Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) has long been a critical metric by which maintenance and reliability teams objectify their performance, and for good reason; it makes complex production problems far easier to calculate, digest, and remedy by simplifying the connection between expected and actual runtime for equipment.
Relying on a great deal of rotating equipment, pulp and paper plants focus heavily on OEE to ensure optimal performance.
One organization—Cascades Canada, a company with more than 70 paper and pulp plants—recently illustrated the way they use OEE to drive operational excellence with a short case study in Automation World.
In the article, the team explained how they regularly perform OEE calculations not only to drive continuous improvement, but also to challenge individual sites to perform at their best across unified business goals. In fact,
“Cascades Canada has cultivated a culture of OEE by establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) and indoctrinating employees at every level in the importance of a strong OEE score and how the metric and relevant data can inform action to drive continuous improvement.”
The team not only monitors its performance but also takes active steps to improve it, using Emerson condition monitoring technologies to determine root cause and identify equipment and operational changes that impact processes.
“While the detailed asset health data doesn’t directly change OEE calculations, it does provide a guide to target improvements. With asset health information, Cascades can drill down and figure out what needs to be improved in order to have better OEE results.”
Using a combination of OEE calculations and condition monitoring technology, the reliability team can ensure that monitoring of OEE is standardized across all its sites. In doing so, the team builds a comprehensive, effective maintenance program that impacts more than a single plant.
To learn more about the value of OEE as a metric to improve operational excellence, and to read additional case studies and success stories from organizations like Cascades Canada, you can read the article in its entirety. But before you go, I’d be interested to hear, is your plant focused on OEE? And, if so, is it monitored across the organization, or simply plant-by-plant? Feel free to leave your comments below!
