Look and Feel

• Standardised Look and Feel of User Interface
• Added Ability to resize screen areas
• Added more data to overall configuration tables. Administrator can now see more data without having to drill down.
• Added sorting and filtering to configuration tables
• Improved the CSV Import/Export facility for configuration data.

New Features

• Added ability to link OEE Live view to external urls (eg. www.google.com)
• Added ability to link OEE Live view to 3rd party html pages. These pages may be linked to Provideam or may be related to other issues such as personnel messages.
• Added Contact Lists for Scheduled Reporting and Alarming. The Administrator can now create lists of users Email, Pager or Mobile(Cell) contacts. These contact lists can then be used for
• alarm annunciation or for scheduled reporting.
• Added a visual Alarm Status Indicated to the Active Alarms Page of the Event Monitoring Application
• Added an automatic refresh option to the Current Status and Active Alarms Page of the Event Monitoring Application

Modifications

The User Security Model has been updated to facilitate more straightforward integration with Active Directory. Users are now created independently from User Groups. User Groups still control access rights but now a User can be a member of several User Groups. If the User is a member of more than one User Group then the User takes the combined rights of both User Groups.
In addition the User contact details have been upgraded. It is now possible to assign several  (or none) Email/Mobile(Cell)/Pager contacts to each User. If the User contact details are modified, the details in the Contact Lists will also be updated – thus simplifying greatly the management of scheduled emailing and alarm annunciation.
Modified the Installer so that the Provideam Database is installed without Demo Data. It is now an install option to install Demo Data.

Operating Environment and 3rd Party Applications

IE 9 and Firefox 6 Support
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Support
MS SQL 2008 support
dotNet 4 Native Application (SQL 2005 requires dotNet 2 and SQL 2008 requires dotNet 3.5)

Fig.1: Photo of ProvDAQ-Jazz with Test Box.

The Jazz is a low cost controller which, with a little coding, provides a highly effective interface between Provideam and your control system. The Jazz will accept between 6 and 18 digital inputs depending on the model you select and these can be configured to drive Good/Defect Part Counters or to indicate Machine Operating/Downtime Modes. In addition the Jazz front end can be used to indicate the current status of the Machine and also to allow the user to select from a list of pre-defined Downtime Reasons.

To test the Jazz we built a Pushbutton Test Box which allowed us to simulate hardwired signals from a Machine. We then modified the Provideam Demo Application so that the signals for ‘AssemblyMC1’ were generated by the Jazz, instead of the Provideam Demo Application.

The Test Box provided the following controls;

Run/Stop Switch:

While the switch was set to ‘run’ the ProvDAQ-Jazz displayed the message, ‘Machine Running’. In addition the Green LED, of a combined Red/Green LED lamp, lit. 

Fig. 2: Jazz Display while Machine Running

When the Run/Stop Switch was set to ‘stop’, the Red LED lamp flashed and the Jazz prompted the user to enter a reason. Once the user entered a reason the Red LED lamp lit continuously.

Fig. 3: Jazz Display when Machine Stops

By pressing the down arrow the user could scroll through the list of available Downtime Reasons. 

Fig. 4 Jazz Display while scrolling through Downtime Reasons

When the appropriate Downtime Reason is displayed, the user presses the Enter key to select the reason. 

Fig. 5: Jazz Display when Downtime Reason has been selected.

Once a Downtime Reason has been selected the Red LED is lit continuously.

Note: If at any time the user wishes to change the reason, a new selection can be made by pressing the ‘information’ key on the Jazz.

Downtime Reason 1 Pushbutton

As well as being able to select a Downtime Reason via the Jazz interface we also assigned Downtime Reasons to two inputs. Pressing either of these buttons caused the associated Downtime Reason to be selected.

Downtime Reason 1 -> ‘Output Block’

Downtime Reason 2 Pushbutton

Downtime Reason 2 -> ‘Welder Stuck Up’

Good Parts Pushbutton

Pressing the Good Parts Pushbutton incremented the Good Parts Count. Two Defect Counts were also assigned, one for ‘Defects at Tester’ and the other for ‘Defects at Vision System’

Defect Parts 1 Pushbutton

Defect Parts 1 -> ‘Defects at Vision System’

Defect Parts 2 Pushbutton

Defect Parts 2 -> ‘Defects at Tester’

To integrate the ProvDAQ-Jazz with the Provideam Demo the OPC configuration must be modified. We integrated the Jazz both with the Kepware Modbus OPC Server and the Unitronics OPC Server. Our preference would always be to use the Kepware Server, however the Unitronics OPC Server is free and if price is an issue it is perfectly acceptable for smaller applications.

