these actors (Availability x Perormance x Quality).

An OEE o 85% is considered a world-class peror-

mance but it can vary by industry. Achieving an OEE

like this would require a plant to maintain around

90% Availability, 95% Perormance, and 99.9% Qual-

ity. Considering that most manuactures average an

OEE score o around 60%, improving to a world-

class OEE rating would mean a huge improvement

in productivity.

Fix Your Equipment Availability Factorby Addressing Downtime

Determining your plants availability is a huge part

o calculating your OEE, and the biggest actor that

aects availability is downtime. There are two types

o downtime that aect OEE: planned downtime,

and unplanned downtime.

Planned Downtime Calculating OEE starts withdetermining your plant operating time. Plant operat-

ing time is the total amount o time that the plant is

available or operation.

Planned downtime is operating time lost due to

planned events. These are events where you have no

intention o keeping the plant operational, such as

breaks, scheduled maintenance, and holidays.

Ater subtracting planned downtime rom plantoperating time, the remaining time is called planned

production time. This planned production time is the

benchmark that unplanned downtime events are

measured against.

Unplanned Downtime This measures the loss oplanned production time due to unplanned events

that cause downtime. These events can occur or a

variety o reasons operator error, mechanical

problems, and lack o oversight are some o the

biggest causes.

Each o these events results in time where operations

are shut down; add all that time together and you get

the total amount o unplanned downtime. When you

divide the total unplanned downtime by the planned

production time the result is the plants availability.

Unplanned downtime occurrences are the onlyevents that aect your OEE in a negative way, sorom here on out all reerences to unplanneddowntime will simply be reerred as downtime.

Downtime is one o the biggest culprits or bring-

ing down a plants OEE because it can take a huge

chunk o time out o your planned production time.It is also one o the actors that is the hardest to fx,

because there can be so many things that could be

aecting it.

Whether the reasons or downtime are large or small,

they can be improved or fxed altogether; but frst

you have to fnd them.

Tom Hechtman o Inductive Automation has been

working with MES (manuacturing execution systems)

or some time. He has worked together with manu-

acturers around the country to increase eciency in

their plants.

He explains how to take the frst step toward improv-

ing OEE: The frst thing you have to do in order to

eliminate downtime is to fnd it, and to fnd it you

have to start asking questions.

Here are fve question that Hechtman says you must

answer to decrease your plants downtime and raise

your OEE.

Planned Production Time

Plant Operating Time

Availability x Perormance x Quality = OEE (overall equipment eectiveness)

UnplannedDowntime

PlannedShut Down

SpeedLoss

QualityLoss

Ecient Production Time

Not counted

in OEE


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I your answer to this question is that you arent tracking OEE or downtime

at all, then chances are you are losing money every day.

The question is not whether or not you have downtime occurring every

plant does the question is how much do you have, and how can you

decrease it and improve OEE?

#1How are you currently trackingyour OEE and downtime?


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Most production plants have some kind o method

or tracking production data and downtime events.

The larger the plant, the more essential tracking OEE

and downtime becomes. The two main ways that OEE

and downtime are tracked is manually or through MES

(manuacturing execution executive system) sotware.

Two Ways to Track OEE

Manual Tracking This method o tracking produc-tion and downtime is widely used, but is rapidly

shrinking as the quality and accessibility o MES

sotware improves.

Tracking production and downtime inormation by

hand relies heavily upon the expertise and diligence

o your sta, particularly the line operators. As down-

time events occur, line operators are in charge o

recording the events and how they were resolved.

Later, this inormation is entered into spreadsheets,

which are made available to management or review.

At that point, management can make decisions on

how to resolve issues that are causing downtime.

The beneft o this tracking method is that it uses theexpertise o plant employees to diagnose problems.

I its streamlined to work eectively, problems can

be discovered and resolved; but at best they will

not be fxed or days, i not weeks or months ater

they happen. This method is also very dependent

on your operators to accurately record problems. I

they arent clear and concise when entering data, the

tracking inormation could be rendered useless.

