An analytical approach to measure OEE for blast furnaces

Abstract

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a framework to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the manufacturing process. It is a measurement tool used to indicate how effectively machines are running. It measures if machines are utilized, how much of the time machines are operating the speed at which output is manufactured, and the percentage of the output that is of the right quality. Looking at it another way, OEE examines productivity loss in terms of the impact on machine or equipment utilization, equipment availability, equipment performance, and quality of output. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to measuring OEE for blast furnaces and explains how the individual metrics are calculated. The metrics that are used to calculate OEE highlight which process losses show the highest improvement opportunities so that business can put the effort in the right issues to improve equipment effectiveness. Daily monitoring using emerging digital technologies and further root cause analysis using data analytics can help to take corrective actions in the shop floor and can go a long way in improving plant OEE.