Kepware Modbus Configuration.

1)      Open the ProvSimDemo.opf Kepware Configuration provided with Provideam.

2)      Add a new Modbus RTU Serial channel, ‘Modbus’, to the existing Simulation Driver Channel

3)      Add a device, the ProvDAQ-Jazz, ‘AssemblyMC1’, [Default: Device ID = 1, Comms: 9600, N, 8, 1,]

4)      Add OPC Tags:

Fig. 6: Provideam Demo Kepware Configuration with additional Modbus Channel

5)      Link these new tags to the ‘AssemblyMC1’ configuration in Provideam

Fig. 7: Provideam Station Yield Values linked to Modbus Tags.

Note: The Mode, see Machine Admin > Details page, must also be linked to the Modbus Tag.

6)      Restart the Provideam OEE Monitoring Service and Data Collection from the ProvDAQ-Jazz will commence within 30seconds.

Unitronics UniOPC OPC Server (Version 1.3.8) Configuration.

1)      Download and install the Unitronics OPC Server

2)      Register the UniOPC Server as an OPC Server – this is a function in the UniOPC Server.

3)      Configure the OPC Server to communicate with the Jazz. In the figure below you will see that the Jazz device is called PLC1 and that the communications settings are: 9600, N, 8, 1.

Fig. 8: Configuring the UniOPC OPC Server

Note: Provideam Data Collection Services run as Windows Services. However the UniOPC Server does not run as a Windows Service. Due to Windows security measures it is not possible for Provideam Services to access the UniOPC server if it has been opened by in a user account other than ‘system’. To enable Provideam Services connect with the UniOPC Server it must be stopped and shutdown. Once the Provideam OEE Monitoring Service starts with UniOPC Server Tags, it will call for the UniOPC Server to run under the general ‘systems’ user account – thus allowing the Provideam Services to connect to the UniOPC Server.

4)      Update the Provideam Configuration to read from UniOPC Tags. First specify that the DataServerRef is ‘UniOPC.Server.1’. By selecting the local PC name, in this case ‘DTL-Test1’, from the DataSource combo box, a list of all registered OPC Servers will be returned in the DataServerRef combo box. Select the ‘UniOPC.Server.1’ option.

Fig. 9: Provideam Machine Configuration with UniOPC OPC Server

5)      Update the Mode ID tag with the DeviceName.TagName. In this case ‘PLC1.MI0’ (ie Memory Integer 0 from PLC1.

6)      Scroll to the end of the page and click the save button.

7)      Next update the Station Yield Values.

Fig. 10: Provideam UniOPC OPC Server Station Yield Tags

8)      Finally, re-start the Provideam OEE Monitoring Service. Ensure that the UniOPC Server is shutdown before restarting the ProvOEEMon Service.

Note: The UniOPC Service doesn’t stop when you stop the ProvOEEMon Service. You may need to stop it from the Task Manager if you encounter problems.

We hope you found this post interesting. Please contact us at support@provideam.com if you would like any further information on this post.

We are very excited to announce the release of version 3.11 of the Provideam OEE Monitoring Solution. There are a number of significant enhancements in version 3 which will no doubt be very beneficial to our customers; 

1.  Installer / Updater
   The most radical change has been to re-engineering the Provideam Installer. Provideam is an enterprise level application and as such draws on a number of third party applications including a database server, an OPC server etc.  In the past the Provideam installer relied on the end user to install these third party applications independently. To significantly reduce the complexity of the install process these applications have now been included in the installer and will be installed automatically. In addition the uninstall process has been modified. To guard against inadvertent data loss the previous version of the installer did not remove the database. This will no longer be the case. The uninstaller will now completely remove Provideam from the server.
    
2. Downtime Configuration
   Provideam installs as an OEE application by default. However a number of customers prefer a simpler Downtime Analysis which does not convert Good and Defect Counts to time values. An option is now available to re-configure Provideam as a Production Downtime Monitoring Solution.
    
