Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

Machine efficiency and man power utilization on production lines

SIVA KUMAR A/L SUBRAMANIAM 1 , SITI HUZAIMAH BINTI HUSIN 2,

YUSMARNITA BINTI YUSOP 3, ABDUL HAMID BIN HAMIDON 4
1, 2, 3
Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
4
Professor, Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
MALAYSIA

[email protected]

Abstract: - Efficiency of industrial production lines is crucial as it results in an improved production and
utilization of available resources. Factors contributing to production line efficiency are manpower utilization
and machine efficiency. Measuring the machine efficiency and man power utilization should be on-line,
accurate and truthful. The management should be able to look for relevant production data and to accurately
interpret these data in order to identify the various faults at production level and to immediately take steps to
improve efficiency. However, faults are overwritten and reports are retouched with inaccurate information. An
accurate and on line data management system can ensure that these problems are overcome.

Key-Words: - Machine efficiency, man power utilization, industrial production line, data management system.

1 Production system in industries output. Thus, such process lines demand expert and
professional people in designing and maintaining the
A production line is a set of sequential process system.
established on an industrial shop floor. A
production process or a manufacturing process is the
transformation of raw materials or components into 2 Production line inefficiency
finished products. The stages in a production
process involve procurement, fabrication, assembly,
testing, packaging and distribution. The production Production line
or manufacturing lines in industries can be
categories into three type’s i.e. automated
production lines, semi-automated production lines
and manual production lines.The nature of a
production line depends on the complexity of the
manufacturing parts, the production volume, the Machine efficiency Man power utilization
sensitivity of the product and cost. Industries’
Supporting Operator /
management plan and layout their production lines department workers
according to specific production requirements.

Modernization of industries introduced new Fig. 1 Factors affecting production lines

technologies to ease human on the production lines.
Industries have installed machineries to assist Analyses are carried out by the management on
workers. This is known as semi- automated process production line problems almost daily and counter
lines. Automated process lines are designed to measures are taken to further strengthen the
operate with fewer workers. This can cut cost in the performance of the production line. Analysis is
long run. A fully automated process line is designed simplified when data is translated into various
to fulfill mass production output and is ideally suited categories base on critical factors which affects the
to serve large. Machineries for automated production production lines. The factors affecting production
process such as robots are capable of working for lines can be categorized into three as shown in fig. 1.
long duration at a consistent rate of production

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Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

2.1 Machine efficiency 2.2.2 Operators or workers

Machine efficiency is one of the factors that are Human performance varies from time to time
frequently overlooked by the management and this depending on their capability and duration of work.
can lead towards losses which reduces the yield [1], When the performance of a worker drops, the
[2]. Improper maintenance of machines will result in production output also drops. Improper monitoring
low standards of produced parts and increases the of workers will result in low standards of production
maintenance of machines. Machines are meant to output and will increase the maintenance of
work efficiently, but in some circumstances machineries. The major factor contributing to this is
machines can be less productive due to improper the attitude of the workers themselves. Most of the
preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance is a workers tend to perform in an average manner and
key factor that keeps the machine running efficiently for most of the time they will be less productivity
through the production process. The maintenance and this will result towards wastage of the planned
activity on machines needs extra attention by the production time [3].
management along with the responsible personnel to
ensure optimum usage of machineries which will
eliminate unwanted wastages due to machine 3 Production breakdown
stoppages.
Some industries operate in two 12 hours shifts or
2.2 Manpower utilization operate in three 8 hours shifts a day. The planned
shift length can be divided into two, which is the
Humans play a major role on the industrial shop Planned Downtime and Planned Operation Time.
floor especially when it comes to meeting targets. Planned downtime is a duration of time where the
Humans in the production floor can be divided into management has decided to stop the production
two categories which are workers or operators on the process due to certain commitments such as
production line and the workers in the supporting preventive maintenances, improvement projects, low
department. in production order and etc. Planned operation time
is the proposed time for production process by the
2.2.1 Supporting department management. Generally the planned operation time
can be divided into two which is actual operation
Humans capitalize most of the process on time and unplanned downtime. Both these factors
industries from the management to the layman are the major concern for the management when it
(operators). An industrial environment is one in comes to measuring machine efficiency and man
which there are a large number of people from power utilization. Industries try to maximize the
various departments working together to meet set actual operation time and minimize the unplanned
goals. When it comes to unmet goals, fingers should downtime to improve their capacity in all means [4].
also be pointed to the supporting department as they The production duration can be categorized as
also contribute to this matter. The supporting shown in fig. 2.
departments play their role in maintaining the
consistent pace of work on the industrial shop floor. Planned Shift Length

There are three basic departments in industries Planned

Planned Operation Time Downtime
which are the Total Quality Management (TQM),
Production Planning and Control (PPC) and
Maintenance. The TQM involves all the quality Actual Operation Unplanned
matters of the parts produced. The PPC involves in Time Downtime
planning the production process and supplies base
on orders. The maintenance department is
responsible on all the technical matters on the
industrial shop floor. Most of the industries face Fig. 2 General breakdown of a production shift
problem due to unforeseen damages that the
company will face if a task is not done on scheduled
basis.