Most companies that employ this method do so to

save money or because they lack a viable automated

solution. However, the reality is that most o the time,

the costs saved by not purchasing and installing

sotware is negated by the cost o undiscovered and

unresolved downtime.

MES Sotware Manuacturing execution systemsotware is designed to bridge the communication

gap between the plant oor and the management

and executive levels. There are some MES sotware

packages that specifcally track and analyze OEE and

downtime. Some o these packages are stand-alone

applications and some can be ully integrated with

current SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisi-

tion) sotware.

There are many advantages to a ully SCADA in-

tegrated MES downtime tracking application. The

biggest advantage is speed. Data can be captured,

collected, and stored automatically. This means that

line operators dont spend time manually tracking

and reporting production and downtime events; the

automated system does that or them.

Another advantage to MES sotware is that the inor-

mation is instantly available to sta as events hap-

pen. This allows operators, maintenance techs and

production supervisors to fx eciency and down-

time issues as they happen, instead o weeks later.

Accuracy is another beneft. A good system can track

exactly when, where, and why a downtime event oc-

curs, all without relying too heavily on the operator or

inormation. This kind o accuracy is crucial in quickly

and eectively troubleshooting downtime problems.

Choose the Right Tool or the JobNo matter how much a company wants to do the

right thing to correct their downtime issues, without

powerul tools the job wont get done. While hard

work and dedication are a requirement to meeting

any task, the right tool or the job is key to getting it

done eectively and eciently. Make a decision on

which tools are right or you, then use that tool to its

ull potential to increase your plants OEE.

Question #1 - How are you currently trackingyour OEE and downtime?


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There are a lot o employees on a plant oor at any given time, and many

o them are doing very dierent jobs. Understanding which employees arehaving the greatest impact on your downtime is one o the key actors in

running more eciently.

#2Which plant employees have thegreatest eect on your downtime?


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Three Employees That Aect Downtime

Line Operators A cell reers to an individual ma-chine or process on a production line. One or more

line operators are responsible or every cell on their

assigned production line. They work directly with the

machines and thereore have a great impact on how

those machines are used.

Every decision they make can have a positive or neg-

ative eect on downtime. A good line operator can

spot problems beore they happen, avoiding down-time events. A bad line operator may be inattentive

to his line, leaving downtime problems unresolved

and unreported.

Maintenance Technicians Depending on the sizeo your plant there could be hundreds i not thou-

sands o machines running on a daily basis. Machines

break down, and when they do it can cause down-

time. Maintenance technicians are responsible or

the running o the machines on the plant oor.

A good maintenance tech will maintain a regular

maintenance schedule or each machine, resulting

in less machine-related downtime. An inexperienced

tech will only conront problems when they occur.

They may fx the immediate problem, but they make

no eort to curb downtime in the uture.

Production Supervisor With so many things tokeep track o on a plant oor, someone has to over-

see it all. The production supervisor is in charge o all

the production lines. He is critical in resolving issues

that are causing downtime across the plant oor.

A good production supervisor will spend his time ad-

dressing the issues o the highest priority frst, while

delegating responsibility or the less importantissues. An inexperienced production supervisor will

simply run around rom problem to problem. By not

setting priorities to solve the larger eciency-related

issues, he doesnt make ecient use o his time.

A well-trained sta working toward a common goal

is one o your biggest assets in the eort to increase

your OEE. To get them all on the same page, train

them in decreasing downtime and how it relates to

the eciency o the entire plant. Also, train them in

the specifc relevance o their role in the process and

how they ft into your overall OEE strategy.

How to Train Employees or Success

Leverage the wisdom o your more experienced

sta. Ater working on a plant oor or a signifcant

amount o time they will be extremely knowledgable

about all the little quirks each line has. When havingthem train new employees make it a point that they

pass that knowledge on.

