How to Improve OEE and Drive Productivity with a Connected Worker App

Your employees are your most valuable asset, and in the current landscape marked by an industrial labour crisis and record-high turnover rates, it's more crucial than ever to implement efficient and effective connected worker solutions.

Investing in a comprehensive connected worker app not only enhances employee performance, but increases overall equipment effectiveness, drives productivity and empowers your frontline workers to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities.

Understanding OEE and Its Components

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tells you how well a machine, line or factory is being used. It’s a benchmark that shows how your operation compares to others. By itself, it doesn’t change anything, but when used to identify improvement opportunities, OEE leads to significant productivity gains. But only when the frontline workers using those machines are empowered to make it happen.

Besides hitting daily targets, raising productivity is one of the most important tasks in a factory. By offering practical, real-time insights between machines, material and frontline workers, businesses can continually improve margins and strengthen their competitive position.

The power of OEE comes from how it incorporates machine availability, performance and quality into a single metric. Losses caused by factors like unplanned downtime, running at less than full speed and manufacturing product that can’t be sold, are combined to yield a number that can measure improvement and support comparisons.

The challenge in trying to improve manufacturing productivity is to find improvements that will raise the overall OEE score, rather than boosting one metric at the expense of others. This is where a comprehensive connected worker app that’s built for the factory floor can help.

Here’s how a connected worker app like Poka supports productivity and OEE improvement.

The Role of a Connected Worker App

Imagine being an operator on a production line and having all the information you need in the palm of your hand. The assigned training to perform a task, job aids like digital work instructions and checklists, and a history and status of previous issues logged in that area. Imagine having everything you need to make decisions, solve problems and stay safe. That’s what a connected worker app like Poka does.

A connected worker app should be deployed on mobile devices for easy, on-the-floor access. These devices should be protected and secured to address any concerns around data privacy and extreme conditions such as heat, cold, heights and more. A connected worker app also needs to integrate with core systems like ERP, the QMS and the CMMS. That’s why Poka’s backend data is structured to mirror the classic factory setup at the plant, production line, workstation and equipment level. This helps make integration and data analysis fast, simple and effective.

Better yet, Poka enables collaboration so it’s possible to post an issue with a photo or video, and get answers from subject matter experts immediately. There are even options for broadcasting alerts and sharing important news. Want to tell everyone how you solved that label adhesion problem? Share it using Poka’s Factory Feed.

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Top Connected Worker Use Cases for Improving Manufacturing Operations

How does a connected worker app like Poka help improve manufacturing operations? These nine use cases are the most common among the Poka User Community and help provide real-world examples.

Shift Reports

Smooth shift handovers that minimize downtime need effective communication between your teams. With a connected worker app, the incoming team has a complete record of everything happening on the line.

Need information on how material from the new supplier is running? Want to know why maintenance has jury-rigged a valve on a conveyor? It’s all captured in Poka.

Clean, Inspect, Lubricate (CIL)

Taking care of machinery is essential for preventing breakdowns, which boosts the availability component of OEE. The problem is, people may not know what to clean or lubricate, how often to do it or even what equipment is required.

A connected worker app like Poka puts easy-to-follow digital work instructions in the hands of production workers and maintenance technicians and ensures the CILs are taking place according to schedule. Need to know how to clean a piece of machinery? Want to know where and when to lubricate rods, linkages and bearings? Use a tablet to view annotated pictures, videos and instructions and set schedules and reminders.

Centerlining Validations

An important action for reducing quality losses, centerlining is about finding the optimal settings for each machine or process parameter. Once this information is available, the process is then “dialed-in” to ensure all product is within limits.

A connected worker app lets shifts share centerlining data and results with other shifts. It enables trend monitoring too, automatically flagging when a parameter is out of nominal range, which can indicate a need for corrective action.

Changeovers

Changeover time affects the availability portion of OEE. It can also increase material waste if too many setup parts are used.

