Dirk Sweigart, MES Solutions Manager at ACE
The topic of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) drew a full house of attendees in Rumsey Electric’s training room on Tuesday evening, March 26. Dirk Sweigart, MES Solutions Manager at Applied Control Engineering, gave an excellent presentation on MES and a precursor topic: Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). He began by dividing the audience into three groups representing three categories of manufacturing: discrete, continuous, and batch. With group participation, he then went on to explain factors in calculating OEE for the three kinds of manufacturing. The calculation consists of the product of three main factors: availability, performance, and quality.
If your OEE is 100%, then the plant is manufacturing product as fast as possible with no downtime and with no rejects. But if availability, performance, and quality are 90%, 75%, and 86% respectively, then your OEE is 0.9 x 0.75 x 0.86 or about 58%. He said that data for deriving the three factors can originate from instrument and control systems, other computers, operators, and paper documents. The factors would differ among the three kinds of manufacturing systems. For example, a continuous system will tend to be always available and running until a turnaround for maintenance. But the production rate and product quality may decrease from optimum for a variety of reasons.
Sweigart said that efforts to develop an accurate OEE can help lead to digitized operations and good communication systems that characterize a Manufacturing Execution System. These systems can track and document the transforming of raw materials into finished goods. They help management understand how to optimize conditions on the plant floor to improve production output in real time. Sweigart noted that a computerized MES system stands at the center of enterprise resource planning, laboratory work, maintenance, and document management.
Sweigart continued, noting an established MES can lead to other corporate benefits. These might include, for example, energy management, critical equipment monitoring, and operator qualifications.
A link to Sweigart’s slide presentation will be available shortly.