Welcome to the next installment from our Science of Manufacturing eSeries. In a previous article Arthur Stone, our Managing Director & CEO, discussed the futility of focusing on the “wrong” problem, and from here on out you will notice we refer to working on the “right” issues; those that make the greatest impact.
In this article, Project Manager, Sebastian Wrobel, and Aaron Kelly, Technical Director, combine forces to discuss our One Team Principle (#2). Both emphasise the important role “One Team” plays in the overall success of your business, advising that your manufacturing teams need to work as an integrated unit with all teams (e.g. the Production and the Maintenance Team) working together, interdependently as “One Team”, prioritising performance issues collaboratively so that they can effectively have the greatest impact on overall performance.
PRINCIPLE #2 – ONE TEAM
“OpEx OEE is all about empowering and transferring accountability to your team resulting in a progressive culture and less variation in the process.” – One Team [Principle #2]
“Your people are your greatest asset. Allow them to act as they would at home”
Asset Care Manager, Medical Device Multinational.
One Team – A Necessary Approach
We live in an agile world where working as part of One Team is not just a favourable approach to have; it’s now a necessary one. In order to stay ahead progressive manufacturers are constantly looking to ensure that the right issues, with the greatest ability to influence performance goals, are prioritised and remedied by their manufacturing teams.
Understanding “The Why”
Powerful organisations are made up of empowered people who understand the ten Science of Manufacturing Principles that govern their contribution towards the overall success of the organisation. One of PerformOEE™ Smart Factory Software’s fundamental concepts is that of educating people on theses key principles so that they fully understand the reasoning behind everything they do. When people understand “the why” they become empowered to take personal initiative and interest in the success of the business.
Accountability & Responsibility
One of the key success factors in working together as One Team is Accountability. From our observations, manufacturing teams tend to be effective as individual/departmental teams but when combined into one, they tend not to be so. Separate departments often have their own individual departmental goals and each team effectively sets out to achieve these goals, even if it is at the expense of other departments.
Traditionally, responsibility for issues has been passed between departments, working independently as opposed to interdependently focused on one overall performance goal. Often, no one department is held accountable for any issue that might arise. Frustratingly, this results in the never ending “pass the baton” mentality towards accountability. Disrupting this tradition and focusing on a cross departmental team can stop this and allow your teams to work together and get to the bottom of the real issue.
A Cross-Functional KPI is needed
In order to make the One Team approach effective it is imperative that there is a cross-functional overriding KPI that drives or empowers each department individually and collectively – simply put, a shared overall performance goal that all strive towards.
For us, this cross-functional KPI is OpEx OEE. OpEx OEE and additional supporting objectives are defined by using our Focus on Business Impact Principle (#1). Clear communications of these “Business Impact” objectives must be made collectively to all stakeholders and, in-turn challenged, understood and accepted by all. It must be made clear, within these communications, that strong cross-functional interaction will be required to meet the OpEx OEE Objectives and agreed monitoring and reporting of same to all stakeholders will be essential.
A Singular Data Source
Another Principle from our Science of Manufacturing Methodology which will greatly impact upon the success of your initiatives is the One Version Principle (#3). Effectively, One Version refers to your actual data and the source of that data. All stakeholders must agree on and verify a singular source for their data. Our Smart Factory OEE Software solution, PerformOEE™, provides such a singular source and is already widely accepted as the reporting and root cause analysis tool of choice by many of the world’s most prolific manufacturers.
Empowered employees, who understand these relevant principles, are far more likely to make good decisions regarding the direction and appropriateness of their process improvement ideas, than those employees who are merely told what to do. Similarly, when employees have a clear sense of direction and strategy combined with a real-time measure of contribution (OEE metric), they become a powerful force for propelling the organisation forward in ever more challenging and competitive markets.
“Working with OEEsystems and their PerformOEE™ software, we analyzed the start-up and shut-down times of a machine and found that each step took approximately one hour.
With this information, we were able to work as a team to reorganize our machine preparation procedures and reduce set-up and shut-down times to 15 minutes each.
We actually gained 1 hour and 10 minutes per 8.5 hour shift. We run five shifts per week, so this was a significant gain.”
Pat O’Brien,
Managing Director, Cork Plastics
PerformOEE™ Smart Factory Software empowers your people. It’s a live system which encourages your team to record and manage their daily challenges, and follow up on key actions.
Ultimately, these proactive responses lead to improvements in process performance. All this data, alongside real-time and historian reports, is available to employees at all levels of your organisation, with only a few clicks. As a result, the system becomes their own, where all involved are contributing to a common goal as truly One Team.
The principles from our Science of Manufacturing Methodology are designed to ensure your business maximises the impact of PerformOEE™ Smart Factory Software.
About the Authors
SEBASTIAN WROBELProject Manager, OEEsystems InternationalSebastian joined OEEsystems in 2017. As Project Manager he is responsible for managing our clients’ installation of PerformOEE™ Smart Factory Software in terms of implementation, training and completion. Sebastian holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from CIT and possesses a comprehensive understanding of continuous improvement and lean six sigma (LSS) methodologies. With a keen ability to recognise effective CI initiatives and the opportunities they present for optimizing performance and processes, Sebastian acutely understands the needs and challenges faced by our customers. |
AARON KELLYTechnical Director, OEEsystems InternationalAaron joined OEEsystems in 2008. His specialties include the design and implementation of customised software for Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) data collection and reporting. He has extensive experience of systems integration between shop floor automation systems and business systems across various industries and different processes combined with an in-depth knowledge of PLC and OPC technologies. Aaron holds a First Class Honours B. Eng Degree in Mechatronic Engineering from DCU. |
To keep up-to-date with OEEsystems International follow us on:
Our customers agree, combining our PerformOEE Smart Factory Software with our Science of Manufacturing Methodology instils the confidence & enthusiasm needed to progress your business further.
Experience it for yourself by requesting one of our Transformative-Change Trials today.
|