A connected worker app ensures every shift has the same “best practice” checklists and changeover instructions. Poka’s ability to include pictures and video increases their value and supports training in changeovers, which can then be tracked in the skills management features of the app.

Many teams find knowing how quickly other groups can complete a changeover spurs them into trying to set new records!

Start of Production Checks

The new crew arrives for work. How long is it before the line starts back up?

Productivity data capture systems should have this information, but they won’t help bring the time down. A connected worker app will though.

The shift changeover process described above will help to provide context for any unplanned downtime or unresolved issues that will impact the start-up.. Rather than walking through the line, checking every piece of equipment and the status of every order, the new team has this information available on the app.

They’ll then be able to quickly run through the standard start-up checks efficiently and consistently. That saves time, helps reduce scrap and increases the availability and quality aspects of OEE.

End of Production Checks

The shift or production run is over and everything is winding down. Forms and checklists in Poka guide workers through emptying out and shutting down machines, conveyors and ovens so everything is left safe and ready for the next startup. Any maintenance needs observed during shutdown are logged as issues, notifications sent, and can even trigger a work order automatically in a CMMS.

The result? A defined shutdown process takes less time and lets the line run longer. Plus, there will be fewer start-up problems, better machine reliability and less product variation.

Cleaning in Place (CIP)

Cleaning in place is vitally important for food, beverage and other industries, both to keep consumers safe and to comply with regulatory requirements. Unfortunately, CIP eats into availability and reduces OEE. Paper checklists in a potentially messy environment are not practical nor efficient. Precious uptime is often lost when balls get dropped as a CIP crosses over between workers or shifts.

Used for capturing and sharing information on cleaning cycles, a connected worker platform can accelerate CIPs, and extend intervals between CIP cycles while still maintaining regulatory compliance. Another benefit is that the readily available SOPs for CIP ensure every shift follows the same best practices.

Minor Stops

Sometimes called “micro stoppages”, intermittent problems like jams and positioning errors can have a big impact on availability and quality. What’s needed is some quantification of the frequency and impact, and then a call to Maintenance for urgent attention. Unfortunately, these ‘small’ issues often go under the radar because it’s too much effort to report, track and manage them.

With a connected worker app, this becomes fast and easy. Every stoppage is quickly logged, along with photos, videos and notes on the cause and the solution. This information can then be shared with the maintenance team, helping them get to the root cause and quickly implement a permanent fix.

Autonomous Maintenance

Not every repair or adjustment needs an experienced maintenance technician. Some can be done by production operators, if given the right information.

Take guard removal for end-of-shift cleaning as an example. Rather than shutting down a line and waiting for the technician to visit each machine in turn, how about running longer, then having machine operators remove guards? All this requires is some instructions, ideally in the form of video, which Poka can provide, plus some simple tools. The result? More running time, higher productivity and better OEE.

Benefits of Connected Worker Apps for Overall Equipment Effectiveness

The nine use cases presented here have shown some of the ways Poka can boost productivity and raise OEE. To recap and summarize, the benefits are:

Easier access to important operational knowledge
Faster onboarding and training
Better collaboration across shifts, departments and plants
Higher levels of compliance with SOPs
Faster identification and resolution of problems
Visibility into improvement opportunities through data analytics

Getting started with a Connected Worker application is likely easier than you think. Digitizing forms and starting to capture and track issues can be done in a matter of days, while Poka's Generative AI capabilities can help accelerate the creation of digital work instructions from your existing SOPs.

Find More Production Improvement Opportunities

These operations use cases are just the start of how Poka can improve performance and efficiency in production. A connected worker application can and should be leveraged across Safety, Learning & Development, Maintenance, Quality and Continuous Improvement to ensure optimal performance throughout the value stream. Learn more about Poka for these other use cases by clicking below.

To learn more about how Poka's Connected Worker platform can improve OEE , drive productivity and streamline your operations, contact one of our dedicated experts today!

New Strategies for Driving Continuous

Improvement in Your Factory

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