Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is indication of how a planned production schedule is used for obtaining a productive time. OEE is calculated as the product of its three contributing factors.

OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality

This type of calculation makes OEE a severe test. For example, if all three contributing factors are 90.0%, the OEE would be 72.9%.

In practice, the generally accepted world-class goals for each factor are quite different from each other, as is shown below.

1. Availability – 90.0%
2. Performance – 95.0%
3. Quality – 99.9%
4. OEE – 85.0%

Of course, every manufacturing plant is different. For example, if your plant has an active Six Sigma quality program, you may not be satisfied with a first-run quality rate of 99.9%. Worldwide studies indicate the the average OEE rate in manufacturing plants is 60%. As you see from the above table, a world class OEE is considered to be 85% or better. Clearly, the is room for improvement in most manufacturing plants!

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For any quality driven organization, be it be manufacturing or service based, continuous improvement is the key activity for various reasons. Below are three main tools used across the industries:

1) Poka-yoke – Error proofing: Errors can lead to defects, but they are not inevitable. They can be eliminated with tools like Poka-yoke. It is a simple method that can be applied to detect and prevent defects. Error proofing has three functions:

• Shutdown – stop when defect is predicted or detected;
• Warning – signals that defect is predicted or detected;
• Control – prevent defects from occurring or from passing to next process.

The right type of QMS guides the user through every stage of Pokayoke process. It maintains the bank of implemented Pokayoke and also generates the summary sheet.

2) Kaizen: Kaizen is a Japanese word that roughly translates to Change for Good or Continual Improvement. In Kaizen, the focus is on continuous improvement in a series of small incremental steps. Kaizen can be applied at all levels of an organization. At the level of senior management, it would focus on changes in procedures and processes across the organization. At the middle management level, the focus would be on improvement of interdepartmental coordination and in the case of lower-level management and workers, it would focus on the particular department or job. The benefits of Kaizen also increase dramatically as the levels in the organization go up.

Kaizen is characterized by the Kaizen mindset which believes that:

• The existing operations always have a room for improvement.
• The existing facilities and methods can always be improved by spending some efforts.
• The accumulation of small improvements makes a big difference.

There are tools like OpExWorks CI Cloud that makes users walk through the kaizen process starting from theme registration, data entry at various stages, and generates a kaizen idea sheet.

3) CAPA: CAPA is the abbreviation for corrective action and preventive action.

Corrective Action: Elimination of the cause or causes of an existing nonconformity or undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence. Corrective Action (CA) is an extension of Root Cause Analysis (RCA). The first goal of CA is to find the root cause, base event or error that preceded the problem. The second goal is to take action directed at the root cause or error.

Preventive Action: Identification and elimination of the cause(s) of potential nonconformities in order to prevent occurrence. The primary goal of preventive action is to inform an organization and prevent the problem from returning in other facilities lines or products.

There are quality management systems (QMS) which assists the user through CAPA registration process, data entry at various steps and also with all the corrective and preventive action points entries.

OpExWorks CI offers all these tools at a single location. Click here to create your free account.