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„I have to report OEE. They want to know my OEE—and at most the underlying metrics: Availability, Performance, and Quality. Any OEE software will do; I don’t really care about the details. As long as the numbers are high enough!“

Good news

• A lot of ERP software (such as SAP) and MES systems can already do this out of the box.
• This is usually easy to implement based on existing data

Bad news

• This is practically asking for “polished” figures
• You’re missing the insight into what lies behind those figures
• The shop floor isn’t involved, or worse: they might see this as a threat

„We’ll build our OEE Software ourselves; we have a great IT department, and our industry is so unique that you can’t just buy a ready-made solution off the shelf.“

Good news

• It gives a sense of “being special”
• There’s always an IT professional who sees this as a challenge

Bad news

• Building OEE software will take at least several years (even if everybody assures it won’t…)
• The costs are many times higher than buying the right solution from people who specialize in it (and can spread their costs across a large group of users)
• During the development period, you can’t benefit from the information you’re trying to implement
• You’ll almost certainly lack the in-depth knowledge required for this

„With OEE software I want to be able to see what’s going on in my factory: With the push of a button. And I want to receive a live alert on my cell phone if something happens, so I can take action„

Good news

• In most factories, all sorts of things happen on the production line: you’ll most likely receive dozens of alerts every day
• There’s plenty of software designed to handle this

Bad news

• You won’t have much time left for your actual tasks
• You’ll quickly earn a reputation as a micromanager
• Now that you’re on top of everything, everyone will wait for you before taking action

„Our machine is packed with sensors and PLCs. So we know exactly what’s going on. We can monitor the machine remotely in real time. We don’t need anyone to tell us what needs to be done to the machine! OEE software is just a matter of connecting to that infrastructure; we already have OPC UA set up, the UTP cabling is in place, our architect can…“

Good news

• Machines are indeed becoming more and more like “computers with gears,” and there’s a lot of data to be gleaned about what’s happening.

Bad news

• The assumption that having data automatically leads to real improvement is, unfortunately, a mirage
• Excluding the actual knowledge holders—the people who stand by the machine all day—automatically leads to the loss of essential input

As they say at Toyota:

„We get brilliant results from average people managing brilliant processes – while our competitors get average results from brilliant people managing broken processes.“

Therefore „We build people, then we build cars. I want an OEE that supports this process; where we improve our conversion processes by enabling our shopfloor people and their support departments“. 

Good news

• Indeed, improving the technical- AND the social system and have them work as ONE system is the answer to the ulimate manufacturing environment
• There exists software that was specifically designed and built with that in mind
• You are part of a select minority who think this way—which means you have a tremendous competitive advantage!

Bad news

• Approaching an improvement process in this way is a skill in itself: you need to know what you’re doing
• Unfortunately, improvement cannot be achieved simply by buying some software
• In fact, much software actually works against this approach: it is therefore important to use the right software in the right way