Assuring the Availability of Production Systems, Machines and Equipment

How efficient are your production system, machines and equipment? Do you know your losses in production processes? Do you have an integrated visualisation of your equipment effectiveness implemented? Do you live a systematic continuous improvement process (CIP) to optimize your maintenance (operations)?

Manufacturing equipment can only be operated efficiently if a company is capable to assure the required level of availability and optimized capacity utilisation of its machines and equipment with a minimum of resources. This means avoiding any form of wastage or loss during the operation of machines and equipment. These factors result in high costs without providing any value creation. Losses, such as technical breakdowns, setups or rework, have a negative impact on productivity and blunt a company's competitive edge.

Besides evaluating the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of a single machine, Fraunhofer IPA also assesses the effectiveness of complete production lines. We ascertain the consequences of production downtimes on the value chain and evaluate the associated financial losses. In this way, we can implement targeted measures to improve the effectiveness of your manufacturing systems. This also enables activity-based risk management and increases effectiveness and productivity along the entire value chain.