Your OEE Is Lying to You: Fix Your Downtime Reason Codes

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Back in June, we walked through Plex's three Production Monitoring views: the Control Panel for the operator at the machine, Production Statuses for the supervisor across the line, and the Visual Plant Floor for the manager who needs the whole building at a glance. Every one of those views has a quiet dependency nobody talks about. They are only as honest as the downtime data underneath them. And the downtime data is only as honest as the reason codes your operators enter. Here is the uncomfortable version: if your operators are stamping "Other," "Misc," or "Downtime" on two-thirds of your stoppages, or entering everything from memory at the end of the shift, then your OEE number is a work of fiction. A nicely formatted, color-coded work of fiction - but fiction all the same. Listen to this post: The gap hiding in your dashboards Production Monitoring is excellent at one thing: telling you when a workcenter stopped and for how long. The...

Why Employee Suggestions are Critical for Manufacturing Companies


Employee suggestions are critical for manufacturing companies as they can help identify cost-saving and continuous improvement ideas. By empowering employees to share their ideas, companies can tap into a wealth of knowledge and experience that might otherwise go untapped. 

 Here are some examples of how employee suggestions have helped companies with cost-saving ideas and creating new products or process improvements:

1.  Amazon Web Services (AWS), was created based on an employee suggestion. An engineer at Amazon suggested that the company should offer its internal computing infrastructure as a service to external customers. This idea eventually led to the creation of AWS, which has become one of Amazon's most profitable businesses .

2. Toyota's "Kaizen" philosophy, which emphasizes continuous improvement, is based on employee suggestions. The company encourages employees to identify areas for improvement and make suggestions for how to improve processes. This approach has helped Toyota reduce waste, improve quality, and increase efficiency .

3. Ford's "Employee Involvement" program encourages employees to make suggestions for improving the company's products and processes. This program has led to significant cost savings and improvements in quality. For example, an employee suggestion led to the development of a new paint process that reduced waste and saved the company millions of dollars .

4.  Intel's "Copy Exactly!" program encourages employees to share best practices and make suggestions for improving manufacturing processes. This program has helped Intel reduce costs, improve quality, and increase efficiency .

5. General Electric's "Work-Out" program encourages employees to identify areas for improvement and make suggestions for how to improve processes. This program has led to significant cost savings and improvements in quality.

Here are some strategies that manufacturing companies can use to encourage employee suggestions:

1. Establish a culture of open communication:

 Encourage employees to voice their ideas, concerns, and suggestions without fear of judgment or dismissal. While every suggestion may not be adopted, a process of soliciting and reviewing them must be in place. 

2. Collect employee suggestions: 

Instead of dictating the new initiatives to be implemented, collect suggestions from your employees. This approach can help identify areas for improvement that might have gone unnoticed otherwise 

3. Provide instant feedback:

 Employees should receive feedback on their suggestions as soon as possible. This feedback should be constructive and provide guidance on how to improve their ideas.

4. Make improvement easy:

 Companies should make it easy for employees to submit their suggestions. This can be done through suggestion boxes, online forms, or other channels that are easily accessible.

5. Recognize and reward your employees:

 Recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions can help create a culture of continuous improvement. This can be done through bonuses, promotions, or other incentives.

System like the Plex ERP can help companies captured areas for improvement on the shop floor that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.

By combining the power of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and employee suggestions, companies can create a culture of continuous improvement that fosters innovation and growth.












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