Improvement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness Through Planned Equipment Maintenance: A Case Study

Abstract

Maintenance of equipment in a manufacturing facility is of great importance to ensure availability, performance, and production of goods at the right quality level. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a good key performance indicator for monitoring and controlling the reliability of equipment within a production system. Classifier is one of the major equipment forming an integral part of a production line within a coal fly ash processing plant. The classifier had a capacity to produce 45 tons per hour of product, but its productivity had reduced to 33 tons per hour. Through bottleneck identification, it was noted that some of the components of the classifier had worn and tear, thus needs to be replaced. Planned maintenance of the classifier was carried out for a period of five days on shutdown. Data was collected over 31 days before the maintenance and 31 days after maintenance for availability, performance and quality of goods produced to quantify OEE before and after the maintenance. Although the classifier was producing less than its capacity, the goods produced were within the acceptable quality level, thus 100%. Post the maintenance, the production rate increased by 30.30%. The OEE improved by 21.76%, which ultimately improved the availability of products to customers. The Turn-Around-Time of trucks on the despatch line improved by 29.76%. A maintenance programme was recommended to have a system in place to be followed for maintainability of the equipment, thus, to have a sustained OEE.