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Worldwide studies indicate that the average OEE rate in manufacturing plants is 60%.  HOWEVER!  This assumes the plants have realistic reference points for the maximum output of their production equipment.  For example, if the plant has artificially lowered the best output speed of a particular piece of equipment based on their experience, the OEE calculation will be artificially high. The end result is likely to be misinformed assumptions; i.e., the plant may believe they have little room for improvement and resort to capital projects.  

This, of course, defeats the whole purpose of OEE improvement, which is more output with the same equipment.World Class OEE is considered to be 85% or better.  Companies simply do not achieve this without a system to accurately measure and report in real time, giving people the actionable information they need to improve the process on the fly.   The key here is that the information must be available to those that need it in real time and in a format that is easy for them to use.

Here is a sample of what we have experienced in well implemented and mentored OEE improvement programs:

• Availability - This is effectively the % of time the equipment is available to run that it should be available to run; i.e., increased down time results in decreased availability.  We typically see a 5-20% improvement after an OEE improvement program implementation.
• Performance - The rate the equipment is running as a percentage of the MAXIMUM rate.  We typically see a 5-12% improvement after an OEE improvement program implementation.
• Quality - This is the % of good quality product produced.  We typically see a 0-8%  improvement after an OEE improvement program implementation.  Why is this so low?  For many customers there simply isn't a practical way to dynamically measure quality.  As a result, while this value is used in the OEE calculations it may not have real time influence.
• OEE - Over all Equipment Effectiveness = Availability X Performance X Quality. We typically see a 5 - 30% improvement after an OEE improvement program implementation.  There are times the improvment is much higher, but you don't want to assume the best when justifying the project.

You may want to consider putting dollars to these numbers for justification purposes.  For example what would it mean in increased profit with just a 10% improvement in OEE.   If you don't have data to figure out profit, simply see what levels of production would be with those increases.  Remember, you are producing more with the SAME equipment and time!

I know this is a very complex subject, but hopefully this letter will help you set your expectations and understand your outcome a little better.   Please don't hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call with questions.

Sincerely,

Larry Claussen, EE
Director, Performance Improvement Solutions
WingTip LLC
lclaussen@wingtipllc.com
888.500.9464