Glossary

OEE (overall equipment effectiveness)

In short

OEE, overall equipment effectiveness, is a measure that combines three factors, availability, performance and quality, into a single percentage that describes how well a piece of equipment is actually being used. It multiplies the three together, so a weakness in any one drags the score down. OEE is most common in manufacturing but the thinking applies wherever an asset's productive time matters.

OEE (overall equipment effectiveness)

OEE, overall equipment effectiveness, is a measure that rolls three separate factors, availability, performance and quality, into a single percentage describing how well a piece of equipment is actually being used. It is widely used in manufacturing as a shorthand for how much productive, good-quality output an asset is delivering against its potential.

The three factors

OEE is the product of three percentages:

  • Availability: the share of planned production time the equipment was actually running, reduced by breakdowns and unplanned stops.
  • Performance: how fast it ran compared with its ideal or rated speed, reduced by slow running and small stops.
  • Quality: the share of what it produced that met the standard, reduced by scrap and rework.

You multiply the three together. So equipment that was available 90 per cent of the time, ran at 95 per cent of its ideal speed and produced 99 per cent good output has an OEE of roughly 85 per cent. Multiplying matters, because the factors compound: a serious problem in any one of the three pulls the whole score down, which is exactly what you want a summary measure to surface.

Why teams track it

The strength of OEE is that it turns a complex picture into one comparable number, while still letting you drill into which of the three factors is hurting. A low score driven by availability points at reliability and downtime; one driven by performance points at speed losses; one driven by quality points at the process. That is where maintenance often comes in, because poorly maintained equipment tends to be less available and to run below its rated speed.

How it relates to Cohiva Control

OEE itself is a production-floor measure, and Cohiva Control is a maintenance and asset system rather than a production line monitor. Where it contributes is the availability side: by scheduling preventive maintenance on time or meter intervals and tracking work orders and failures on an append-only history, it helps a team keep equipment running and reduce the unplanned stops that erode availability. The asset meters Cohiva Control records can also feed usage-based depreciation, so the same data describes both how hard an asset works and how its value is written down.

Part of the Cohiva platform

Cohiva Control is part of the Cohiva platform. Leisure operators often run it with Cohiva Complex, and finance teams connect it to Cohiva Crunch for the general ledger. Explore the platform at www.cohiva.app.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three factors in OEE?
Availability, how much of the planned time the equipment was actually running; performance, how fast it ran against its ideal rate; and quality, the share of output that was good. The three are multiplied together to give the OEE percentage.
Why multiply the three factors?
Because they compound. Equipment that is available, fast and producing good output scores well, but a serious problem in any one factor pulls the whole score down, which is what makes OEE a useful single summary.
Is OEE only for manufacturing?
It originated in manufacturing and fits production lines best, but the underlying idea, that an asset's value is in productive, good-quality running time, applies to plant in many settings.