OEE Consulting for Optimized Resource Allocation

Intensifying competition and the accompanying cost pressures mean that increasing efficiency is one of the main concerns of food and pharmaceutical manufacturers. In addition, constantly changing market requirements lead to shorter product life cycles, so manufacturers must have a high degree of flexibility to be able to quickly adapt to new requirements. Ensuring optimal use of resources is an important starting point in meeting these latest trends.

Evaluating Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is an established method for packaging line improvement with the objective to minimize production costs through the optimum use of resources. Roland Pichler, OEE Consultant at Bosch Packaging Technology, was on hand with Unipack.Ru to answer questions on how OEE Consulting services work and how they benefit manufacturers.

Mr. Pichler, what challenges do food and pharmaceutical manufacturers face in today’s markets and what solutions can be found?

Ever increasing competition and accompanying cost pressures are clearly among the greatest challenges facing today’s food and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Each company strives to achieve maximum profits with minimum effort. Growing demand for high-quality yet cost-effective products requires that manufacturers not only supply products quickly, but at the same time keep production costs as low as possible. This means that it is important for manufacturers to constantly increase the efficiency and productivity of their machinery and lines, and this can be achieved for example by reducing downtime and minimising product waste.

The shortage of resources poses another important challenge. Key in overcoming this is the optimum use of resources and this goes beyond optimizing the availability of machinery. The entire production process must run smoothly to enable maximum efficiency of the entire line and its equipment. In addition to processing and production lines, the use of the workforce, the organisation of work processes and structures and production equipment must all be analyzed and then optimized.

In production, every minute counts. For that reason, strategies for increasing efficiency have high priority. What role is played by OEE in doing so?

The important thing with OEE Consulting is making the process transparent and measurable and by using OEE as a key performance indicator, we can achieve that. OEE as a metric is used to identify line efficiency at the start of the process and must be regularly checked to determine the progress toward reaching the objective.

Any loss in production is expensive for manufacturers. Therefore, it is essential to know the exact causes of performance losses to be able to achieve maximum efficiency of the line equipment. OEE states the ratio of the actual to the theoretical output, while considering the most common reasons for productivity losses.

The calculation of OEE is summarized in Figure 1. It consists of three categories: availability, performance and quality. These factors are expressed in percentages as comparative values, which can be used to verify any implemented improvements.

Figure 1: OEE calculation

You have identified three key figures for calculating OEE: availability, performance and quality. What do these figures tell us about line equipment?

Availability refers to machinery and workers that enable production according to a schedule. To put it simply, a machine only adds value when it is working. Regardless of whether downtime is caused by humans or machines, it costs the manufacturer money. The Availability score is calculated by comparing planned with actual machine production times, or in other words by calculating the duration of unplanned machine downtime.

The Performance figure calculates the waste of resources that arises when machines are not running at optimal speed. To determine the performance of the equipment, the actual machine run time is compared with the run time that is theoretically necessary to achieve the produced quantity. This means that items such as time losses arising when equipment is started up after downtime are also considered.

Quality is the third factor for the OEE calculation. It is used to determine how many products do not meet the required quality standards and are therefore rejected. For the manufacturer, poor quality scores mean that there is too much rejected material or post-processing required, consuming additional time and resources.

The three indicators are determined and evaluated during an OEE audit, which requires approximately four weeks. At the end of this phase, a report is created to summarize the results and provide detailed insights into overall line efficiency. Based on this report, the OEE Consultant can give recommendations for line improvement. If a manufacturer does not have the necessary tools in place to measure the three indicators, such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), external measuring devices can be used.

How exactly does Bosch’s OEE Consulting service work? Is a particular process applied?

Bosch’s OEE Consulting service is based on a structured process that can be divided into five steps (Figure 2). An improvement project requires planning and preparation, development and identification, data collection, analysis and improvement, and review phases.

These five steps, which are also known as the “DMAIC” (acronym for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) or Six Sigma methods, form the core elements of our OEE Consulting service.

Figure 2: The OEE improvement circle process

We analyze the customer specific problems in the ‘Plan and Preparation phase’ as an entry into the project and convert these into a structured improvement project. In addition, we determine the project objective and project team in conjunction with the manufacturer. Ideally, the project team should combine the manufacturer’s product and process expertise and the OEE Consultant’s method and machinery expertise. The project plan is created in this phase, with milestones to be issued by the management.

Following this in the ‘Development phase’ each individual machine is rated based on the OEE audit and the available key indicators, including determination of possible causes for losses. This phase takes place in a workshop setting, attended by members of the combined team. The possible loss causes are listed, assessed according to likelihood and processed according to the Pareto principle, which means that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes.

The ‘Data Collection phase’ monitors complex relationships between cause and effect using statistical analytical methods such as hypothesis testing before they are converted into appropriate approaches for measures and solutions. This means that complex relationships with several causes, such as temperature, material and product, are first verified using statistics before any measures or solutions are taken.

On the basis of these results, we compile a detailed action plan in the ‘Analysis and Improvement phase’. This reveals the causes of the inefficiencies and contains work packages that can be used to improve OEE. The suggested measures are discussed and evaluated with the project team and approved by the manufacturer for implementation.

How do you ensure that your measures bring the results desired by the manufacturer over the long term?

This is a very important point. Consistent monitoring of the improvement measures using the OEE key performance indicator is important for long-term results. This monitoring is implemented in Phase 5 ¬– the Review Process, and clearly shows whether the planned objectives have been reached and the solutions have contributed to improvement. A before-and-after comparison is therefore performed, which highlights the improvements achieved.

However, as some measures for improvement only take effect later, such as training and further development, it is important to provide the manufacturer with appropriate management tools, such as control charts, which show progress or offer additional assistance in making a decision to enable action before inefficiencies set in.

Furthermore, OEE measurement and consulting creates experience and empirical data that can be applied to other machines and future projects. In effect, OEE Consulting begins a continuous improvement process.

How does Bosch's OEE Consulting service differ from what other providers are offering?

The OEE Consulting service from Bosch Packaging Technology offers an integrated, all-in-one package. In addition to OEE Consulting in its narrower sense, we also offer concepts for solutions and their implementation, and are the only provider on the market at this time with such a comprehensive service portfolio. Bosch experts are available on-site throughout the entire consulting period to assist customers in increasing the efficiency of their packaging lines. Bosch engineers use the data collected to identify weaknesses and to develop specific potential improvements for each individual customer.

The most important aspect of the consulting is Bosch’s technical expertise in the field of packaging technology combined with our extensive experience, allowing for comprehensive consulting in all areas.

As mentioned earlier, the objective of any manufacturer is to use its resources optimally to remain competitive in the long term. With the OEE Consulting service Bosch meets individual customer needs by determining client-specific critical production factors that can lead to unplanned downtime, production losses and material waste.

How has OEE Consulting changed over the last few years and what does it have to offer the packaging industry in the future?

OEE Consulting was developed on the basis of the OEE key performance indicator devised in 1951 by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance. Today, OEE is an established and preferred calculation as it can be tailored to each company’s individual needs and contains all of the important loss factors. In the future, OEE Consulting will increase in importance in the development of machinery. Suggestions for improvements can be filtered into research and development and guarantee that manufacturers are provided with machinery that meets the requirements of the market over the long term.