What is overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)?
Overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, is a single metric that shows how well a piece of manufacturing equipment is actually running. It combines three things: how often the machine is available, how fast it performs, and how much of its output is good quality.
It shows how well a piece of manufacturing equipment is actually running.
How often the machine is available, how fast it performs, and how much of its output is good quality.
It varies by industry; the real value is improving your own number over time.
The beauty of OEE is that it catches losses people miss. A machine can look busy while quietly losing time to small stops, slow cycles, and scrap. OEE rolls all of that into one honest number.
What a busy machine can hide
Losses people miss- Small stops
- Slow cycles
- Scrap
What OEE shows
One honest number- How often the machine is available
- How fast it performs
- How much of its output is good quality
Chasing a higher OEE is one of the clearest ways to find hidden capacity without buying new machines.
Figure 1. What OEE rolls into one number
Drawn from this article: OEE combines how often a machine is available, how fast it performs, and how much of its output is good quality into one honest number, and it catches losses such as small stops, slow cycles, and scrap. Structure only: the figure shows no formula and no value.
Sthenos builds the tracking behind metrics like this, as in the MES built for a manufacturing firm.
What is a good OEE score?
It varies by industry. The real value is improving your own number over time.
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Related reading
Related terms:
Services: Manufacturing
