Overall equipment efficiency improvement using time study in an aerospace industry

• Main Authors: A. Perumal, Puvanasvaran, Chiang, Ze Mei, Andiappan, Alagendran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2013
• Subjects: TS Manufactures
• Online Access: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/10802/1/MITC_paper.pdf; http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/10802/; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187770581302033X
• Institution: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

This paper highlights a methodology used to improve the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) of the autoclave process through the implementation of time studies. In this paper, two types of time study are employed where the initial time study conducted was the direct stopwatch time study used to validate the current OEE standard. Maynard’s Operation Sequencing Technique (MOST) is then adopted to conduct the secondary time study. MOST study revealed the significant value added and non-value added activities at each sub process which conclude to the standard prior to improvement steps. In the final stage, MOST is used once again to evaluate the percentage of improvement contributed to the OEE. The major findings of this paper is that the significant problem in computing the OEE is the inaccuracy of the data used and the lack of a medium to evaluate the improvement ideas before it is implemented. MOST is an effective method to evaluate and show the gain from the improvement ideas proposed without investing in costly implementations. The limitation of this study is mainly concerned with the direct stopwatch time study performed during the initial stage as it might varies from one person to another. The other concern is that the operation steps performed might be different from one labor to another which might contribute to the variation of the time studies performed. A MOST methodology is adapted to identify the value added and non-value added activities. The use of MOST encompassed the overall study from the time study step until the evaluation of final outcome.