Oten this kind o inormation can help in diagnosing

possible downtime problems beore they even occur.

Hechtman reports, Ive been on actory oors beore

where Ive seen experienced line operators start

walking to a problem machine beore it even breaks

down; they just knew what was going to happen.

Singling out certain employees and holding them

accountable or the eciency o an entire plant is

not an eective approach to increasing OEE. Keep in

mind that those employees who have the greatestpotential or causing downtime are also your frst line

o deense in the battle to improve your OEE.

Keep in mind that those employees

who have the greatest potentialor causing downtime are also your

rst line o deense in the battle to

improve your OEE.

Question #2 - Which plant employees havethe greatest eect on your downtime?


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This seems like a trick question. O course i you knew what downtime

wasnt being reported then it wouldnt be unknown any more, and thats thepoint. I you are unaware o a downtime issue, you wont know how much

its costing you.

#3Do you know how much downtimeis occurring that isnt being reported?


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This point is well illustrated by a couple o stories

about manuacturers that Hechtman worked with.

Both had recently added MES downtime tracking

sotware, and both used that sotware to discover

just how much they didnt know about their plants.

Sotware RevealsHidden Downtime Issues

Case Study: Food Processing Plant Shortly aterthey began using their downtime sotware, a large

ood processor company began to notice a series o

very small downtime events on one o their lines.

A sensor on the line was malunctioning and as a re-

sult the line was stopping or a second or two beore

the line started again. The event was so small it was

unnoticeable, but it was occurring hundreds o times

a day, resulting in less production or the line.

Hechtman reports what happened once they ound

it: The problem went unnoticed or a long time;

they might have never ound it without help rom

their sotware. Hechtman continues, Once theyound and replaced the aulty sensor they got more

production rom that line. In act, they got a ull our

more pallets o product rom that line every day, and

that really adds up quickly.

Case Study: Automotive Plant One o the largestand most diversifed automotive suppliers in the

world had started using MES downtime tracking

sotware at one o their plants. The sotware alerted

them to a small downtime event occurring in an indi-

vidual cell on one o their production lines.

Upon inspection, they discovered a pneumatic cyl-

inder that was not unctioning properly; causing the

cell to operate slower than expected.

Hechtman explains the signifcance o this discovery:

The interesting thing is that no loss in production

actually occurred, and maintenance replaced it thenext time the line was scheduled to be down. But, i

the cylinder had gone unnoticed until it broke down

completely, the entire line would have shut down.

By fxing the problem beore it became a bigger

problem they actively prevented a downtime event

that would have resulted in reduced production.

What You Dont Know WillHurt You

The moral to both o these stories is simple; what you

dont know is either hurting you now, or it will come

back to bite you in the uture.

Both o these companies wanted to correct their

downtime issues, but they were unable to reach their

ull potential until they had all the inormation they

needed. In the fght against downtime your most

powerul weapon is inormation. You simply cant

increase your OEE without it and the more you have,

the better equipped you will be to improve it.

Question #3 - Do you know how much down-time is occurring that isnt being reported?


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No matter how much production and downtime inormation you collect,

data without analysis is essentially useless. Its the story behind the numbersthat you are looking or, and the only real way to fnd it is through the power

o comparison.

#4How are you currently analyzingyour downtime data?


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How to Make Comparisonsto Find the Right Answers

Analyzing production and downtime data is all about

making comparisons. How is one machine running

versus another? Which operator isnt keeping up with

the production quota the other operators are meet-

ing? Is one o the raw materials on the line causing

more downtime than another?

These are all comparison questions, and these are

the kind o questions that reveal actors that couldbe leading to increased eciencies.

Comparing Machines Comparing machines ona production line, will help identiy the machine or

machines causing the largest loss in eciency. I your

production environment supports it, you can even

compare machines on a production line with the

same type on other lines.

Comparing production lines that run at dierent

production rates can be dicult, but OEE isolates

the dierences so that they can be compared on an

apples-to-apples basis.

