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.
 

Updating your Provideam installation to the latest release helps to protect your Provideam investment and ensures that the product will continue to run even when operating systems and browsers are upgraded.
 

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

Very simply we can say that

 OEE = (Fully Productive Time) / (Planned Operating Time)

Where Fully Productive Time is equivalent to (No. of Good Parts) x (Standard Time to produce 1 Part)
and Planned Operating Time is equivalent to (Total Time) – (All Planned Downtime)

Expressed as a percentage this simple calculation gives us our headline OEE value.

Simple 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.

Therefore our Fully Productive Time = (11,000) x (0.05) = 550mins

Over the course of the shift there are some Planned Downtimes: 2 x 15minute tea breaks and 1 x 30minute lunch break.

Thus the Planned Operating Time = (12hrs) – (2 x 15mins + 1 x 30mins) = 660mins

Giving us an OEE = (550) / (660) = 0.833 = 83.3%

Note we have lost out on 110minutes of possible productive time.

Now we know how effective we were but we have no idea where we lost time. Typically at this point various stake holders might suggest that the losses are due to one thing or another. These suggested losses are generally not based on any objective data. Before investing in improvement activity we need more definition on the causes of our 110minute loss.

The beauty of the OEE system is that it is much more than a simple measure of overall equipment effectivity. It also provides a framework for measuring and categorising losses in a manner which simplifies the analysis of the losses. This categorised framework helps greatly to identify the major losses and sets us on the path to finding and eliminating the root causes.

3 basic categories of losses

The OEE system considers that there are 3 basic categories of losses (OEE Level 1 Losses);

 Availability Losses: time lost due to Breakdowns and Changeovers
 Performance Losses: time lost due to Short Stops and Speed Loss (Slow Running)
 Quality Losses: time lost producing defect parts

In our previous post (Modern Production Metrics – OEE) we have explained that this categorisation of losses leads to 3 further KPIs

•  Availability: a measure of Uptime versus Planned Operating Time
    = ((Planned Operating Time) – (All Availability Losses)) / (Planned Operating Time)
    = (Actual Operating Time) / (Planned Operating Time)
   
•  Performance: a measure of the actual machine Cycle Time versus the Standard(ideal) Time
    = ((Actual Operating Time) – (All Performance Losses)) / (Actual Operating Time)
    = (Net Operating Time) / (Actual Operating Time)
   
•  Quality: a measure of the time spent producing Good Parts versus the time making all parts, Good and Defect.
    = ((Net Operating Time) – (All Quality Loss)) / (Net Operating Time)
    = (Fully Productive Time) / (Net Operating Time)

Note: We use the term OEE Time interchangeably with Fully Productive Time.

Multiplying these three KPIs together, by cancelling above and below the line, results in the following fraction;

 Availability x Performance x Quality = (Fully Productive Time) / (Planned Operating Time)

Which we already stated at the top of this post is OEE.

So these three KPIs when multiplied together produce the OEE value. We have seen at the top of this post how to calculate OEE from the Good Parts count and the Planned Operating Time. Now we see that we can also calculate OEE if we know the Availability Losses, Performance Losses and Quality Losses.

In our next post we will describe how to calculate OEE from these losses.
 

Updating your Provideam installation to the latest release helps to protect your Provideam investment and ensures that the product will continue to run even when operating systems and browsers are upgraded.

Supported users will be notified of new releases as soon as they become available.

Service Pack 3.6 (Due mid-July 2009) 

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

Provideam Overview This video has been designed to give you a quick introduction to the look and feel of the user interface. In this video we walk you through some of the key features such as the Real-Time OEE Dashboard, the Live Display and a selection of custom built productivity reports.

Provideam Overview (08:09).

Provideam Demo Installation Despite the power and scale of the application the installation is actually quite straight forward. In this video we walk you through how to install and run the Demo/Trial version of Provideam.

Demo Installation (07:30).

Provideam PLC Setup To convert the Demo to a Trial version you simply need to re-direct the data collection services to collect data from the system which controls your machine. In this video we walk you through how to configure Provideam to collect data from an OMRON Programmable Logic Controller, PLC.

PLC Setup (09:30).

Please let us know what you think.