What is OEE & TEEP?

In the world of manufacturing, measuring and improving equipment performance is critical for achieving operational excellence. To get a big picture as to where to focus on in your plant, you have to be able to see the whole plant as a large system. No matter your role, your job is to improve the plant processes, helping to produce the highest quality product, at the lowest price possible, in the safest manner as one is able.

Two key metrics that serve this purpose are Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Total Effective Equipment Performance (TEEP). While both provide valuable insights into equipment performance and capacity utilization, they differ in focus and application. Understanding these metrics is essential for identifying improvement opportunities and maximizing the potential of manufacturing assets.

What are the 7 “Big” Losses?

Most of the losses that are affecting your ability to produce are the OEE-related losses, so these losses are where to focus first. The 7 Big Losses are the loss buckets that make up the biggest losses within a facility. These are equipment related losses that impede equipment performance (i.e., OEE Losses):

• Setup and Adjustments are losses that come after a changeover, PM, breakdown, or minor stop task has been “completed”. It is having to go back afterwards and stop a machine to tweak on it or taking longer to complete a changeover against the set standard. This is normally caused by a lack of standard work, poor practices, and poor discipline causing quality defects. It is time the machine is down.
• Breakdowns are losses normally 10 minutes or more and require a part for the machine to function again. These are normally caused by tweaking, poor maintenance practices, lack of maintenance strategy, poor planning, poor execution, and a lack of understanding.
• Process Failures are losses that are 10 mins or more and do not require a part for the machine or line to function again. These are normally caused by failures due to the process or lack thereof. An example would be a wrongfully located e-stop that gets hit accidentally and takes more than 10 minutes to recover from.
• Minor Stops are losses that are 10 minutes or less regardless of the need for a part. These are normally caused by design-related issues, lack of standard work, lack of operator PMs (CILs), bad incoming materials like boxes or cases, lack of incoming quality standards, etc.
• Speed Losses are losses due to underutilizing machines at design rate. It is the original design rated speed minus the current running speed. For example, the machine was designed to run 100 packages per minute. The current speed the machine is set at is 80 packages per minute due to some cause in the system. 
• In Process Rejects are rejects caused while in process or during production. This type of rejection could be caused by many different issues, but some of the most common would be under/overweight, bad packaging, bad seals, out of specification, etc. 
• Startup Rejects are caused at the startup of a line after a shutdown or changeover. Just like above, there could be many causes, but some of the most common would-be rejections due to a machine warming up, under/overweight, bad seals, etc.