Comparing People Sometimes downtime can becaused by a mechanical problem, and other times its

the operator. I you rotate dierent operators onto

that line and they all experience a drop in produc-

tion, then the source o the downtime is most likely a

mechanical problem.

However, i an operator rotates to another line and the

production o that line decreases as well, then most

likely the operator is causing downtime on whichever

line they are on. Management may need to intervene

in this case to better train the employee or move them

to a location thats better suited or them.Comparing Materials In any production plant,good raw materials are needed to produce a quality

product. Raw material vendors can be compared to

determine which raw material runs through produc-

tion lines more eciently.

Eective Analysis is Dependenton Visual Presentation

These comparisons are some o the more common

ones to look or, but there is almost no limit to the

amount o comparisons you could make with your

OEE. Each comparison, no matter how big or small,

could lead you to fnding and resolving an issue that

is hurting your eciency.

The only real limits are the ability to collect data and

the power with which that data is presented. The more

you have, the more comparisons you can make, and

the more avenues you have or fnding potential issues.

Be cautious that you dont get so carried away with anoverwhelming amount o data that your comparisons

become meaningless.

The methods you use to visualize the data also have

an eect on your understanding and ability to diag-

nose downtime and its causes.

I youre trying to make comparisons on a spreadsheet

or in your head, you are severely limiting what you can

see. MES downtime tracking sotware can give you

powerul tools to display data via charts and graphs.

With it, users have the ability to easily see discrepan-

cies and take action to resolve them.

Question #4 - How are you currentlyanalyzing your downtime data?

Each comparison, no matter

how big or small, could lead you

to nding and resolving issues

that are hurting your efciency.


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Once causes that reduce eciency have been identifed, then its time to go

about resolving them. This means its time to make a choice. I your planthas the time, money, and man power to resolve all the eciency-reducing

causes, thats great. However, most companies must allocate their resources

wisely, which means you will have to make a choice as to which causes to

ocus on frst.

#5How conident are you when makingdecisions about increasing eciency?


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When making the decision on which issues to ocus

your resources on, youll want to be confdent in

your choice. I you lack confdence in your decision,

then you are most likely missing one o three things:

inormation, priorities, and a plan o action.

Tools or Success

Inormation As mentioned beore, having easyaccess to the inormation about what is causing

downtime on the plant oor is absolutely essential.

Not having a complete knowledge o OEE and down-

time data or your plant is equivalent to driving in the

dark. You will either move along slowly, not hitting

anything but never arriving at your destination. Or,

you move along quickly, making good time until you

run into a wall.

Without enough inormation it is impossible to be

confdent in your decisions to reduce downtime and

increase eciencies.

Priorities Through the power o comparisons youcan assign your eciency-reducing causes a prior-

ity. The causes that are costing you the most money

should be given the highest priority. Causes that are

the least damaging to your bottom line should go to

the back o the line.

One thing to keep in mind is the requency o the

occurrence; small occurrences might not be costing

a lot o downtime by themselves, but they can have a

drastic cumulative eect. Knowing which problem to

tackle frst will give you confdence in your decision.

Plan o Action I you have the inormation youneed, and have your eciency-reducing causes pri-

oritized, you are now ready to orm a plan o action.A plan o action is your strategy to increase ecien-

cies. It consists o a list o actionable items that need

to be done and a time line or doing them.

Assign the right people to the right job, making sure

they have the proper skill set to complete the task

eectively and eciently.

Form a Winning Strategy

Be smart with your strategy; problems that are a high

priority may not be the best ones to solve frst. Do an

evaluation o all the downtime events that need to

be resolved to determine how much time and money

they will take to fx. You may get a more cost eective

result rom fxing the smaller ones because they take

less time to resolve, thereby resulting in an immedi-

ate increase to your OEE.

With a solid plan o action, set by your priorities andbacked up with solid inormation, you can eel conf-

dent in your decisions to reduce downtime.

