Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Total Effective Equipment Performance (TEEP) are fundamental indicators of industrial performance. Despite their critical importance, manufacturing equipment in Quebec displays alarming rates, often below 35%. This situation directly affects industrial performance and creates an urgent need to optimize manufacturing production. This article explores optimization strategies for unplanned downtime and offers concrete solutions to maximize these key indicators in an industrial environment, thus allowing better utilization of existing resources.
You may wonder what the true difference is between these two often confused indicators. The distinction is subtle but significant: it mainly lies in how planned downtime is considered.
OEE is calculated by multiplying three independent sub-indicators. The first is availability rate, which represents effective operating time divided by planned production time, excluding planned stops such as breaks or preventive maintenance. The second is performance rate, which measures the actual speed compared to the theoretical speed of the equipment. The third is quality rate, corresponding to the ratio between conforming parts and total production.
For TEEP, the difference is in the availability rate, which is replaced by the utilization rate. The latter includes planned downtime in its denominator, making the calculation more stringent but also more representative of the actual equipment utilization.
The beauty of these indicators lies in the independence of their components. When OEE is low, analyzing its three components allows you to precisely identify where the losses occur:
In short, without this breakdown, it becomes almost impossible to effectively target improvement plans. Precisely identifying the causes of unplanned downtime in OEE/TEEP is the first step toward effective optimization.
Unplanned downtime represents the number one enemy of availability rate. A stopped machine is a machine that doesn't produce value. These stoppages can have various origins:
Often linked to a lack of preventive maintenance, these breakdowns occur without warning and can immobilize equipment for hours or even days.
More insidious because less visible, these short-duration stops (generally less than 5 minutes) don't always trigger alarms but, when accumulated, can represent considerable losses.
Setup times between two different productions are often underestimated and insufficiently optimized.
Whether waiting for materials, instructions, or operators, these idle times severely impact availability.
Optimizing OEE/TEEP begins with a systematic approach to reducing unplanned downtime. Here are three essential strategies that can significantly transform your industrial performance and drastically reduce production downtime. Each of these approaches targets a specific aspect of availability losses.
Contrary to popular belief, measuring OEE doesn't necessarily require a complex system. The fundamental elements to monitor are varied and complementary.
For availability, it's essential to track whether the machine is running or stopped, ideally identifying the precise cause of each stoppage. Regarding performance, monitoring the number of cycles or production rate allows evaluation of actual efficiency compared to established standards. As for quality, comparing the number of conforming versus non-conforming parts provides valuable insights into the reliability of the production process.
One often overlooked aspect of OEE/TEEP is its versatility. These indicators are not limited to automated machines. They can be successfully applied to manual workstations, assembly lines, paint booths, welding stations, and logistics lines. This adaptability makes them particularly relevant tools for all industrial activities, regardless of their nature.
Additionally, these indicators can be applied at different organizational scales, from specific equipment to an entire company. They can be deployed at the level of an individual machine, aggregated for a complete production line, synthesized at the scale of a workshop, consolidated for an entire plant, or analyzed at the global level of a multi-site company. This pyramidal architecture helps identify bottlenecks and prioritize improvement actions where their impact will be maximized.
With average TEEP in Quebec around 35%, our industries operate at one-third of their theoretical capacity. This situation is not unique to Quebec - even German industries, often cited as examples, face similar challenges.
The common reflex when facing a need for additional capacity is to invest in new equipment, whereas optimizing existing resources would often offer a more economical and faster solution. Reducing production downtime and improving industrial OEE are priority levers before any new investment.
OEE and TEEP constitute much more than simple performance indicators. By specifically targeting unplanned downtime through standardization of changeovers, optimization of technical interventions, and precise measurement of performance, companies can considerably improve their productivity.
Remember that even an improvement of a few percentage points in OEE can represent substantial financial gains without major investment. Before considering purchasing new equipment, ensure your current machines are used to their full potential. The margin for improvement is generally much greater than imagined, and the solutions often simpler than anticipated.
Optimizing OEE/TEEP is not a final destination but a continuous journey toward operational excellence - a journey that begins with the simple question: why is my machine stopped? What strategies will you implement to reduce your unplanned downtime and optimize your OEE/TEEP in your production environment?
Feel free to request a demo of our digital OEE solution to discover how to implement OEE measurement in your factory.
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