Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) constitutes the fundamental pillar of industrial performance indicators. Far from being reserved for automated equipment only, it applies effectively to manual workstations as well as entire factories. Its strength lies in its structure of three independent components that allows precise identification of productivity loss sources.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), the English equivalent of the French TRS (Taux de Rendement Synthétique), represents the first-level indicator that every manufacturing company should monitor. You have probably already noticed that many companies invest in new equipment while their current machines are underutilized. OEE allows precisely to objectify this reality in the context of manufacturing productivity.
OEE is the product of three essential and independent sub-indicators:
The formula is simple:
This multiplication of three percentages explains why observed OEE values are often low. For example,
Will have an OEE of only 53.2%.
What is the average OEE in your industry?
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and TEEP (Total Effective Equipment Performance) are two distinct indicators that measure equipment efficiency from different perspectives.
The main distinction concerns the calculation of the availability rate:
Thus, for an 8-hour work shift including 1 hour of break, if the equipment operates for 4 hours:
One of the great advantages of Overall Equipment Effectiveness is its ability to be deployed at different scales:
OEE can be applied to any workstation, whether automated or manual. A welding station, manual assembly post, or CNC machine can all be analyzed with this metric.
At the individual workstation level, OEE helps identify:
By aggregating OEE values from multiple workstations, we can calculate that of a complete line. This vision helps identify bottlenecks and concentrate improvement efforts where they will have the most impact.
A production line with an average OEE of 40% has a theoretical potential capacity increase of 150% without additional investment - a perspective often ignored by companies that prefer to purchase new equipment.
The concept can be extended to the entire factory level, or even the multi-site company. This level of aggregation allows:
Implementing an OEE measurement system doesn't need to be complex to be effective:
It is sufficient to know whether the equipment or workstation is running or stopped, and in the latter case, why. For modern equipment, this information can be captured via industrial communication protocols (OPC UA, MQTT...). For older machines, simple sensors (vibration detection, power consumption) can do the job.
Counting cycles or measuring production rate allows evaluation of performance against a standard. This can involve counting sensors, production data, or even manual records as part of optimized industrial performance.
This is often the most difficult dimension to measure in real-time, especially in processes where quality control is performed downstream. If access to this data is complex, it is perfectly acceptable to start with a partial OEE based solely on availability and performance.
Deploying a multi-level approach to OEE represents a powerful strategy to reveal hidden productivity potential in manufacturing companies. From individual machines to complete factories, this indicator provides a clear vision of improvement opportunities, allowing effective targeting of corrective actions.
Key takeaways:
This rational approach often allows significantly increasing production capacity without major investment, simply by optimizing the use of existing resources. Isn't that the very essence of continuous improvement?
TRS (Taux de Rendement Synthétique) and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) are essentially the same indicator. The term OEE is used in English literature, while TRS is its French equivalent used in Quebec and in French-speaking countries.
An OEE of 85% is considered excellent in the industry. World-class performance is generally around 85%, but the industry average is closer to 35-40%. It is important to set realistic goals based on your industry and your starting point.
Improving OEE involves identifying the main losses. Start by analyzing which of the three factors (availability, performance, quality) is most problematic, then focus your efforts on it. Generally, availability offers the quickest gains because stops are often easy to identify and reduce.
Although traditionally used in production, the OEE concept can be adapted to services by defining equivalents for availability (productive time vs. total time), performance (service speed), and quality (customer satisfaction). This is particularly relevant in standardized service environments.
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