How Can Manufacturers Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)?

A machine running at full speed doesn't necessarily mean a factory is operating efficiently.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) looks at three things:

Availability × Performance × Quality = OEE

In practice, that means asking three questions:

• Availability: How much planned production time is actually being used?
• Performance: Is the equipment running at its sustainable target speed?
• Quality: How much of the output meets specification?

Improving OEE isn't about one major intervention. It is about identifying and removing the losses happening across the production floor.

1. Measure every loss

Start by making downtime visible.

Track breakdowns, changeovers, minor stops, material delays, tooling issues, maintenance and quality-related stoppages separately.

A machine may appear reliable while losing significant production time through dozens of short interruptions.

If you don't measure the loss, you can't remove it.

2. Move from reactive to preventive

Don't wait for the same component to fail repeatedly.

Use maintenance history, machine data and operator observations to identify recurring problems and address their root causes.

Review lubrication, wear, tooling condition and machine settings before they become production stoppages.

Features such as CMbE's centralised lubrication and accessible service points support this approach by making routine maintenance more manageable.

The goal is to prevent repeat failures, not simply repair them faster.

3. Focus on sustainable speed

A machine running below its target rate loses Performance even when it hasn't technically stopped.

Identify what's holding it back: minor stops, tooling, material flow, adjustments, machine dynamics or process instability.

Then address the constraint rather than simply increasing the speed setting.

In high-speed canmaking,  consistent speed is more valuable than occasional maximum speed.

4. Make changeovers faster

Treat changeover as production time that can be improved.

Measure the time from the last acceptable product of one run to the first acceptable product of the next. Then look for steps that can be prepared before the machine stops.

Pre-stage tooling, standardise setup procedures and use clear checklists.

Small reductions become significant when repeated across multiple changeovers.

5. Attack the “small” stops

Five seconds doesn't sound like much.

Five seconds repeated hundreds of times is.

Track recurring jams, sensor interruptions, adjustments and operator interventions. If the same issue keeps requiring a reset, investigate why.

Repeated minor stops are often symptoms of a bigger process problem.

6. Protect quality at the source

Scrap and rework reduce OEE while consuming the same machine time, material and labour as good production.

Identify where defects originate: tooling, material, machine settings, alignment, lubrication or operator setup.

Precision tooling and consistent maintenance can help reduce variation before it becomes a downstream quality problem.

7. Put operators into the OEE process

Operators are often the first to notice changes in machine behaviour.

Give them simple ways to record recurring issues, unusual sounds, adjustments, minor stops and quality concerns.

Combine that information with maintenance and production data.

A maintenance engineer may see a component failure. An operator may already know that the machine had been behaving differently for two weeks.

That information is valuable.

8. Measure the improvement

Every intervention should have a baseline.

If a changeover takes 45 minutes, measure the result after improvement. If a machine has recurring downtime, track whether it falls. If scrap is reduced, quantify it.

This turns OEE from a reporting metric into a continuous improvement tool.

OEE is a team effort

High OEE doesn't come from the machine alone.

It comes from  reliable equipment, effective maintenance, precision tooling, trained operators, disciplined processes and responsive technical support working together.

And reliability provides the foundation.

At CMbE, that extends beyond machine design. Technical support, genuine OEM spare parts, tooling, servicing, upgrades and refurbishment all help customers maintain equipment performance throughout its working life.

Because improving OEE isn't simply about making a machine run faster.

It's about getting more productive time from the equipment you already have.

And ultimately, keeping the factory moving.