Overall Task Effectiveness: a new Lean performance indicator in engineer-to-order environment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a new Lean metric named Overall Task Effectiveness (OTE), which can help analyst to define target task times and to identify the hidden losses that account for most of the recorded time of manual assembly activities. Design/methodology/approach An alternative classification structure of the losses is developed to divide them in two classes. In the first one the losses that are external to the project order are included, and in the other one those due to inefficiencies directly ascribable to the project order are considered. Starting from this classification structure of the losses, a novel Lean metric, inspired from the well-known Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), is developed to evaluate the effectiveness of a manual assembly task. A case study, which briefly explains the methodology and illustrates the capability of the corresponding metric, is provided. Findings This tool can be considered a suitable method to achieve simultaneously a dual purpose to establish time standards and to identify the hidden losses that account for most of the recorded time of manual assembly activities, estimating the impacts of potential corrective actions in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. Practical implications OTE provides practitioners with an operative tool useful to highlight the points where the major inefficiencies take place in industries producing large complex items via manual assembly lines. Its practical application is demonstrated using a case study concerning a manufacturer of train wagons. Originality/value One distinctive, and contemporarily appealing, feature of OTE with respect to other analogous KPIs is that it provides a breakdown structure for process losses that simplifies the task of evaluating the current performances and, at the same time, individuates both the source of losses and the corresponding corrective actions.

Criticality assessment of the barriers to Lean Construction

“…For construction companies that wish to begin their Lean journey, many studies have presented different pathways for its deployment. However, what is not noted by many enthusiasts is that often the planned result is not achieved (Hines et al, 2018;Salhieh and Abdallah, 2019;Braglia et al, 2019). This fact occur due to many factors, such as partial deployment, the difficulty of maintaining the improvements achieved, and the failure to understand that Lean is a philosophy based on continuous improvement (Meiling et al, 2012).…”

Overall Equipment Effectiveness: Systematic Literature Review and Overview of Different Approaches

“…It is also used as a KPI and data collection tool to measure the effectivity and process capability of new six sigma implementations [61]. Following the methodology of continuous improvement, Braglia et al (2019) [7] developed a new metric based on OEE, known as overall task effectiveness. This new indicator supports lean and six sigma methodologies to identify, analyze and evaluate losses that occur during manual assembly activities.…”

“…OEE is a productivity ratio between real manufacturing and what could be ideally manufactured [6]. This indicator is widely accepted as a tool by some companies, e.g., when implementing lean manufacturing [7] or maintenance programs [5] to monitor the actual…”

Revised overall labour effectiveness

“…In lean projects, the analysis of losses represents a central aspect of any real-world implementation, since it allows to boost the performance of the available resources. Therefore, a great deal of effort has been devoted to defining appropriate methods and tools that could capture and explain at the same time the true source of any loss (see, for instance, Braglia et al , 2019). What resources need to boost their performance is, however, a rather uneasy task, due to the great number of involved factors and all their possible interactions.…”

“…Nowadays, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is undoubtedly the most widely known lean metric able to measure the performance of machines (De Ron and Rooda, 2006; Sharma et al , 2006). Although Nakajima (1988) introduced it several years ago within total productive maintenance (TPM) initiatives, OEE is still receiving attention by both academicians and practitioners (Binti Aminuddin et al , 2016; Ylipää et al , 2017; Braglia et al , 2019; Tsarouhas, 2019). Its noticeable importance, which makes it more a methodology than a simple KPI, depends on the fact that knowing exactly where wastes occur is the indispensable step to eliminate them.…”