MES downtime sotware can be a huge beneft to

you in acquiring these things. Real-time data acqui-

sition, powerul data comparison tools, and clear

analysis o important inormation can be a huge

asset in orming your strategy to improve OEE as

well as be a big confdence booster when its time to

execute it.

With a solid plan o action, set by

your priorities and backed up withsolid inormation, you can eel

condent in your decisions to

reduce downtime.

Question #5 - How confdent are you whenmaking decisions about increasing eciency?


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Now that you know the questions you need to ask,

the next step is fnding answers. Each plant is dier-

ent, with its own unique set o challenges, so there

is no one answer that is going to solve every prob-

lem. In order to reduce downtime and increase your

OEE you need at least two things: commitment and

powerul tools.

Commitment Reducing your downtime and im-proving your OEE is not a one-time fx. It requires a

consistent and continued eort to fnd and eliminate

eciency-reducing causes. It can only be accom-

plished i you have a strategy or improving OEE,

and that strategy needs to be ollowed through at

every level o the plant. Its a team eort that requires

cooperation and patience.

Powerul Tools MES OEE downtime sotware isa great tool or tracking the actors that aect your

OEE. Its simply the astest and most accurate way

to collect, track and analyze OEE data. There are

several products on the market designed to help youimprove your OEE.

Moving Forward with Confdence

With powerul tools and a commitment to decreasing

downtime at your plant, you will be ready to move

orward. Increasing your OEE can be a dicult jour-

ney, but asking the right questions and obtaining the

power to answer them is the path to getting there.

OEE downtime tracking sotware can give you the

confdence that your plan to improve your plants OEE

is backed up with solid inormation and analysis.

ConclusionFinding Answers to OEE Questions

Upcoming Webinar | Oct 26, 2011

On Oct 26 at 9am, Tom Hechtman

o Inductive Automation will be

conducting a ree webinar, How to

Reduce Downtime & Raise OEE.To register, visit:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/

register/648154242

OEE downtime tracking sotware

can give you the condence that

your plan to improve your plants

OEE is backed up with solidinormation and analysis.


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OEE Downtime Sotwarerom Inductive Automation

Ignition is the database-centric, web-basedHMI/SCADA/MES sotware package rom Inductive

Automation. The Ignition OEE Downtime Module

is a powerul application that gives you the tools

to analyze and present data in an easy-to-understand

and actionable way.

Automatic Downtime Tracking The Ignition OEEDowntime Module can be integrated with current

SCADA systems, so it can automatically and accurately

track production and downtime data.

Its quicker and more accurate than having employees

tracking data by hand. It also rees up more time or

employees to put energy into being productive inother areas.

Option to Track Downtime Manually In a perectworld all production and downtime data would be

tracked automatically, but sometimes thats not pos-

sible. For this reason the OEE Downtime Module was

designed with the exibility to also support hand-

entered data collection.

Real-Time Efciency Management Track and dis-play production and downtime data in real-time so

you know what is happening on the plant oor right

now. This gives you the ability to resolve issues as

soon as they happen instead o days or weeks later.

Downtime Analysis The OEE Downtime Modulegives you powerul analysis tools to accurately and

quickly fnd the source o eciency loss. See the whole

plant at once, and use customizable flters to compareproduction lines, cells, machines, operators, and other

actors that may have an impact on eciencies.

Identiy Top Downtime Reasons The Ignition OEEDowntime Module will identiy and prioritize the

main causes o unplanned downtime in your plant.

Using this inormation, you can create a solid plan o

action to get your downtime under control.

SotwareTrack, Visualize, and See

Your OEE and Downtime Data

mesOEEDowntime

At-a-Glance Executive Dashboard

Visual charts and graphs give a quick overview o real-time

operations eciency.

Comparative Reports

Choose what data to compare to create reports that pinpoint

inormation your acility needs to improve eciency.

Documents

Whitepaper Reduce Downtime Raise OEE