Manufacturing productivity improvement using effectiveness metrics and simulation analysis

Traditional productivity metrics, such as throughput and utilization rate, are not very helpful for identifying the underlying problems and opportunities for productivity improvement in a manufacturing system. In this paper, a systematic methodology is presented for productivity measurement and analysis at the factory level. Metrics of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Overall Throughput Effectiveness (OTE) are introduced and developed, respectively, for rigorous and quantitative measurement of equipment and system productivity. These metrics are integrated with computer simulation to facilitate rapid analysis of equipment and manufacturing system productivity, and the investigation of productivity improvement opportunities. The results of this research make possible the representation of factory level productivity or overall factory effectiveness by OTE, and the use of OTE for quantitative benchmarking and comparison of the productivity of various factories. A real-world manufacturing case study is reported to demonstrate how to employ these techniques to improve manufacturing productivity.