3. Dashboard (Overall Data Table) View Management
   A new Dashboard View Management Tool has been incorporated in the Area Admin section which allows the Provideam Administrator to configure a selection of views for each Area.
    
4. Station Yield View Management
   As well as configurable Dashboard Views, configurable Station Yield Views is also a feature of ProvideamV3.11. Several Station Yield Views can be configured for each Machine. The Station Yield View Management interface is included in the Machine Admin section of Provideam.
    
5. Live Display to include AndOn view
   The AndOn Display which was recently introduced into the OEE Dashboard Current Status page can now also be included in the Provideam Live Real-time Status View.
    
6. OEE Monitoring Module to support Manual OPC Tag Creation
   Traditionally, the Provideam OEE Monitoring and Event Monitoring Module only supported OPC Servers which allowed the client application to enumerate pre-configured tags. This prevented Provideam from working with a number of industry recognised OPC Servers. It is now possible to chose to enumerate an OPC Tag or to manual create the Tag. The ‘OPC Enum’ function will enumerate pre-configured OPC Tags, where as the ‘OPC Manual’ function will allow the configurator to manually enter OPC Tags which will be added to the OPC server at run-time.

To check if you are currently a ‘Supported User’ please contact support@provideam.com
 

1. Provideam Demo Installation Guide Video
   (http://www.provideam.com/video/Video_Provideam_Demo_Install.aspx)
   This video shows you step by step how to install and run the Provideam Demo.
    
2. Provideam Overview Guide Video
   (http://www.provideam.com/video/Video_Overview.aspx)
   This video guides you through some of the features available in Provideam.
    
3. Provideam PLC Setup Guide Video
   (http://www.provideam.com/video/Video_Provideam_PLC_Setup.aspx)
   This video shows how you can modify the demo to start collecting data from your machines.
    
4. Provideam Manual Data Entry Guide
   (http://www.provideam.com/video/Video_Provideam_Manual_Data_Entry.aspx)
   This video shows you how to use the Provideam Manual Data Entry Module. This is an excellent alternative to using an Excel or paper based solution.
    

DTL Systems have developed a solution to greatly enhance your ability to monitor and control Work-In-Progress (WIP). This simple to use system offers near real-time visibility on the flow of Work Orders between the time the Work Order is created and the time the finished Items arrive at the warehouse. The system is non-invasive and can be implemented in less then 10 days.

Implementation of this solution facilitates better Lead-Time management leading to reduced inventory and a rapid return on investment. Flexible reporting options help to promote a better deployment of personnel.

Millipore Ireland is currently piloting this unique solution in the expectation of driving significant reductions in, Lead-Times and Inventory, and a substantial increase in On Time Shipments. In addition it is anticipated that there will be a reduction in administrative tasks related to the distribution and scheduling of Work Orders.

The Environment:

Manufacturing companies constantly strive to reduce production Lead-Times and Inventory levels. Key Performance Indicators, such as OTS (On Time Shipment) help to gauge how well they are performing. The adage, “You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure” is an essential truth of Operations Management. To improve performance it is essential to monitor how well the company meets its KPI targets.

Depending on the Supply Chain configuration (Make To Order / Make To Stock), Customer Sales Orders and/or Safety Stock Levels can trigger the creation of Work Orders. Work Orders (also referred to as Discrete Jobs or Shop Orders) are instructions to the Shop Floor to manufacture specific quantities of Items in a defined sequence. Planning Departments generate these Work Orders to optimise the balance between Inventory, Work-In-Progress, and On-Time-Shipments. From the time a Work Order (Discrete Job / DJ) is signalled to the Shop Floor, to the time the finished Items arrive in the Warehouse, the Work Order will have passed through many different functional areas. It can often be the case that the actual time spent in production is only small component of the overall product lead-time. Other activities, such as Kitting, Set-up, QA, Sterilisation, Packing, etc., may have a far greater impact on the time it takes to complete a Work Order. Provideam's Shop Floor Execution System helps to expose time “wasted” on non value-added activities.
 

