Manufacturing

Low OEE — and hard to see why?

An OEE of 60% means that 40% of the planned production time doesn’t create good parts. It isn’t a grade — it is a map of where the capacity disappears. But only if the number is honest, and only if someone reacts to it.

Does this sound familiar?

The OEE number swings without anyone being able to explain why

The way OEE is tallied is discussed more than the numbers themselves

Minor stops and speed loss aren’t recorded — only the big breakdowns

OEE is reported upward but isn’t used for decisions on the floor

Behind the symptom

The typical root causes

The definition isn’t shared

If changeovers, cleaning or breaks are moved out of the planned time, OEE rises on paper — while the real capacity is unchanged. A dressed-up number can’t be used to prioritise.

The losses aren’t categorised

A single overall OEE number hides whether the problem is stops, speed or quality. The six big losses each require their own countermeasure — without a breakdown, you shoot blind.

No daily reaction

OEE tallied monthly is an accounting record, not a management tool. The losses must be visible daily, while the cause can still be remembered and found.

The way out

What actually works

01

Set an honest, fixed definition

Agree once and for all what counts as planned time, and never move losses out of the denominator. A lower but honest number is worth more than a pretty and hollow one.

02

Split the loss into the six big losses

Record stops, minor stops, speed loss and quality loss separately. Now it becomes visible whether the effort should be SMED, maintenance or root-cause hunting on quality.

03

Couple OEE to the board meeting

Yesterday’s OEE and biggest loss are reviewed every morning: what was the cause? Who owns the action? It is the reaction — not the measurement — that moves the number.

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