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Data & OEE
6 min
OEE is a product, not an average
Availability, performance and quality multiply. Three good-looking numbers can still hide a line that loses a fifth of its time.
Why the product matters
A line at 92% availability, 89% performance and 98.5% quality sounds healthy. Multiply them and you get 80.7%: one shift in five is quietly lost.
Measure the losses, not the score
The score tells you how much. The six big losses tell you where. We log every stop with a reason code chosen by the operator on the HMI, in their words.
- Breakdowns and changeovers drive availability
- Micro-stops and slow cycles drive performance
- Start-up scrap and rework drive quality
Start small
One machine, one week of honest reason codes and a whiteboard beat any dashboard nobody trusts.
Keep reading
More field notes.
Safety
Designing safety zones people will not bypass
If a guard slows the job, someone will defeat it. Good safety design starts at the operator's workflow, not at the fence.
Retrofit
Retrofit or replace? A five-question test
Most old machines have good iron and tired brains. Five questions tell you whether new controls will give you another fifteen years.
Controls
Ladder logic still has a place
Structured text is powerful. But at three in the morning, the maintenance technician reads rungs, not functions.