The O.E.E. (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a standard for measuring equipment performance. Specifically, it calculates the percentage of time of the overall production process that is really efficient for the company and its machines.

• Problem

Following information from the company, which collaborates with Depia Automations, a discussion was held about the problems it was facing in the overall production process as well as the performance of the machines and their handling by the employees.

The managers of the company needed a tool that would be able to apply the performance measurement standard of the O.E.E. equipment, in software form, that would provide the operators with all the necessary tools in order to draw important conclusions about the process production. Since the specific tool did not exist at the given time, the efficiency and speed of all processes could not be measured and judged based on specific standards, therefore it fluctuated at low levels.

More generally, the performance of the processes and handling of the machines needed to be monitored and improved, which, without a doubt, would strengthen the overall economy of the company.

• Planning

After the above issues were recorded and shared, which arose in a discussion between the managers and staff of the company, with the programmers and developers of Depia Automations, the development planning of the application began.

The goal was to develop a software that it would enable the company’s operators to monitor the overall productivity of the processes and the use of the machines and at the same time, the results it exports will be based on the international standard of O.E.E., in order for the company to maximize performance and production times.

When a modern programming language, is chosen the code development plan for each was carefully designed for each section of the application separetely.

• Implementation

Since its development planning was completed of the software, considering all the factors, we proceeded to develop code in C#. The programming language C#, was chosen because it is a modern, widely used and recognized as well as easily extensible programming language. To monitor all the data, measurements and times of the entire process of production and operation of the machines, in order to be able to visualize and combine them in a specific way, it was necessary to have the possibility of continuous recovery and management.

For this reason it was deemed necessary to form one, adapted to his needs software, database and connect to the, under development, program.

Simultaneously with the aforementioned implementations, regular visits were made to the company to familiarize theusersin using the apps, but also download feedback for its continuous improvement.

• Result

By designing and implementing the above application, we managed to maximize the productivity and performance of the systemsincethe set of procedures and the handling of machinery, is monitored on a regular basis, with multiple data visualization and configuration tools. Based on the results that are extracted, the company is in a position to make immediate corrective actions on the factors that affect production performance, with the result that overall safety and reliability are optimized.

Ingeneral, the above tool, taking full advantage of its template O.E.E.,offers, at the same time, an increase in the efficiency of the processes, a reduction of the total times and an immediate correction of any problems that are likely to arise.

Speed ​​increases, efficiency is optimized and the overall economy of production improves significantly.