MANAGERS & EXECUTIVES SKILLS

OEE Raises Long-Term Competitiveness

“OEE is one of the most recognized KPIs (key performance indicators), if not the most recognized,” observes Craig Resnick, a research director at ARC Advisory Group Inc., in Dedham, Mass.

Resnick and his colleagues encourage end-users to take advantage of today's technology to more quickly calculate the metrics of OEE, or overall equipment effectiveness, a performance metric that equals the sum of a process' availability times its performance times the quality of products produced.

“It's imperative for manufacturers to collect data automatically and in real time,” declares Resnick. They should then tie that data together and get it to the enterprise, which then allows plant production data to be compared with true operating time, he advises. Do this and use OEE as a dynamic optimization tool, Resnick says, and positive results follow. “I think they'll be surprised about how fast they see results.”

But using today's technology means overcoming some things. “First, you cannot have ‘islands of automation.’ To rectify that, everything on the plant floor needs to be interoperable,” Resnick says. To him, that means all devices communicate with one another, which allows data sharing by all manufacturing disciplines and production management... Read more

» IT & NETWORKING SKILLS: Engineer or Network Administrator? -
The proliferation of digital networks in manufacturing has resulted in a job description change for most, if not all, automation engineers.

In addition to tuning control loops or programming programmable logic controllers, engineers must become proficient in network management and troubleshooting. Ethernet has become the de facto networking standard on the factory floor... Read more

» OPERATIONS & ENGINEERING SKILLS: Advanced Tuning Tackles the Nonlinear World -
In a nonlinear world, the challenge of advanced loop tuning is to keep continuous and batch processes, as well as discrete operations, functioning cleanly and productively without unplanned downtime.

Matching process simulation with advanced loop tuning gives end-users a tool to find the most satisfactory and productive set of operating conditions. “[But] you can't force tuning. It's not static. It's important to be able to be able to identify how the process changes,” explains Terry Blevins, principal technologist with controls vendor Emerson Process Management's Delta V research and development group, in Austin, Texas... Read more

Upcoming Webcast

Free Webcast: The Range of Wireless

Attendees will gain a better understanding of wireless and its game-changing potential. We'll present the range of applications and look at specific implementations and how automation professionals can improve their operations with today's technologies. Join us for this free one-hour Webcast on April 17.
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