Availability is the OEE factor everyone claims to understand and almost nobody measures honestly. The formula is simple — Run Time divided by Planned Production Time. The manipulation is simpler. Changeovers quietly become “scheduled.” Material shortages get reclassified as “planned inventory reduction.” Training stops transform into “scheduled development.” Each reclassification inflates your Availability number while […] Read More

The 85% OEE benchmark became “world-class” through repetition, not rigorous analysis. Industry consultants observed that top-performing discrete manufacturers clustered around that number, and it calcified into dogma — without a single examination of whether it actually predicts profitability, customer responsiveness, or competitive advantage in any specific context. Theory of Constraints research is unambiguous: improving anything […] Read More

OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality. The formula takes thirty seconds to learn. The manipulation takes decades to unwind. I’ve seen plants using “standard” cycle times set 40% slower than actual equipment capability — manufacturing perfect Performance numbers while leaving massive speed improvement untouched. I’ve watched changeovers quietly reclassified as scheduled downtime to inflate […] Read More

Most companies operate at 40 to 60 percent of their true potential without knowing it — not because of broken equipment or underperforming employees, but because capacity bleeds invisibly across four dimensions nobody audits together: technical infrastructure, operational workflows, management bandwidth, and strategic resource allocation. McKinsey research shows organizations typically capture only 20 to 30 […] Read More