FASTech Blows Out Automation Manufacturing Capacity by 35%
During these unprecedented times FASTech is adapting to new conditions and constraints by expanding to a 2nd automation products / panel-building manufacturing facility. This allows us to continue to deliver business continuity and even increase capacity with safe and efficient workspaces for our employees, customers, and vendors.
The importance of knowing what your OEE is!
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Part 4 of 4 Part Blog
by Dion Volk
Now that you know how to calculate OEE, what do you do with it? How is it useful? What is a good number?
Knowing your OEE helps you understand your manufacturing health, know when to take on additional orders, when to make new equipment acquisitions, and when not to.
Once you have started the daily process of calculating and tracking your Overall Equipment Effectiveness, addressing manufacturing problems early becomes straightforward. Being able to break your OEE calculation back down to its three basic components, Availability, Productivity, and Quality, tells you exactly where the problem is.
When it comes to taking on additional orders, knowing your OEE is critical. If you have an OEE of 85% or higher, congratulations, unfortunately you are most likely at the capacity of your equipment. Knowing your OEE in this case should help you justify new equipment and calculate its ROI. Now, if your OEE is low, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, if a low Availability number is the cause. If Productivity or Quality are the cause of your low OEE, then maybe unreliable or worn-out equipment should be replaced.
What is a good OEE? The common thought is that world-class OEE is anything above 85%. If you have an OEE of 85% that is fantastic, congratulations are in order. Keep in mind you still have a 15% loss. The benchmark of 85% is just that, a benchmark. Good OEE is up to the manufacturing facility to determine for itself.
At FASTechnology Group we understand what it takes to get good product out, efficiently. Together we can erase benchmarks, establishing new ones. Let our +30 years of packaging experience help you improve your OEE
Here is a Link to Part One “What is OEE and How Can It Be measured?”
How Proper Operator Training and Maintenance Improve OEE
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Part 3 of 4 Part Blog
by Dion Volk
Now that we understand what OEE is and the contributing factors to its loss; how does operator training and maintenance really improve your numbers? Again, we look to the equation, OEE = Availability x Productivity x Quality, then break it down from there.
AVAILABILITY, A correctly trained maintenance team will be able to conduct repairs and perform preventative maintenance in a timely and efficient manner. As packaging equipment machines speeds increase the complexity of the technology required to control these machines increases as well. Twenty years ago a typical packaging machine consisted of a couple motors, a small microcontroller, maybe a touch screen, and some other miscellaneous hardware. Today’s machines have multiple servo motors, advanced PLCs, and complex safety circuits, so training becomes more and more critical when troubleshooting. An untrained or poorly trained maintenance team will struggle to make repairs, in some cases further damaging the machine. With the correct training you can prevent a costly emergency repair call from an outside service provider. When a machine operator has received the proper training he or she will run the machine as designed avoiding practices that are hard on the equipment, eventually causing downtime.
PRODUCTIVITY, Correctly trained operators have an increased confidence in their ability to operate packaging equipment machines smoothly, this contributes to a more positive attitude. Without training operators struggle, get frustrated, waste film and product, damage equipment, causing a lower output than trained operators. Trained operators make operating a machine look easy, they are not tied to the machine, allowing them to perform other tasks as the machine runs.
QUALITY, Trained maintenance staff and operators know exactly where to look on a machine when they discover a quality issue with a package. The result of the confidence and positive attitude that training provides is shown in the pride a skilled operator takes producing the best package possible.
Let FASTechnology’s packaging experts help you discover what your machines are truly capable of producing. Our +30 years of packaging knowledge will increase your output, bolster your quality, and give your staff confidence that they can handle any issue on their own.
In part four of this Blog we discuss “The importance of knowing what your OEE is.”
Here is a Link to Part One “What is OEE and How Can It Be measured?”