With increasing pressure on margins, and the on-going need to continue to invest in new technology and capabilities, running an efficient operation is even more critical to the success and health of any printing business. Packaging Converters and Commercial printers have always tried to utilize their equipment as much as possible and are well aware of their capacity utilization, which is typically measured as the number of hours a press is operating.

But this is really only part of the story. Plants can be more efficient and equipment can be utilized more effectively. Effectiveness is the relationship between the maximum that can theoretically be produced and what is actually accomplished. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a useful tool to measure and improve operations. Although the concept is more than 50 years old, and in the last twenty years it has become widely used in other industries, one increasingly hears printers and their suppliers talk about OEE.

OEE is as simple and useful as it is elegant. It is a performance indicator that combines three key production elements—equipment availability, performance, and quality—into a single number. It measures the time equipment is fully productive. It can be expressed as the product of three percentages: