16 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk August/September 2025 Maintenance Matters Focus on: OEE Improving performance ensures optimal speeds and reduces micro-stoppages that may lead to overproduction or excessive energy use. Optimizing quality directly limits scrap rates and rework, thus conserving materials and reducing emissions associated with defective units. Data-driven optimisation Making real sustainability gains through OEE takes more than just periodic reporting. Realtime, high-resolution visibility across the production line is essential. Today’s manufacturers are increasingly embracing technologies like automation software and IoT platforms to gather detailed, granular data from production systems. Teams can monitor OEE metrics, detect cycle slowdowns or quality issues, and respond immediately. This kind of visibility can inform predictive maintenance, reduce material waste and even improve energy load balancing across shifts. And with historical trend data, manufacturers can support continuous improvement (CI) and statistical process control (SPC) initiatives. Linking OEE with live data makes it possible to measure sustainability in real terms - like specific energy consumption or carbon intensity per unit — and take targeted action. Lean and green management Lean manufacturing principles are increasingly recognized as effective tools for improving CE outcomes. Lean manufacturing is all about doing more with less — streamlining processes, cutting out waste and focusing only on steps that truly add value to the product - and OEE is a key part of this. As a unified metric, OEE quantifies the impact of both lean and green initiatives in a single performance model. Lean methodologies focus on eliminating overproduction, delays and excess motion. Green goals target energy consumption, emissions and material throughput. OEE links these challenges, making it possible to assess key drivers like the effectiveness of changeovers, downtime events and first pass yield in real time — all important elements of lean and green principles. Reducing changeover time boosts takt time and limits material waste during transitions. Firstpass yield helps to reduce rework cycles to save on both energy and raw inputs. Real-time dashboards make it easier for teams to model the direct correlation between improved OEE and reduced environmental footprint. This helps meet production and sustainability targets. OEE strategies that work Companies are using OEE strategies aligned with CE principles and seeing impressive results. Handl Tyrol, a speck producer, used COPADATA’s zenon software platform to monitor realtime data. This helped to reduce downtime and support precise resource usage while also improving its energy efficiency and OEE percentage, aligning perfectly with the company’s sustainability goals. Meanwhile, White Panther, a prawn farm in Austria, used zenon to optimize process parameters in its indoor aquaculture operation. The facility operates with a self-sufficient energy and heat supply, powered by hydroelectric and biomass systems from its own resources. As well as generating 30 GWh of electricity a year — enough to power the entire town of Rottenmann — the system makes use of wasted production heat. This residual heat is now used to keep all 56 tanks at a constant 28°C — essential for optimum prawn growth. By closely tracking equipment performance and responding rapidly to process deviations, it improved overall efficiency while minimizing water and energy consumption. To meet climate goals, moving towards a circular economy is critical. Manufacturers must adopt strategies to not only enhance their performance, but centre sustainability too. OEE is a valuable tool to bridge the gap between the two and support lean processes and green goals. By monitoring and optimising OEE, businesses can work smarter, waste less and build a circular, more sustainable future. Looking ahead OEE is a valuable tool in the shift toward circular manufacturing - but it is only one part of a much larger puzzle. Truly circular systems require attention to design, supply chain coordination, and reuse strategies. By focusing on efficiency and performance at the equipment level, manufacturers can lay a strong foundation for further circularity efforts. The journey toward a circular economy is ongoing - and starts with smarter operations today. For further information please visit: www.copadata.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=