The Planner typically works with an ERP system from a major vendor such as Oracle, SAP, JD Edwards, Microsoft etc. to develop Detailed and Master Production Plans. The Detailed Plans, containing a list of the Work Orders required in the short-term, are issued to the Shop Floor for manufacture. While ERP systems are extremely powerful, they tend not to be used widely on the Shop Floor –due to the unique special requirements of each department the integration can be prohibitively expensive. In consequence, until the finished product arrives at the Finish Goods Warehouse, at which point it will be logged in to the ERP system, Planning / Operations may have very little information about the status of the Work Order. Hence it is difficult to assess the impact of „floating-bottle-necks? in the manufacturing processes.
 

A thorough knowledge of manufacturing processes is essential to ensure an optimal configuration of Work Orders. In a well run plant each department will monitor how well it is performing. However, it is quite common to find a range of different systems in use in each area – from paper-based manual systems to spread-sheets to custom built software applications – all of which have been developed over time and which suit the requirements of each individual area. In this ad-hoc monitoring environment it is very difficult to develop a holistic, coherent assessment of how the plant is performing. In addition there are issues of data integrity and data redundancy which need to be considered.
 

The Objective:

Our goal was to develop a solution, suitable for use on the Shop Floor, which would be an essential tool both for Planning and Operations. Operations personnel with experience of ERP implementation will know that it can be a difficult, time consuming and expensive undertaking – with no guarantee of ultimate success. With this in mind we have develop a solution which is;

• Easy to install (less then 10days)
• Easy to deploy (less than 1 day), and
• Easy to use (intuitive).

The solution is practically non-invasive with minimal interaction of Shop Floor personnel. Through the use of Bar Code Scanning we enable, in a very simple way, the Shop Floor Operator to timestamp each Work Order as it passes through the key staging points in the manufacturing process.

The solution offers a simple status view of all the active Work Orders. In this way the Production Supervisor has a quick and easy method of finding the relevant details on active Work Orders, while at the same time providing an in depth insight into the movement of Work Orders through the manufacturing environment – both on average and in real-time.

Flexible, ad-hoc, reporting, with drill-down capabilities, on Lead-Times and Outstanding Jobs is also included.

The Solution:

Our solution was achieved by providing a central data resource with an easy to use interface which tracks the flow of Work Orders from Planning through the various phases of production and quality inspection. This central data resource provides near real-time visibility of the status of each Work Order and can be available to any authorised user from Planning, Production, Quality, Operations etc. Provideam is a highly secure system. Only users that have been provided with a username and password can access Provideam data.

The Provideam Shop Floor Execution System provides the following functions;

1. Import Work Orders from an ERP System (eg Oracle or SAP) directly or via a Business Objects derived Excel report.
2. Import Item configuration from ERP
3. Provide a customisable „Active Work Order Status? form which provides a central planning data resource and enables all relevant departments to see the status of all active Work Orders. Flexible, ad-hoc, filters allow the user to isolate the specific data they require.
4. Provide a form to enable Production Department to set production status flags. For example „Label Printing?
5. Provide the ability to timestamp Work Orders at key staging points by scanning the Bar Code on the Work Order Traveller Documents / Labels.
6. Provide Lead-Time Variance Reports which indicate the time spent by Work Order in each phase.
7. Provide Dashboard functionality which enables the user to drill-down from Plant to Department to Cell\Work Center.

Benefits: 

1. Greater global real-time visibility of each Work Order leads to better management of the Work Order. It also results in the identification and resolution of issues before significant Lead-Time delays occur.
2. Logging the flow of each Work Order facilitates an analysis of how effectively the process is currently working. This facilitates improvement activity to reduce lead-times.
3. Enhanced cross-functional process knowledge drives a reduction in Lead-Times and Inventory Levels. Thus leading to a rapid return on investment.
4. Traffic Light Reports and use of color on Dashboards supports Kanban methods.
5. Narrowing of the knowledge gap between the requirements of each of the relevant departments, Planning, Production & Quality leads to a better understand of the needs of each department and consequently an improved collaborative working method.
6. Facilitates up front planning of resources based on schedule.
7. Flexible reporting provides the data for better use of production personnel.
8. Can help with Rolls and Responsibilities, as all interaction with the system is linked to the user. Hence you can determine the individual scanning each Work Order.
9. Optional integration with Provideam?s leading OEE / Downtime Monitoring and Event Logging Solution.

