OEE and equipment commissioning
March 30, 2009 by david.evanson
Are you thinking about investing in new production line equipment?
Would you like to avoid having your OEE demolished in the process?
Here are our 5 top tips for minimising the length of time that your line is down for the install:
1. Agree to use automated electronic measures to sign off the new equipment - most equipment suppliers we meet are very happy to sign off large projects using tick sheets and manual observation both of which are subject to significant errors. Use PLC data for the commissioning exercise - when/should the OEM argue that the numbers are incorrect at least you know that their PLC code is also incorrect!
2. Agree the range of performance metrics well in advance including a total line metric for the trial.
3. The industry standards are Mechanical Efficiency and Running Speed. We would also recommend insisting on: Mean Time Between Failure, Mean Time To Recover, OEE (Availability, Performance, Quality), and Loss to Critical/bottleneck Machine.
4. XL800 systems are extremely useful for signing off new equipment as they can be installed in a matter of hours with a completely standard setup - just bolt it on, plug it in, run the machine, and there’s your sign-off data generated completely automatically.
5. Make sure you consider the line control - we’ve seen many installations in which new equipment is installed with only the absolute minimum line control adjustments. Typically this can kill as much as 5% of your total line efficiency. Very shortly we will post our Line Control philosophy to support you here.
We’ve been involved in the commisioning of everything from individual machine upgrade to full multi-million pound production lines and hope that these simple tips help you with your install.
Incidentally i’ve just spotted this blog which also has a great post on this topic: Click Here
Your biggest OEE mistake?
March 26, 2009 by david.evanson
So you’re measuring OEE and breaking out some of the losses - do you want to know one of the biggest mistakes i believe sites make at this point?
I believe that one of the biggest mistakes people regularly make is that they don’t measure the accuracy of their data.
What does this mean? Well it means that you are potentially taking action on highly inaccurate data with absolutely no idea of how inaccurate it is! In reality the chances are that your team are fudging the numbers so that they always add up to 100%. If you doubt me do this: Walk out onto the line and discretely observe how many minor stops are accurately recorded by the operator. Look at the tick sheets - how many of your stops are nice round numbers; 1min, 5min, 15min?
Whilst our MachineView and XL systems get 100% accuracy on a single asset when it comes to calculating losses on an entire production line even our LineView system which is an extremely accurate fully-automated causal downtime system only averages 98% efficiency on a complex line!
Whenever we work out an OEE number we look for:
1. Completed production
2. Maximum theoretical production
3. Mins attributed to downtime
4. Unallocated downtime
If I ever see an OEE calculation with 100% accuracy then i would lay £50 on the table that someone is fudging the numbers at some point. This is because most manual systems get calculated at the end of the shift - your 4hr of non-production time is assigned to whatever downtime reason codes the team want.
For good quality information you need to know not only how many mins of downtime were captured…but how many were missed out as well.
Inspiring workplace
March 26, 2009 by david.evanson
If you’re interested in having the ultimate engaged, accountable workforce then you will probably be fascinated by the book “Maverick” by Ricardo Semler.
“Maverick” is the story of how Ricardo took the business his father had run for decades which had a very traditional autocratic managment style, removed 80% of the management team, and converted it into a lean, people-focussed democratic business run by the employees for the employees.
Whilst discussing this with my colleague David we wondered if Semco were still in business over 10 years later and i’m delighted to say that they certainly seem to be! Check out this awesome video to find out more:
The video of Semco today:
http://dotsub.com/view/c5946f57-8f5e-4e5b-be2d-b89a14b6d245
The book on Amazon:
Struggling to improve?
March 23, 2009 by david.evanson
Something that struck me the other day was how many sites have had Lean Initiative-itis over the years.By this i mean that they’ve tried to implement various of lean/quality/OEE activities, some internally, some with consultants but for some reason they’ve struggled to improve.
I’m sure we all recognise the symptoms - branded literature up on the walls from past consultant-supported activity, semi-filled in paperwork, practices in place that exist due to habit rather than the value that they add, a weariness from the folks on the factory floor when it comes to ‘another funny acronym’.
I know things are bad when we talk to an operator about “quick changeovers” and they tell me they know all about that “SMED stuff”…..as they start a 6 hour changeover. Or if every front line manager i talk to has 9-5 meetings every day, or when i walk a line and see more than 1 noticeboard…and it’s out of date.
Here’s something that i have come to believe - the Lean toolkit contains some great tools for reducing waste and improving OEE and there still comes a point in my opinion where “if you can’t change the people, change the people”.
Far too often i see implementations that are attempted from a very genuine desire to improve yet with poor people-management support. Quite often in sites that are in this place there are fantastic performance management tools available and they’re not being used.
When we look at the sites that we know get the most sustainable performance one thing they all have in common is that there is a robust performance mangagement system in place and being implemented in full on a daily basis.
If you’re introducing any sort of change process (lean, an OEE drive, a quality drive) here are my thoughts on how to be successful:
1. Make it personal - people have to care. Make sure they have an emotional reason for doing this…make sure YOU have an emotional reason for doing this.
2. You can’t build a strong house on a weak foundation - get the basics right first; ensure that you have a people performance management system in place AND WORKING!
3. If you have the wrong person in the wrong role then you’re not helping them or yourself…they’re probably miserable. Use your tools to help them find a role where they can be happy and productive. This happened to me early in my corporate career and i look back with huge gratitude to the director who did this with me in such an open and supportive manner.
4. “Aces in Places”: Make your best people responsible for creating change and get them to coach your rising stars
5. Ensure that your implementation team have precise objectives for this implementation and that they are linked to personal performance objectives
6. Carry out regular documented reviews to coach on performance and provide guidance/focus
7. Follow up on all actions that come from the reviews
8. Hold people to account for implementing the change: Reward for success and use your performance management tools if the project is floundering
As ever - delighted to welcome your feedback as these are simply my ideas post a 2 hour workout on Monday evening! So fill out the box below and let me know what you think.
