Manufacturing OEE Improvement

Unlock the full potential of manufacturing productivity by accurately measuring and enhancing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Manufacturing businesses seeking to understand levels of productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and cost, as well as how to benchmark these metrics against industry peers partner with Catalant’s OEE Experts to:

Increase production efficiency and reduce downtime

Gain enhanced visibility into operational performance

Identify key levers for performance improvement

Approach

Achieve Results with Improved OEE

Our team of 1–3 experienced operations Experts will conduct an in-depth analysis of data from your manufacturing operations and carry out onsite observations of production activities within selected processes over a 1–2-day period.

01

Align and educate

Train key stakeholders and team members in the definition and mechanics of OEE/OPE, and align on the strategic impact these metrics have on operations.

02

Assess OEE/OPE performance

Obtain an OEE/OPE breakdown from the main process bottlenecks and pacemaker(s) to create a performance baseline and uncover loss categories.

03

Identify and validate improvement levers

Map losses to potential improvement levers by category (Availability, Performance, Quality), then validate root causes through data analysis and structured problem-solving. Prioritize opportunities based on impact and feasibility.

04

Develop an improvement implementation plan

Translate validated levers into a practical, prioritized improvement roadmap. Define initiatives, owners, milestones, and KPIs to drive OEE/OPE gains.

05

Execute and monitor

Implement the plan with disciplined execution and governance. Track progress against targets, iterate as needed, and establish sustainable practices to maintain and build on gains.

Winning Together

OEE Improvement in Action

Tier One Automotive Supplier
More Success Stories

Problem

A Private Equity company acquired a Tier One Automotive Supplier facing fierce competition due to low productivity and high costs.

Action

A diagnostic was conducted and identified key issues in labor productivity, indirect materials, and scrap. This led to: 

 

  • The creation of an improvement transformation team to address opportunities in Manufacturing, Maintenance, Industrial Engineering, and Procurement functions
  • Identification of 20-25 initiatives that would deliver results within 6-10 months

Results

After a 3-month implementation focused on improving OEE, the client achieved: 

 

  • 10% increase in production output
  • Reduced changeover lead time by 50% by using SMED
  • KPIs and detailed routines for supervisors that helped optimize machine speed and minimize unplanned interruptions

Plastics Manufacturing Turnaround

A consumer goods enterprise faced high operations costs and low OEE. Eight key project initiatives were identified to improve OEE and decrease costs. This led to the facilitation of eight cross-functional teams to address downtime, scrap, and cycle time losses, in addition to the implementation of a manufacturing performance system. As a result, OEE improved from 65% to 83% and the company realized annual savings of $5MM.

Maintenance & Reliability Improvement

A large Pharma-Chemical client was facing increased maintenance costs alongside declining asset performance. They wanted to improve fixed costs and maintenance and engineering performance, but the executive team was not aligned on where to allocate resources. After undergoing an OEE assessment of equipment criticality involving maintenance, engineering, and operations departments, they gained standardized metrics and effective fund allocation.

Featured Experts

Featured OEE Improvement Experts

Yorgos F.

20+ years of experience in manufacturing and transformation

Former McKinsey Associate Partner with 10 years of operating experience at Rolls-Royce and Toyota. Expertise includes manufacturing, production, maintenance, procurement, and supply chain.

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Michael F.

25+ years of consulting and operating experience focused in strategic operations and Lean Six Sigma

Former McKinsey consultant with key skills including strategic alignment/planning, leadership coaching, continuous improvement cost reduction, and margin enhancement.

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Chad B.

25+ years of experience in operational excellence manufacturing

Former Deloitte consultant with 10+ years of operating experience at IBM and AlixPartners. Expertise includes process improvement, lean enterprise, Six Sigma, materials, and program/project management.

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Greg F.

40+ years of leading operational excellence performance transformations with OEE and OPE expertise

Former Grant Thornton and Lean Enterprise Inc. Partner leading an independent manufacturing operations improvement practice for over 20 years.

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