Marsan Foods finds real-time monitoring improves overall performance

Upon moving into a new plant in 2000, Marsan Foods—a Toronto-based manufacturer of frozen entrees, soups, and other items—launched a continuous-improvement program that initially led to numerous process revamps. But the program's impact on the business seemed to diminish over time, prompting management to look for other ways to boost performance.

Ultimately, Marsan decided that measuring its overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, would be a good gauge.

Widely used in Europe—especially in applications like bottling and filling lines—OEE is a quick snapshot of a company's true ability to produce goods. It combines metrics such as available capacity, run-rate utilization, and production yields to determine a plant's overall efficiency.

Marsan hadn't measured its OEE before, says Kristoffer Soderlind, director of operations, who estimated the plant was running at about 65-percent peak effectiveness when it decided to track this metric in February 2005. Five months later, Marsan's OEE topped 70 percent, and was still climbing.

Soderlind attributes the fast improvement to a software tool from MVI Technology that allows measuring OEE in real time. OEE does not need real-time data capture, of course: end-of-shift, paper-based reporting is the norm. But real-time OEE—that is, enabling managers to drill down into the data to identify causal factors—is a better way to drive corrective action, asserts MVI CEO Mark Sutcliffe. "Knowing the level of OEE isn't the same as knowing what to do to improve it," he says. "We start from the premise of identifying a level of operational granularity that indicates where to look to solve a problem."

The MVI system typically works with two types of input devices: a status signal indicating that the equipment being measured is working, and a counting device—such as an electronic eye—that relays the rate at which units are being produced. "The electronic plumbing is generally inexpensive and straightforward," says MVI CTO Robin Wright.

The ability to improve OEE is enhanced when workers punch codes into the system via a line-side touch screen to indicate particular causes of downtime, adds Soderlind. "Precoding particular problems lets you analyze how frequently they occur, and under which conditions," he says. An example: a sealer was causing downtime, but only at the start of Marsan's morning shift. The problem? Moisture in the machine caused by the night shift clean down, which was solved by purchasing an air gun to avoid water ingress.

"We're changing the culture," enthuses Soderlind. "People are much more aware of the importance of productivity. Everyone is talking the same language, and there's no place to hide."