Print page

Email page

World-class OEE for finished goods manufacturing

Q: What is world-class OEE for pharmaceutical finished goods manufacturing?

A:

Robert Hansen replies:

If one could plot all of the true OEE values for an entire industry (sustained for at least one month), I would consider world-class to be the top 3 percent. Note that higher values should develop over time, consistent with the philosophy that Manufacturing Excellence is a continuous journey.

True OEE means that all operations are using the same definitions and equations to compute OEE and have accurate data collection reconciled by actual transferred good product divided by theoretical volume for the scheduled time period.

Currently, for most operations (including pharmaceutical manufacturing), the highest OEE would most likely be operating lines dedicated to a single product family with very few Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). I define this type of operation as a dedicated discrete system and would expect world-class to eventually achieve 90 percent or better.

However, when the principles of quick changeovers (less than 10 minutes as demonstrated by Toyota) are achieved, even complex product streams could achieve nearly the same levels.