OEE is a renowned operations improvement tool for a workplace with equipment, staff and production targets. OEE is an acronym for ‘overall equipment effectiveness’ and is a methodology employed to analyze and minimize the downtime of operational equipment. There are different interpretations of OEE, starting from the basic discussion on three variables: availability (maintenance performance), number of outputs (production performance) and the number of good products (quality performance). In reality, however, the implementation and improvement initiatives are not that simple. In this free online course, you will learn not only the fundamentals of OEE but also industrial practices, different methodologies and a real case study with calculations and improvement initiatives that will enhance your knowledge of OEE and understanding of how activities are performed in a real situation. The course begins by introducing OEE, the basic formulae and general losses in an operational situation. Then it discusses the essential guidelines to minimize losses and some important manifestations regarding the OEE framework.

The material then describes important terms such as ‘minor unrecorded stoppages, ‘reduced speed’, ‘rejects and rework’, ‘startup and yield’, ‘planned downtime’, ‘no demand’ and so forth. Then it discusses the optimal practices for OEE and clarifies some misconceptions regarding its application, a case comparison with the same OEE levels, and some important explanations on incorrect measurements of OEE. The course then unveils, in a separate module, the management of different operational situations, describing types of operational situations, the stages of operations, types of issues behind OEE losses, practical realities of planned downtime, methods to collect data for OEE, and loss analysis. You then study a team's importance in accomplishing the improvement work; some of the team types are the continuous improvement team, process improvement team, and patrons. The material elaborates on the importance of establishing OEE baselines for improvement while doing the initial analysis.

The last topic discusses high-level OEE calculations and OEE calculation using loss time analysis, with the help of a real case study and not just formulae. The case study calculation simplifies the learning process for learners to understand both ways of calculation and realize the importance of loss time analysis used for improvement initiatives. The improvement initiatives are presented after calculations on the case study, and are based on one of the important quality analysis tools, Pareto analysis. The two Pareto analysis levels provide a clear idea of how an organization can incorporate an improvement based on the baseline calculation of OEE. Finally, the improvement and impact on OEE are discussed after the two-level Pareto analysis. You will grapple with OEE automation consideration and selecting the ideal software for a workplace having machinery. The material further enhances the software selection discussion with the OEE data capture model and discusses false data confusion. This course comes with module-level lesson summaries along with module-level assessment questions.