Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Making the right adjustments

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1 Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Making the right adjustments In capital-intensive fields such as the packaging industry, pressure to increase the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is rising. We talked to Valeska Haux from MULTIVAC about what factors and parameters have a positive influence on OEE. Ms Haux, overall equipment effectiveness is becoming steadily more significant as a module for production controlling. What can packaging machinery manufacturers do to help optimize OEE? Valeska Haux, Multivac Haux: What most users find particularly important is to limit set-up and tooling downtime to a minimum, or to maximize the output of their machinery. As outfitters and providers, however, there are many more adjustments that we can make in order to optimize the OEE of our packaging machinery and the lines in which they are integrated. These include the factors of automation, process and quality assurance, operator kindliness, and not least optimizing the resources used such as energy, water or packaging materials. Let us first consider the aspect of plant availability. What solutions are there to reduce setup-related machinery downtimes? Haux: MULTIVAC offers a very wide range of systems here, for example our proven drawer system or the automatic mould plate changeover system. In addition, for our deep-drawing packaging machinery we have developed a multiple station concept where absolutely no new set-up or re-tooling in the classic sense is necessary any more because the form-giving machinery components are arranged in series behind one another and can simply be switched on and off via the machine control. The use of additional tool-changing facilities admittedly involves a higher investment, but makes a significant contribution to reducing the set-up times and hence machinery downtime costs. AFT Quarterly 2/2013 Page 1 of 5

2 Can you quantify this? Haux: We have ascertained the following guiding values for changing the shaping bottom part in the moulding station. If the time outlay for manual changing of the bottom part of the tool is, say, about 20 minutes, then this time input can be reduced by about 50 per cent by using the drawer system or the automatic mould plate changeover system. But not all downtime is due to re-tooling Haux: That s right, and we are seeking solutions for such cases too. For example, if the operating personnel take a break, this is planned downtime during which the machine need not necessarily continue running. So we can equip the IPC 06 control of our R 535 with a standby function that turns the heating systems of the packaging machine to resting mode. The machine only warms up again when this is necessary. The timing of this function can be preset. What adjustments are you making in order to improve the performance of your packaging machinery? Haux: In addition to the appropriate format design of our tools, we try to automate as many processes as possible. Furthermore, using servo motor drives can also help to increase performance. This applies in particular for the lift units and for cutting in our deep-drawing packaging machinery. What advantages does this have for the performance of a packaging machine? Haux: Well, the movement cycles of a lift unit that is operated by servo motor can be regulated very precisely as regards speed and opening width. As a result we can adapt the lift unit movements perfectly to the respective application and the material to be processed and can then save these data in the setting memory of the machine control. Taken together, this contributes to increasing the machine performance, but also boosts process safety. In the food industry the topic of hygiene is one of the crucial factors for process safety and product quality. What role does this play in connection with OEE? Haux: All machines from MULTIVAC comply with our proven MULTIVAC Hygiene Design TM. This joins up all design measures that contribute to satisfying the stringent hygiene requirements of the food industry. Despite this, we as manufacturers can optimize aspects here too. For example, during the last few years we have developed the integrated Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) system. This patented system ensures precise, reproducible hygiene that delivers a maximum of protection for consumers at distinctly lower labour and cost outlay. Such a system can also enhance the product quality and performance of the machine. At the beginning you also mentioned quality assurance. How do your systems contribute to quality assurance? AFT Quarterly 2/2013 Page 2 of 5

3 Haux: As already mentioned, quality has a lot to do with reproducible processes, but also with reliable control and monitoring, which we integrate into our packaging lines in the form of inspection systems. The MULTIVAC Group has a broad spectrum of such systems through its subsidiary MULTIVAC Marking & Inspection. These include check weighers, metal detectors, X-ray inspection systems and the MULTIVAC Vision System MVS. With MULTIVAC Track-and-Trace TM we can also equip our deep-drawing packaging machinery for traceability marking. The more components are integrated in a line, the more complex the interplay between product supply, handling, marking and inspection and the packaging machinery becomes. Isn t this where the largest sources of error exist that can reduce the OEE? Haux: That s true. Such interplay can only function optimally in the spirit of high OEE if all automation components are precisely coordinated with one another, and controlled and synchronized centrally. That is why we network all modules of a line to a synchronous system architecture that can be expanded at any time. Users can operate all the components and functions we supply via a single man-machine interface, the user terminal HMI 2.0. We have already realized turn-key solutions for many of our customers. To what extent does the topic of operability contribute to overall equipment effectiveness? Haux: The user kindliness or ergonomics of a packaging machine play a key role in all three factors of OEE availability, performance and quality. Poor ergonomics lead to poor processes, and these in turn lead to losses in productivity or quality. In the worst case, functions offered by the machine are not used because the user either does not find them or cannot handle them. Experience has shown that the more confident a staff member feels in operating the machine, the higher the process safety and packaging quality. That is why it is important to have machines that can be operated as simply as possible, even by unskilled staff. Does HMI 2.0 also give operators an insight into the OEE of their system too? Haux: In principle, yes. Our HMI 2.0 can be equipped with an OEE monitoring tool. With this, the operator of our facility has for instance the option of saving planned machinery downtimes and investigating deviations from the actual downtimes. The causes of machinery downtimes can also be analyzed. In this way potentials for optimizing can be identified and implemented. Speaking of conservation of resources Haux: By overall equipment efficiency we not only understand the higher performance, quality and availability, but also always try to consider OEE from a wider perspective. What else can we optimize? Of course the energy and material flows. That is why for example we have implemented design measures to reduce energy and resource consumption in the deepdrawing packaging machine R 535 e-concept TM. Moreover, the new machine concept uses less fresh water than conventional machines and also makes better use of the film material used. AFT Quarterly 2/2013 Page 3 of 5

4 Can you quantify potentials for savings? Haux: Via the cooling water flow control we can reduce the fresh water consumption of the machine by up to 50 per cent. In addition, depending on the tool design, we can reduce film consumption by about 5 to 10 per cent. What measures do you apply here? Haux: We have equipped both the sealing station and the strip puncher with a servo-motor process facility. This measure enables us to reduce the partition widths between the packag- AFT Quarterly 2/2013 Page 4 of 5

5 ings. In addition, thanks to a new tool geometry we can reduce the width of the sealing flange. On top of this we have introduced a new suction and gassing solution in the sealing tool of the R 535. This has led to a reduction in the width of the edge strip of the packaging film. Thank you for this interview. Contact: Multivac Sepp Haggenmüller GmbH & Co. KG Valeska Haux valeska.haux@multivac.de AFT Quarterly 2/2013 Page 5 of 5