How To Calculate OEE Automatically With Apps

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is one of the foundational KPIs in manufacturing.

In this post, we’ll show you how to automate your OEE calculations with no-code apps.

Download our Complete Guide to OEE to Improve the Way You Measure & Analyze Equipment Data →

OEE has a simple definition, but there are subtleties to how it is computed—everyone does it slightly differently. With an OEE calculator, you can use an industry standard, or calibrate OEE’s calculation to your specific use cases.

While OEE looks simple enough to calculate on the fly, having an application or process to calculate OEE across all of your machines and departments can unlock new insights.

Using an app allows you to analyze data more easily, and can enable you to run an OEE Dashboard, aggregating all of your important information in one place.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness Calculator apps are intended to be an easy way to calculate, log, and track OEE metrics across a variety of manually tracked processes.

This application has 4 simple steps, making it incredibly easy to train operators to use. Each step can be configured specifically to your process or machine needs.

In order:

1. Select a machine
2. Select a job
3. Log your production data
4. Calculate and submit

1.) Select a machine(or process)

To start calculating OEE, you first need to select the machine(s) that you’d like to track. In Tulip’s OEE calculator app, you can see all of the machines available to the application (if you’re looking to get started with machine monitoring, you can learn more here). Here, all of the machines are stored in a table called “Load Machine.”

2.) Select a Job

This information is used to track performance against specific items, operations, and/or work orders. They let you view OEE information in a more detailed production context. These fields by default are required, but do not factor into the equations being used.

3.) Log your production data

Here, you’re creating the backdrop for the OEE calculation. You input the total time you expect the machine to run, account for planned downtime, and record any notes. Once you have machine monitoring up and running, all of the actual production data will populate automatically. You can also populate the information manually if that’s your preference. In this configuration, the production details are added to the middle section of the page, giving the app everything it needs to calculate your OEE.

4.) Calculate and Submit

The Calculate button can be used to display the calculations based on the information input by the user. The Calculate and Submit button should be used once the data has been verified and is ready for entry within the application’s completion data. Submitting the data will add it to a record that can be drawn upon for more aggregated analytics.

As you can see, the calculator application simplifies the process to recording OEE. Tulip allows operators to record downtime and log the occurrences that caused it. Using the app eliminates the need for dedicated manual time studies and paper trails.

The benefit of using Tulip for your OEE calculations is that it can store each calculation and provide easy-to-use data analytic functionalities.

Here are some of the benefits OEE calculators:

• Quick summaries of raw data
• Configurable to meet any changes in production or analysis needs
• Can be displayed next to other manufacturing analytics, like Pareto charts
• Eliminate paper-based data collection and analysis

Keeping track of OEE on your machines is a valuable KPI in manufacturing, and as you can see from this walkthrough, Tulip’s Frontline Operations Platform enables quick implementation of applications that can help improve operations and monitor machine efficiency. The Overall Equipment Effectiveness Calculator application is just one of many apps in the Tulip library that can be configured to meet the needs of your specific process.