Implementation of overall equipment effectiveness in wire mesh manufacturing

Abstract

This study presents the implementation of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) at a small enterprise manufacturing wire mesh in the developing country of Thailand. This company had never established any performance measurement before. Therefore, an appropriate indicator was elaborately selected for the case study, and OEE was chosen. OEE is employed as a simple indicator, but it is still an effective method for analyzing the efficiency of a single machine and an integrated machinery system. The case study of OEE was carried out from set-up stage to full implementation. Several processes were carried out to establish the OEE indicator. OEE helped the company identify the primary problems concerning the availability rate and performance efficiency. The management made the decisions by relying on OEE results and its details, and mandated the elimination of the root causes of breakdown losses and speed losses. Finally, after six months of full implementation, OEE performances improved by over 60 percentages, since availability rate and performance efficiency were improved over 75 percentages, and quality rate was maintained at the same level. © 2011 IEEE.