OEE KPIs in the plant: simple performance indicator or real management tool?

“Our OEE is 73%.”

Right, then. What’s next?

This is the question that distinguishes an OEE KPI used as a simple statistic from a real industrial management system. There’s a world of difference between a figure on an Excel spreadsheet and a concrete improvement lever. The one that separates measurement from action. Reporting from decision-making. Indicators from strategic management tools.

So, is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) a passive indicator or a transformation tool? The answer changes everything in the way you manage production.

Performance measurement: what are industrial KPIs?

Let’s start by clarifying. A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a key indicator that measures the achievement of a company objective. It is a synthetic figure that can take several forms:

• Machine availability
• Number of rejects per production line
• Machine productivity
• TRS / OEE

The KPI answers a simple question: “Where do we stand?”

It allows you to: ✅ Measure a state at a given moment T in relation to the total of objectives
✅ Monitor evolution over time thanks to indicators
✅ Compare performance between different installations
✅ Feed the company’s database

But a KPI alone does nothing.

He observes. He measures. He observes.
He does not pilot.

OEE: efficiency measured by three key factors

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness ) is effectively a KPI. It measures the overall efficiency of a piece of equipment according to three fundamental factors:

1. Availability: actual uptime

Availability measures the percentage of time the machine is actually running compared to the planned production time. It takes into account all stoppages: breakdowns, tool changes, supplies, maintenance.

2. Production performance: effective output

The performance rate compares actual speed with the maximum theoretical rate. It reveals speed losses, micro-stops and slowdowns that eat into optimum cycle time.

3. Quality: product quality rate

This factor measures the number of compliant products in relation to the total manufactured. It includes rejects, rework and start-up losses.

Basic formula: OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality

An OEE of 65% means that your machine only produces value for 65% of the theoretical working time available. The rest? Waste.

Practical example of calculation

Let’s take a production line over a period of 8 hours (480 minutes):

• Actual operating time: 420 minutes (Availability = 87.5%)
• Production: 3,500 pieces vs. 4,000 theoretical (Performance = 87.5%)
• Compliant parts: 3,395 out of 3,500 (Quality = 97%)

OEE = 0.875 × 0.875 × 0.97 = 74.3

But here’s the catch: displaying this percentage on a screen doesn’t change anything about production. What changes everything is what you do with it.

Find out how to calculate your OEE.

The problem of unused stops: the OEE as a dead number

In too many plants, the OEE remains a passive indicator in a working environment that does not encourage its use:

❌ Calculated at the end of the day in a Manufacturing Execution system disconnected from the field
❌ Presented in reports that no one really reads
❌ Discussed in meetings with no direct link to concrete actions
❌ Disconnected from the operators who, themselves, run the machines

The result? The OEE becomes a reporting KPI for a category of managers. A statistic on an Excel page for quality control.

But it doesn’t drive anything. It doesn’t trigger concrete action. It doesn’t improve performance.

But why? Because it lacks three essential ingredients:

1. Visibility in real time (not deferred to the following period)
2. Understanding the causes of downtime (not just the end result)
3. The ability to act immediately (not tomorrow when planning)

 

Production management system: transforming the OEE into a strategic tool

A control system, unlike a simple indicator, does more than just measure. It enables :

✅ See reality in real time thanks to automatic data acquisition
✅ Identify the causes of lost availability and performance
✅ Decide and act immediately on stoppages
✅ Involve field teams in continuous improvement

The OEE becomes a strategic steering tool when it answers these questions:

• Which loss is costing me the most right now?
• Why has this machine underperformed in the last 2 hours?
• Which micro-stop is repeated 15 times a day?
• How can my operators correct the situation now?

It’s no longer “Where are we now?” but “What do we do now?”

And this nuance changes everything in daily practice.

From KPI to action: a practical example of implementation

The difference between an OEE-KPI and an OEE-steering tool? The relationship with time.

Classic approach (passive KPI) :

• The operator fills out a paper sheet in manual mode
• Data is entered into a database at the end of the shift
• OEE is calculated the next day (or the following week)
• We note: “Line 3 was at 58% last Tuesday”.
• We say to ourselves: “We should do something”.

Problem? Too late. The opportunity to act has passed. Lost production time won’t come back.

Modern approach (pilot system) :

• Automatic data acquisition returns data in real time
• The OEE is now visible on the installation screen
• Causes of stoppages are instantly traced
• The operator sees the impact of his action immediately
• The team leader intervenes before the loss worsens

The result? The indicator no longer simply measures. It guides. It alerts. It triggers.

TEEPTRAK: a practical example of real-time acquisition and control

At TeepTrak, we have a simple belief that guides our implementation:

“OEE doesn’t improve performance. It’s the operators who improve it when they see the truth in real time.”

Our approach is more than just showing a figure. We transform OEE into a true strategic management system through :

1. Real-time visibility for everyone in the working environment

No more delayed reports. Operators, foremen and managers see the same reality, at the same time:

• Current OEE on workshop screen
• Causes of downtime at a glance
• Minute-by-minute change in percentage of productive time

2. Traceability of causes of downtime and loss of availability

Each loss is documented at source, directly by the operator via an industrial tablet. No more approximations. The data is reliable in our database.

3. Intelligent analysis of performance indicators

Our solution automatically identifies :

• Recurring losses (invisible micro-stops)
• Trends over several periods
• Priority improvement levers by stop category

4. Immediate action on the production line

When the OEE drops, the team knows why and can react immediately, not tomorrow, not at the next planning stage.

Concrete results? Our customers gain between 3 and 5 OEE points in just a few weeks, simply because their teams finally have a tool that helps them act, not just observe.

So, OEE: KPI or steering tool?

Both. It all depends on what you do with it in practice.

• If your OEE is calculated at the end of the week in an Excel spreadsheet, it’s a reporting KPI. Useful for monitoring and control, but limited.
• If your OEE is visible in real time, understood by operators, and triggers immediate action, it’s a strategic steering system. And then it becomes a real production performance lever.

So the real question isn’t, “What’s our OEE?”
But, “What are we doing with it to improve our overall efficiency?”

From observation to action

Would you like to turn your OEE into a real decision-making tool?
Are you looking to give your field teams the visibility they need to improve performance now?

Contact TeepTrak to find out how our real-time OEE tracking solutions can make a difference on your shop floor.

Ask for a demonstration of our real-time OEE tracking solution.