You know what your machines should be running. Now you also know why they aren't.
Solution 01 · OEE monitoringOEE is the only figure that captures availability, speed and quality in a single number. We measure it automatically, per machine and per shift, and show how much time each loss costs. No tally sheets, no estimates after the fact.
One number, three honest questions.
OEE multiplies three percentages. That makes it strict: 90% on all three still gives you only 73%. Which is exactly why it shows where you're really leaving it behind.
Availability
Of the time the line should have been running: how much did it really run?
- Breakdowns and faults
- Changeovers and setup
- Waiting on material or operator
Performance
While it was running: did it run at the pace it was built for?
- Microstops of a few seconds
- Deliberately reduced speed
- Ramp-up after every restart
Quality
Of what came out: how much was right first time?
- Rejects and rework
- Start-up scrap per batch
- Scrap on product changeover
The six losses, each with a name and a number of minutes.
Breakdowns
The stops everyone sees and that are still rarely counted exactly. We log start, end and reason.
Changeovers
“About half an hour” often turns out to be 52 minutes in the figures, and 71 on the late shift.
Microstops
A jam, a sensor, a box askew. Twenty times a shift, never noted, hours a week together.
Speed loss
The line runs, but 12% slower than nominal speed. Invisible without measurement.
Start-up scrap
Every restart costs material. The more often the line stops, the more expensive it gets.
In-run rejects
Scrap linked to machine, product and shift, so you see the pattern instead of the incident.
This is what an ordinary Tuesday looks like once you measure it.
Line 2 had no major breakdown at all. It still lost more time than line 1: six microstops and a 34-minute changeover. That is the kind of loss that never shows up in a daily report, and that you cannot tackle without figures either.
The same figure for the floor, the desk and the board.
Put a figure on it before you decide.
Slide from the OEE you have today to where you want to be. You immediately see how many production hours that frees up, and what they are worth.
Two shifts, 230 days ≈ 3,680 hours.
If you do not know it, take 60%. That is a common figure in discrete manufacturing.
Margin or contribution per hour the line is producing. A rough estimate is fine.
Without a new machine, without an extra shift, without a square metre more floor.
- OEE
- 60% → 70%
- Production hours gained
- 380 h
An indicative calculation from your own input, not a measured result. In a two-week measurement we replace the estimate with your actual figure.
“The machine everyone thought was the problem ran fine. The changeover before it cost us the day.”
What a measurement nearly always exposes: the biggest loss is not where the attention is.
The same figure, four different decisions.
Sees the shift live
Marks a stop reason in two taps and knows straight away whether the line is ahead or behind.
Stops tallying
No more assembling reports. The time goes to the line instead of to Excel.
Sees the pattern
Which machine stops on the same day every time, and at what hour someone should be standing by.
Knows whether to invest
Before you buy capacity: first see how much is still left in the existing lines.
From decision to first figure in one week.
Choose
Together we pick one line: preferably the line the argument is loudest about.
Install
An AIONIX device plus sensors on infeed and outfeed. The machine stays untouched, no machine builder needed.
Measure
The first shift comes in. Raw, but real: this is what the line actually does.
Name it
Together with the operators we set up a short list of stop reasons. Fifteen, not fifty.
Adjust
The first loss is on the table. You tackle one and measure next week whether it worked.
The four objections, answered honestly.
Our machines are old. Does this work on them?
What does our IT have to do?
Will the operators use this?
What if it turns out there's little headroom?
OEE only becomes usable with the context around it.
OEE tells you how much capacity you lose. Why you lose it sits in the other modules of the MOM platform. That is why the number is a starting point, not a final report.
Maintenance
Availability loss is usually maintenance that came too late. Add maintenance and every stop becomes an asset with a history, so you can see which machine is structurally holding your OEE down.
Quality
The quality factor in your OEE is a percentage; quality registration tells you which measurement and which order sits behind it. Without that, scrap stays a number with no cause.
Production monitoring
OEE is a look back per shift. With live monitoring you see the loss while the batch is still running, so you can still act instead of finding out on Monday.
To see an OEE figure built in real time on a real line, read how Moerman NV went from paper registration to real-time OEE in three months. More on the number itself in OEE and MES, also for SMEs.
Put your entire shop floor on the same platform.
No 'big bang'. As a West Flanders-based team, we start at your SME with the first module on the first line, prove the value, and build out together to your full platform, at the pace and budget of an SME.