The Ghost of OEE Past, OEE Present, OEE Future

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol long before OEE became a popular metric for measuring manufacturing performance. Setting aside the fact that the infamous Mr. Scrooge's enterprise was not a manufacturing enterprise but rather a money-lending business, one could ponder endlessly how Mr. Scrooge would have applied his judgmental temperament to measure the performance of his mechanical and human assets. Imagine a modern day Mr. Scrooge in charge of a modern manufacturing enterprise creating all sorts of profitable widgets. It's not hard to imagine Mr. Scrooge wringing out all inefficiencies. Metrics like yield, attainment, efficiency would no doubt fill spreadsheet after spreadsheet in Mr. Scrooge's office and one would not have to look hard before finding OEE.

If your not familiar with OEE then simply Google it and you will find web page after web page touting it's ability to summarize the most important aspects of manufacturing performance into single variable. If you're not familiar with Mr. Scrooge and Dickens' seminal work then I do my best to summarize. Mr. Scrooge is a workaholic who during Christmas realizes there is more to life then hitting that cubicle hard during the holiday season.

Imagine that 'pre-revelation' Mr. Scrooge calculates that OEE has dipped below 85%, a common bench mark. Mr. Scrooge calls into his office his long time employee Bob Cratchit and explains to him that OEE must improve in order for the enterprise to achieve Mr. Scrooge's financial goals. Bob is a talented manager. He is skilled at taking the abstract and turning them into clearly defined goals that he shares with the team.

While OEE may elegantly balance three important factors of manufacturing(i.e. performance, availability, and quality), Bob knows that there are a few things he's going to have to do in order to turn the metric into an actionable tool that elevates manufacturing performance. Bob is full of ideas but he does not have time to implement all of them nor does he know what will resonate with the team therefore he's trying an iterative approach. After all, Bob values the iterative approach ever since reading that book by Eric Rises.

The first go-around goes something like this: Bob invest in plant floor displays that broadcast the prior shift's OEE. He ask his favorite integrator to program the displays. It's a single number. There is a display in the break room and the plant floor. He briefs the team about what OEE means, how it is calculated, and the run-down on how to improve OEE. After a few shifts he solicits the team for their feedback. He wants to know what is working and what is not working with the displays and if they are helping the team understand their manufacturing performance. After a few conversations he picks up on a set of common themes. Several team members describe OEE as 'water under the bridge' and some of the team members make note that 'comparing shift to shift is not like apples to apples' because some of the products use different equipment, run at different speeds, etc. Bob knows that OEE is robust enough to accommodate different equipment and speeds and make their processes comparable with each other. This is why Mr. Scrooge uses OEE to gauge manufacturing performance. It's the ultimate apples-to-apples metric. But Bob has a operation to run and a team to lead and if this first go-around did not generate the buzz he was looking for then Bob will have to revisit the concept with a new approach to communicate OEE to the team.

Bob learned that sharing yesterday's OEE with the team was not an effective way to influence today's OEE. Bob realizes that he needs to go real-time. This way the team will know at any given time how they are doing. If the number dips below 85% then they need to work harder and smarter.

Bob does not know exactly how his team will respond to real-time OEE but he is willing to pivot to real-time metrics because it was the biggest take-away from his recent discussions with his team. But in any manufacturing enterprise there is more to do than time allows therefore Bob will have to wait a few weeks to implement real-time OEE...