Why this matters now

Digital transformation hinges on overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Used to measure the performance of both processes and individual machines, OEE is one of the most critical metrics for determining whether a digital transformation strategy is working or not.

To effectively measure OEE, teams need to monitor three pillars: availability, performance, and quality. But monitoring those pillars is challenging in an environment where data is siloed. Emerson’s Silvia Gonzalez, a manufacturing software expert, explores this challenge in her recent article in Automation World. Gonzalez shares,

“Whether it is trapped in disparate, islanded programmable logic controllers (PLCs) with complex data accessibility requirements, or scattered among reams of paper records, much of the valuable data necessary to improve operations is hard to retrieve, and time-consuming and difficult to analyze.”

But there is a solution. Modern automation software can break down data silos and improve visibility to bring the three OEE pillars together for effective analysis. The key solutions? Emerson’s Movicon.NExT™ supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software and Pro.Lean^© data production and analytics software.

Takeaway: SCADA and analytics unify siloed data so organizations can fully understand and act on OEE.

TL;DR

• OEE requires consistent visibility into availability, performance, and quality.
• Data silos prevent meaningful analysis and slow digital transformation.
• SCADA improves uptime and standardizes downtime reporting.
• Integrated analytics enables real‑time quality insights and rapid intervention.
• NExT and Pro.Lean create a unified view of production and performance.

How does SCADA improve uptime?

Managing equipment is a lot of work. When a team experiences downtime, if they need to record all the information—what happened, when, why, and what was the response—entirely in paper records, errors will happen and following up will be challenging.

Moreover, paper records make it difficult to track and trend issues to monitor key performance indicators (KPI). Modern SCADA software changes that paradigm. Gonzalez explains,

“Today, modern SCADA solutions coupled with data production and analysis software provide intuitive, repeatable, and—most importantly—timely workflows for reporting and analyzing downtime.”

With automatically recorded data in a clear, standardized format, teams can more easily create and monitor downtime-related KPIs, which are essential for calculating OEE. Movicon.NExT even allows teams to add specific downtime analysis modules to generate reports, tables, and charts for production analysis.

Takeaway: SCADA digitizes downtime tracking, enabling faster root‑cause analysis and higher availability.

How does integrated analytics further improve OEE?

When teams add seamlessly integrated analytics software to their SCADA, they can start tracking quality as well. Instead of pulling scrap product from the line and trying to extrapolate what happened, the operations team receives instantaneous digital feedback identifying quality failures as well as the unique processing conditions at the time of production.

“Armed with this knowledge, the organization can more easily identify exactly what is causing quality issues and intervene quickly.”

Moreover, modern SCADA solutions help teams build better human machine interfaces to support operators.

“These tools provide visualization local to the machine, helping teams see real-time production and company goals on intuitive dashboards so they can make the decisions necessary to eliminate bottlenecks and improve throughput.”

And when the team then seamlessly integrates an analytics solution like Emerson’s Pro.Lean,

“Those same insights are also consumed by the analytics software to help identify larger organizational trends which can be targeted for improvements, such as differences in shift performance, historically underperforming equipment, feedstock issues, and more.”

Takeaway: Integrated analytics provide real‑time quality insights and enterprise‑level trend visibility.

Software reinvigorates stalled digital transformation

When teams can bring availability, quality, and performance data together, they can truly see how well the plant operates and make the machine and process changes necessary to adjust that performance.

Trying to accomplish that goal with paper records is challenging at best, and impossible at worst in today’s fast‑paced, global marketplace.

That’s why the most forward‑thinking organizations are relying on powerful SCADA solutions seamlessly integrated with analytics software to empower, upskill, and support operators.

When they do, they gain visibility into OEE, helping them drive the operational excellence that improves safety and performance, and locks in competitive advantage.

Takeaway: Unified data across availability, performance, and quality accelerates digital transformation and strengthens competitiveness.