Measured on a scale of 0% to 100%, Overall Equipment Effectiveness or OEE is arguably the single most important metric you could be tracking. But those who are new to this world are often discouraged by how slow progress may seem – at least initially. But the arc of change may be slow, but it’s also incredibly consistent – meaning that small but pivotal advancements are a lot more essential than most think.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race, or: Why Incremental Improvements Are Key
For the sake of example, let’s say you spend weeks or even months collecting enough actionable data to come up with your first OEE score. You run the numbers, you double check everything and you get a score of 80%.
Obviously, this shows that you still have a bit more room for improvement – as is true with just about any manufacturing enterprise you can think of. You dive beneath the data, you identify opportunities to eliminate waste and you make some fundamental changes to not only your equipment, but also your line operators and more.
Then, after a period of time, you run the numbers again. You calculate your OEE score… and it’s only increased by one or two percentage points.
Clearly, you’ve gone to a significant amount of effort up to this point. You feel like you’ve done everything right and your gains should have been larger. Still, provided that you’re confident in the quality of the data you’re working with, those numbers don’t lie.
Make no mistake about it: this is not the bad thing you think it is.
For starters, you still have a lot of intelligence to work from to continue to make adjustments moving forward. Remember that the operative word in the phrase “continuous improvement” is “continuous” – meaning that if you’re confident that you’re moving in the right direction, there’s nothing to be upset about.
But think for a moment about what would happen if you continued to home in on those areas of waste and other inefficiencies that might be costing you money. Let’s say you’re able to increase that OEE score another one or two percentage points every few months for the next year. Think about where you’ll be 12 months from now and how much progress you’ll have made.
In the end, it’s important to remember that OEE isn’t just about where you are – it’s also a way to measure where your organization is headed. Provided that you’re drawing the right conclusions from your data and are taking meaningful steps to act on that information, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. Eventually, you’ll be exactly where you need to be – and that in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.
If you’d like to find out more information about why incremental improvements to your OEE score matter far more than a lot of people realize, or if you just have any additional questions that you’d like to discuss with someone in a bit more detail, please feel free to contact the team at Thrive today.