Processes:

Data Import:

 DTL install a script which running on an automatic schedule (once per hour or less) imports Work Order data from the ERP (spread-sheet, database etc). The script inserts new Orders and updates changes to existing Work Orders to the Provideam Database.
A similar script imports Item configuration data from the ERP. The script inserts new Items and updates changes to existing Items to the Provideam Database.

Shop Floor Execution Data Lookup:

An "Active Work Orders Status" form is available to all authorised Provideam Users. It is possible for each user to customise the view and filter each of the columns of the form.
By clicking on a specific Order the form will expand to show a log of time spent, by the selected Work Order, in each phase. 

Shop Floor Timestamping:

Bar Code Scanning (or keyboard entry) can be used to log Work Orders as they arrive at key staging points – for example "QA Inspection". The user simply opens the appropriate form on Provideam and then scans the Work Order Bar Code on the Label or Traveller document. This flags that the Lot has reached this staging point.

Reporting:

Various reports are provided. The key report is the „Lead-Time Variance? report which shows the variability of Lead-Times between Work Orders for Items with the same „Fixed Lead-Time?. This report also shows the average time spent at each stage of the manufacturing process.

 Extra Features:

Additional features can be provided including customised reports and the ability to feed data back to the ERP system. Feedback to the ERP system can help support "Kitting, "Backflushing", "Auto Charging/Paypoints", "Outside Processing" etc.

Conclusion:

DTL Systems is a leading provider of Manufacturing Productivity Solutions. For a free consultation / demonstration please contact sales@provideam.com.
For further information check out www.provideam.com

Download this as a PDF file here

In addition a new live display has been added to the real-time dashboard. This new display presents a number of key graphs highlighting performance versus target.

Last but not least the Dictionary Module user interface has been enhanced to include the ability to export and import dictionaries to CSV. This will help to significantly improve the speed at which dictionaries can be developed and updated.
 

To check if you are currently a ‘Supported User’ please contact support@provideam.com

There are three main aspects to Provideam

•  A database for efficient data storage
• Business logic for analysing the raw data
• An intranet webased user interface for developing customisable reports

Storing your data in a Provideam, enterprise-class database based solution has many advantages over a spreadsheet or paper based reporting system;

• the data is stored securely
• the data is available to multiple simultaneous users
• the data is easily analysed over different time periods
• the data is easily cross-referenced to pick up on issues related to specific parts, tools etc.
• business rules are protected and not liable to user error
• reports are consistent and can be delivered automatically by email

Provideam includes a Manual Entry user interface to facilitate the collection of downtime and yield data as described above. To get started you simply need to;

1. install Provideam
2. create a machine profile which describes the downtime modes and yield values
3. define the shift cycle which defines the start and end of each shift

We won't go in to too much detail about configuring machines here save to say it's easy and quick. Below are a few screen shots to give you the idea;
 

 In the figure above you will see the Filler Machine properties. The properties indicate that the DataSource is ‘Manual Entry’, that we will use a 2 Shift Cycle and that we will not display advanced items such as Lot, Part, Tool etc. If the DataSource was ‘automatic’ it would indicate that data is being collected automatically from the machine.

Fig: Filler Machine Downtime Modes

Above you will see the list of the Downtime Modes which we have created and can be assigned by the Operator to the Filler Machine.

Fig: Filler Machine Yield Types

In the figure above we show the types of Yield Count we have defined for the Filler Machine.

Fig: Filler Machine Part-Standard Time Relationships

The above figure shows that the Standard Time to produce 1 bottle on the Filler is 3 seconds (ie .05mins). In a more complex example with several Parts, we would have a record here with the Standard Time for each Part.

We are now ready to enter data.

1. Select the Manual Entry Page and click on the Add New Shift to create a Shift for the Filler Machine.

Fig: New Filler Machine Shift

2. Now add Planned and Unplanned Downtime

Fig: New Filler Shift – Add Downtime

3. Now add Yield Count Values

Fig: New Filler Shift – Add Yields

Note: You may add the yield values in one go, as I have done here, or you can distribute the yield over the shift hour by hour. If you enter the yield values hour by hour then you will be able to report on OEE hour by hour.

