Using OEE and SPC to improve quality and productivity

Quality is the process of producing products that meet specifications. It is but one of three elements of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), the other two being uptime and rate. It is fair to say that we cannot produce quality without measurement. We may either measure to insure that our processes are in control and thus infer that product quality is achieved or we may measure product attributes directly to insure quality. Product attributes may be measured in-line, near-line, or off-line in a laboratory. Typical hybrid manufacturing/packaging operations perform a combination of all of these to insure product quality.

In today's world, when we discuss production, quality is assumed. Once basic quality and product safety issues are addressed, much of the quality discussion resembles a productivity discussion. In this context, Don Enstrom, Senior Director Manufacturing & Engineering Services at Cliffstar Corporation shared experiences with Packaging Automation Forum attendees about the implementation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Statistical Process Control (SPC) solutions that improved quality and prductivity.

Cliffstar (which has been acquired by Cott Corporation) has a disruptive manufacturing environment, with the record for changeovers on a single line being forty-two in one day. This amount of disruption can surely lead to variability that presents opportunities to achieve both quality and efficiency benefits.

In its juice bottling plant, Cliffstar was challenged with both direct material losses, process variability (quality) losses, and labor efficiency losses. By reducing these, Cliffstar saw potential to increase capacity, reduce capital, improve performance and quality and improve customer and consumer satisfaction.

A two-step strategic plan was created to maximize return on investment. Step one was to develop a continuous improvement model using manual measures and basic lean and six sigma tools that would be implemented at all sites. Step two was to provide automated real-time performance measurement in a phased installation of a scalable system and compare its results to those from the manual system. As this OEE-based system was being expanded, a pilot of SPC was planned.

As this plan developed into the first full site implementation, plant line efficiencies responded in the first 30 days. Results were a 3.1% higher average efficiency 5 months into the project. This pilot delivered an internal rate of return of 157% which extrapolates to a potential $3 million near term savings across 5 plants. The SPC pilot implementation resulted in reducing bottle overfill by 76% in the first 30 days and indicates a short term potential 5 plant opportunity of $1.1 million.

At-line SPC measurements of bottle fill may lead to additional quality measurements such as cap torque. These measurements can work their way into engineering for design and maintenance improvements. Line associates are more enthusiastic about working on performance problems given real data rather than the erroneous data that used to be provided from manual systems. One problem that remains to be addressed by Cott is the ongoing support challenge of a system that cuts across both engineering and information technology departments.

Nevertheless, these results have guaranteed ongoing executive sponsorship. What has been your experience with using OEE or SPC to improve quality and productivity?

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Comments Reference your article on Cliffstar and their approach to line efficiency. One of the items not discussed was cooperation with marketing and scheduling so as to get the maximum benefit of a run instead of makeing "42" changes. If you run OJ why not standardize on the product and sizing of the fill. With cooperation from purchasing the containers can be standardized to minimize line and conveyor adjustments. Standardiziong of elements for Cooling and line speeds are relative easy but takes "Thinking" by the Operators and Management. If the cooling rates for a 64 oz package are set for a cooling water recirculation of 55 F what happens if the water goes to 80 F. Take a look at Welch in North East, PA. Renovation of the coolers and water recirculation systems allowed for an increase in production. Posted by: Stephen Green on July 29, 2011 SPC is a very effective tool in Production to ensure that the Products always remains withing the quality specifications . This helps in improving yields and batch rejects. At Sanofi we use this tool very effectively Posted by: RENEE AMONKAR on July 29, 2011 In the field of business, there are so many things that you must learn first. It is not just purely office jobs but as you go on towards on success, as an owner you must know everything. It is you also who drive your business into triumph. Posted by: Mechanical Engineering Information on August 4, 2011 I would like to add to Renee's comments that we also have found lot of benefit from SPC, and also OEE concept at Sanofi-aventis Bangladesh site. I am now working for Incepta Pharma, where we are also in the process of implementing OEE. Posted by: Faisal Ahmed on August 4, 2011 One can us SPC to point the way to root causes when OEE shows deficiencies. OEE does not use or need SPC. One needs to understand them correctly. Some people use OEE values per unit of time to do SPC plots. One can force a model like this and show something, but SPC properly used is based on measuring variables that follow normal distribution and OEE (from its components) follows non normal distrisbutions (Weibull or log-normal)and therefore should not be mixed. Understanding this results in a better picture and gains in improvements. Posted by: Paul on December 21, 2011 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):