A consumer goods moulder planned to buy two presses to meet demand. Honest OEE measurement showed 51%; eight months of targeted loss reduction lifted it to 74% and released enough capacity to defer both purchases.
Key numbers
A Brisbane consumer goods moulder had a growth problem. Demand was rising, the main moulding cell was running flat out and the capital request for two new presses was already drafted. Before approving it, the general manager asked a simple question: how much of the time were the existing presses actually making good parts?
The situation
Nobody knew precisely. Production reports showed output against plan, but not where the time went. The team began a month of honest OEE tracking on the main cell, recording every stop, changeover and reject against an ideal cycle time based on what the presses could really achieve.
What the data showed
The baseline OEE was 51%. Almost half of the planned time was being lost.
The loss Pareto pointed to three main causes: changeovers at 13% of planned time, breakdowns at 11% and minor stops at 9%. Reduced speed, start-up scrap and process scrap made up the rest. Several of these losses had been invisible in the old reports, as described in OEE: the one number every plant manager should know.
What changed
An eight-month program targeted the biggest losses in order:
- SMED workshops on the three most frequently changed moulds, applying the method in SMED: how to halve your changeover time.
- Autonomous maintenance routines for operators: daily cleaning, inspection and lubrication checks, with abnormalities tagged and tracked.
- Root-cause problem solving on the top five minor stops, which turned out to be mostly part handling and sensor issues.
- A daily OEE review at the shift start meeting, focusing on the top three losses from the previous day.
Results
OEE rose steadily from 51% to 74% in eight months, close to the 75% target. Unplanned downtime fell from 14% to 5%, and scrap from 4.1% to 1.3%. The capacity released was enough to meet the forecast demand, and the purchase of both presses was deferred.
Why it worked
The program started with honest measurement, so it attacked real losses rather than assumed ones. It focused on the biggest losses first. And the daily review kept attention on the numbers every single day, rather than once a month.
Lessons for your operation
- Measure OEE honestly before requesting capital. Hidden capacity is often larger than expected.
- Use the loss Pareto to choose where to start.
- Combine methods: SMED for changeovers, autonomous maintenance for breakdowns, problem solving for minor stops.
- Review losses daily with the people who can act on them.
- A 23-point OEE gain is worth far more than its cost when it defers new equipment.
