AltoChange Overall Equipment Effectiveness

AltoChange Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) tool is a hierarchy of metrics used to evaluate how effectively a manufacturing operation is utilized. It is based on the Harrington Emerson way of thinking regarding labor efficiency. The results are stated in a form which allows comparison between manufacturing units in differing industries.

When the plant production planning and production itself is managed on AltoChange, it enables to identify scope for process performance improvement, and how to get the improvement. If for example the cycle time is reduced, the OEE will increase i.e. more product is produced for less resource. Another example is if one enterprise serves a high volume, low variety market, and another enterprise serves a low volume, high variety market. More changeovers (set-ups) will lower the OEE in comparison, but if the product is sold at a premium, there could be more margin with a lower OEE.

OEE measurement is also commonly used as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in conjunction with Lean Manufacturing efforts to provide an indicator of success. OEE can be illustrated by metrics that comprise the system.