Improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness in Manufacturing Industry Using Autonomous Maintenance

Abstract

To maximize the production at minimum cost, the maintenance of the equipment is to be carried out on a routine basis, and with this, the equipment becomes more reliable. Regular maintenance keeps the machine in good working condition and prevents the degradation of the machine components. Maintenance is broadly classified as planned and unplanned maintenance. Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance are planned maintenance, whereas corrective or breakdown maintenance is the unplanned maintenance. Proper maintenance reduces the downtime of machines/equipment and improves the mean time between failures (MTBF). Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is an indicator to measure equipment effectiveness. Higher OEE is desirable in today’s highly competitive environment. Autonomous maintenance—a pillar of total productive maintenance—is the latest trend across manufacturing industries to improve the OEE. Autonomous maintenance is a planned maintenance program that involves operators’ responsibility to take care of the equipment, i.e., the operator of the machine is responsible for the overall health of the equipment. Autonomous maintenance helps to achieve higher OEE by reducing breakdown time. The present work is a part of a project undertaken to improve OEE using autonomous maintenance, in the automotive oil filter manufacturing unit. The machines of the plant were studied, and required data was collected. Based on data collected, the most critical machine was selected and autonomous maintenance was implemented. The findings have shown improvement of 14–15% in OEE after implementing autonomous maintenance.