Many manufacturers increase capacity through expensive and time consuming new equipment purchase. There is a better way. OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) helps manufacturers expose capacity lost to equipment inefficiency. But you don't necessarily have to use OEE to expose lost capacity – sometimes reducing downtime, improving performance or improving quality is enough to regain lost capacity. Start by measuring your current process, analyze the source of efficiency loss and develop a plan to improve. Here are a few proven methods:

• Start with OEE
• Reduce Downtime
• Reduce Changeover Time
• Tackling the Six Big Losses

The strategies below depict a few of the many problems our customers ask us to solve and the solutions we provide. Always feel free to call us if you'd like to discuss a specific problem or idea. We encourage you to use our application experience to help you increase your production capacity.

Strategies to Increase Capacity

Start with OEE
PROBLEM	We know that our efficiency is down but don't know why.
STRATEGY	Monitor OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to identify areas where efficiency losses occur. Focus on the Six Big Losses.
SOLUTION	Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a metric used to expose equipment-based losses in an easy to digest form. Attack the Six Big Losses by exposing downtime, speed and quality loss. Set goals for improvement and benchmark progress. XL Series Production Monitor displays are capable of showing real-time OEE as well as key associated variables such as event downtime, number of small stops and reduced speed cycles, rejects and reject percentage, percent run time and over 100 additional real-time variables.
Reduce Down Time
PROBLEM	Downtime continues to be the single greatest loss of production efficiency in our plant.
STRATEGY	Expose downtime. Set goals for reducing or eliminating unplanned downtime.
SOLUTION	A key principle of manufacturing states that if you don't measure it, you can't correct it. Downtime is a great example of a significant loss that must be measured in order to correct the problems that cause it. By exposing downtime in real-time you enable those closest to the problem the opportunity to fix it. Exposing downtime also creates a sense of urgency that is not felt in a downtime report a day or week later. 87 Series 4" to 12" large digital displays and XL Series Production Monitor displays can expose event and accumulated downtime. Use color and/or audible annunciation to add impact to the displayed information.
Reduce Changeover Time
PROBLEM	Changeovers take too long and are impeding our ability to become an agile manufacturer.
STRATEGY	Break changeovers into the three components of changeover time – cleanup, setup and startup. Expose overall changeover time and/or any of its components and set goals to reduce it. Additionally a pieces to goal or time to goal variable helps operators initiate internal changeover procedures, greatly reducing changeover time.
SOLUTION	It is usually one particular component of the changeover that requires significant time, typically startup; however it can be any of the three components of changeover. Starting with the longest of the three events is usually a good idea however startup may cause a lot of rejects to be produced, creating expensive waste. There are many ways to reduce changeover time of equipment. Consider using scribe marks, gauges, pin holes for line up, scales and duplicate tooling to reduce the time it takes to change to the next product to be produced. Display the results and track your progress. 87 Series 4" to 12" large digital timers and XL Series Production Monitor displays are excellent tools for tracking the progress of your changeover reduction efforts.
Tackling the Six Big Losses
PROBLEM	We are under constant pressure to make more with less.
STRATEGY	Tackle the Six Big Losses!
SOLUTION	The Six Big Losses represent the most common causes of efficiency loss in manufacturing. Knowing what they are and how to attack them is the key to swift and lasting improvement on your plant floor. XL Series Production Monitor displays expose real-time losses such as Down Time Loss (equipment failure, setup/changeover, etc.), Speed Loss (small stops, rough running, etc.) and Quality Loss (scrap, rework, etc) to enable teams to identify and correct problems when the occur.