The data has now been entered for this shift and we can look at the results…

Fig: New ShiftOEE Analysis

Note: The top table shows the Good Parts, Defect Parts, OEE, Availability, Performance and Quality – same as in our example in the previous post. The Pie Chart shows OEE Time as 76.39%. This should not be confused with OEE. What this means is that OEE Time represented 76.39% of the Shift as a whole (ie 12hours) – you will notice that Planned DT is included in the Pie Chart. If we redrew the Pie Chart with out Planned DT, then our OEE Time % would be the same as our OEE %. In the sample reports created below we have excluded Planned DT from the Pie.

Report Examples:

• Example 1: OEE Loss Pie and Table for OEE Level 1(ie losses grouped by Availability, Performance, Quality) – (NewShiftReportLvl1.pdf)
   
• Example 2: OEE Loss PIE and Table for OEE Level 3(ie lowest level loss descriptions) – (NewShiftReportLvl3.pdf)
   
• Example 3: Production Report showing various functions calculated for 3 Machines – (NewShiftProdReport.pdf).

Example 3 shows a combination of 'Automatic' and 'Manual Entry' machines. The data for AssemblyMC1 and AssemblyMC2 is captured automatically. The purpose of the example is simply to show that it is possible to have a standardised method of reporting across all areas of the plant.

That concludes this post. In our next post we will show a more complex example with several Part each with its own Standard Time.

Drilldown capabilities have now been added to the OEE Reporting interface. Users can now drilldown on an OEE Loss report to determine when the losses occurred.

Release 3.7 includes a web service interface. This new feature enables an integrator to include datasets generated by Provideam in any 3rd party application which supports web services – for example VBA used in many SCADA packages supports web services.

The web service interface is completely flexible and the integrator can query the data any way they choose – so if the user wants a customised dashboard, it is now possible to integrate OEE functionality as a component of the dashboard. This technology is applicable to any 3rd party application – SCADA/HMI/MES/ERP etc. Note also that web services are independent of the operating system so Provideam OEE data is available to applications running on practically any platform. Follow the links to see some screenshots for test applications we developed using the SCADA applications Progea Movicon 11 and Intellution iFix 3.5.

To check if you are currently a ‘Supported User’ please contact support@provideam.com

Users have been delighted with the drill down features we introduced to the OEE Analysis Dashboard. Of course this immediately prompted users to ask for the same features on the OEE Reporting Interface. Your wish is our command and the OEE Reporting interface will now have drilldown capability.

A very exciting new feature is the introduction of the Provideam web service interface. This feature allows integrators to query Provideam and generate OEE Datasets which can then be displayed in any 3rd party application which supports web services – for example VBA used in many SCADA packages supports web services.
The web service interface is completely flexible and the integrator can query the data any way they choose – so if the user wants a customised dashboard, it is now possible to integrate OEE functionality as a component of the dashboard.
This technology is applicable to any 3rd party application – SCADA/HMI/MES/ERP etc. Note also that web services are independent of the operating system so Provideam OEE data is available to applications running on practically any platform.

Service Pack 3.7 (Due October 2009)

To check if you are currently a ‘Supported User’ please contact support@provideam.com

Remember our example:

Over a 12hour shift, our Filling machine fills 11,000 bottles. The manufacturer has specified that the Standard Time for this Filler to fill one bottle is .05mins/bottle. Over the course of the shift there are some Planned Downtimes: 2 x 15minute tea breaks and 1 x 30minute lunch break.

Planned Operating Time

 Planned Downtimes:

    15mins | Morning Tea Break
    30mins | Lunch Break
    15mins | Afternoon Tea Break

 Planned Downtime:  60mins

Total Time:   720mins

Therefore:
 Planned Operating Time = 720mins – (15mins + 30mins + 15mins)
     = 660mins

Availability

Now let's look at Availability. In our previous post we defined Availability as ((Planned Operating Time) – (All Availability Losses)) / (Planned Operating Time)

We know our Planned Operating Time is 11hrs. So if we know our Availability Losses we can calculate Availability. Availability Loss are all downtimes related to Breakdowns and ChangeOvers.

