Overall Equipment Efficiency

Traditional measures like throughput and equipment uptime don't actually translate very well to the issues that drive the business. "The classic problem with metrics on the plant floor is that they tend to be departmentally focused," says Bill Swanton, a senior analyst with AMR Research.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) provides a clear picture of each piece of equipment on the floor and then of the entire factory. When used to its full potential, OEE can help companies avoid making unnecessary investments, and focus on improving the performance of machinery and plant equipment they already own.

OEE is calculated by combining machine availability with machine performance and the quality of the product coming off the end of the line.

"What we're trying to measure here is agility," says Swanton. "How well have you been able to produce what you wanted ... and at what level of quality? If the asset isn't agile enough, it will fall down on availability, productivity, or quality."

Swanton adds that most major automation vendors offer some OEE package.