Over the course of our Shift we logged downtimes as follows:

 Availability Losses:

    25mins | ChangeOver
    10mins | No Caps in Hopper
    15mins | No Air

 Availability Loss: 50mins

Planned Operating Time: 660mins

Therefore:
 Actual Operating Time = 660mins – (25mins + 10mins + 15mins)
     = 610mins

and:
 Availability  = (Actual Operating Time) / (Planned Operating Time)
     = 92.4%

 Performance

The Performance Loss is a combination of Short Stops and Speed Loss. Short Stops are momentary downtimes which aren't Breakdowns or ChangeOvers which stop the machine and interrupt production but do not generally require technical support. In general for Manual Systems Short Stops are ignored as it can be onerous to record each stop. This results in the loss associated with Short Stops being built in to the Cycle Time Speed Loss. In Automatic Data Capture Systems it is more realistic to log Short Stops.

Rather than take a Cycle Time measurement and assume that this Cycle Time was constant over the whole shift it is often more realistic to calculate the Net Operating Time by working back from the more easily measured Throughput (ie sum of Good Parts and Defect Parts).

We know that the number of Bottles filled was 11,000

Defects:

250 | Underfilled

100 | No Cap

Defect Parts: 350

Good Parts: 11,000

Thus we can calculate our Good Time (ie Standard Time to produce Good Parts) and our Defect Time (ie. Standard Time to produce Defect Parts).

Good Time = 11,000 x 0.05

= 550mins

Defect Time = 350 x 0.05

= 17.5mins

Where 0.05mins/bottle is our Standard Time to produce one bottle.

Therefore:

Net Operating Time = (Good Time) + (Defect Time)

= 567.5mins

and working back we see that:

Perfomance Loss = (Actual Operating Time) – (Net Operating Time)

= 42.5mins

We now know the Net Operating Time therefore we can calculate the Performance.

Performance = (Net Operating Time) / (Actual Operating Time)

= 93.0%

Just for the sake of completeness let’s say that the machine stopped 10 times due to Falling Caps. Each stop was 6 seconds in duration and didn't require any technical intervention. We can say that the machine suffered 1min of downtime due to Short Stops.

Subtracting the Short Stops from the Performance Loss gives us the Speed Loss (Slow Running). ie the Loss due to the fact that the machine was running at a slower rate than the optimum rate specified by the manufacturer.

Speed Loss = (Performance Loss) – (Short Stops)

= 41.5mins

As a matter of interest our average Cycle Time over the Shift was ((Net Operating Time) + (Speed Loss)) / ((Good Parts) + (Defect Parts)) = (609) / (11,350) = 0.0537mins/bottle. Thus the Filler took on average 0.0037mins more then the Standard Time to fill each Bottle.

Quality

Finally we consider Quality Losses, ie the time taken to produce Defect Parts. In the above section we have already calculated the Good Time and the Defect Time. Defect Time is another name for Quality Loss and Good Time or OEE Time is the same as Fully Productive Time.

Thus we have every thing to calculate Quality.

 Quality  = (Fully Productive Time) / (Net Operating Time)
    = 96.9%

Note: Quality is only equal to (Good Parts count) / ((Good Parts count) +(Defect Parts count)) when the Standard Time is the same for all parts run on the machine over the shift.

Now the final calculation;

 OEE   = Availability x Performance x Quality
    = 92.4% x 93.0% x 96.9%
    = 83.3%

By taking the long way round we have generated 3 additional KPIs and we have a lot more data which we can use to focus in on the causes of loss.

Let's briefly take a look at the Level 1 Losses in a table ordered by size of loss

This tells us that in this example downtimes are the most significant type of loss.

And now look at the individual losses in a similar table

Here we see that Speed Loss is in fact the biggest individual loss. In the absence of a downtime monitoring system Speed Losses are often missed as it can appear that the machine is running perfectly well when in fact it is producing much less then it should.

When generated on a shift by shift basis these tables are helpful in the day to day operational management of the machine. However when calculated over longer periods of time you can build up a very insightful picture as to the real causes of loss – as opposed to your presumptions – which may or may not in fact be correct.

In our next post we will show how Provideam can help to organise the data you have collected manually into a database which can be analysed in many different ways. The beauty of a database over a spreadsheet, like Excel, is that the data can easily be grouped and filtered by all sorts of interesting criteria in a rapid and flexible manner.