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Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

4 Measuring machine efficiency several minutes long enough to log as a traceable

event). This includes equipment failures, material
When it comes to manufacturing process, shortages and changeover time. Change over time is
machineries is a very common word in industry included in OEE analysis, since it is a form of
especially for higher rate of production output. Since downtime. While it may not be possible to eliminate
the investment in machineries is high, industries try changeover time, in most cases it can be reduced.
to maximize their usage in the shortest time possible. The remaining available time is called actual
Even the management in industries around the world operation time. Availability is the ratio of operation
strives towards the optimization of machineries yet time which is simply planned operation time less
this is not to their concern when targets are met. The downtime to planned operation time and accounts
awareness on true data on machine efficiency is for downtime loss. Availability is calculated as in (1)
neglected and the results are unwanted purchases of [2], [4], [7], [11] - [13].
machines. These could be avoided if only the true
Actual Operation Time (1)
data is analyzed and counter measures are taken by Availability =
the responsible personnel. Planned Operation Time

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a 4.2 Performance

preeminent practice for monitoring and improving
efficiency of the manufacturing processes such as Performance takes into account speed loss which
machines, cells, assembly lines and etc. OEE is includes any factors that cause the process to operate
simple and practical yet a powerful calculation tool. at less then the maximum possible speed or rated
It takes the most common sources of manufacturing speed when running. This includes machine wear,
productivity losses and places them into three substandard materials, misfeeds and operator
understandable categories which are Availability, inefficiency. The remaining available time is called
Performance and Quality [5]. By doing so, it distills actual operation time. So performance is the ratio of
complex production data into simple understandable actual operation time to planned operating time, and
metrics that provide a gauge for measuring true accounts for speed loss. Machine Ideal cycle time is
manufacturing efficiency. It also forms the the minimum cycle time that the process can be
foundation for tools that help to improve expected to achieve under optimal conditions for a
productivity [6] – [10]. given part. Therefore when it is multiplied by total
pieces the result is actual operation time. Machine
From fig 2, the Planned Downtime is subtracted Ideal cycle time is sometimes called design cycle
from total Planned Shift Length. This includes all time or nameplate capacity. Since rate is the
events that should be excluded from efficiency reciprocal of cycle time, Performance is calculated
analysis because there is no intention of running as in (2) [2], [4], [7], [11] - [13].
production (meal breaks, scheduled maintenance and
when the management decides to stop production). (Machine Ideal Cycle Time x
The remaining time is Planned Operation time as per Performance = Total Pieces Produced) (2)
in the production schedule. All events that stop Planned Operation Time
planned production for a length of time falls under
Unplanned Downtime. The possibilities of such 4.3 Quality
events are equipment failures/breakdowns, quality
problems, material shortages, and most importantly, Quality takes into account quality loss which
changeover time. Changeover time is the time accounts for produced pieces that do not meet
wasted in between shifts i.e. a form of downtime that quality standards including pieces that require
can be reduced. The remaining time is called Actual rework. The remaining time is called actual
Operation Time which is the effective production productive time. The ultimate goal is to maximize
duration. actual productive time. Quality is the ratio of actual
productive time (time for good pieces produced) to
4.1 Availability planned operation time (time for total pieces).
Quality is calculated as in (3) [2], [4], [7], [11]
Availability takes into account downtime loss
which includes any events that stop production Good Pieces Produced (3)
process for an appreciable length of time (usually Quality =
Total Pieces Produced

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Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

4.4 Overall Equipment Effectiveness restricted word in industries because they will lead
towards cost factor. Rejection can be categorized
Availability, performance and quality combined into two which is reject rework and this usually falls
into one OEE score and this single number provides on parts that can’t be repaired to maintain base on
a complete measure of machine efficiency. OEE is the customer’s specification. The second reject is
the ratio of actual production time to planned reject scrap which is total lost part and these parts
production time. OEE is calculated as in (4) [2], [4], are waste materials. Such facts will affect the output
[7], [12] - [13]. when it comes to tight end.

OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality (4) The PPC involves in planning the production
process and supplies base on orders. When parts are
not ordered base on demand then the production
5 Measuring man power utilization process will be effected when the raw parts are
running short. The most crucial task of this
Sufficient production data is used in assisting department is to plan the production process base on
operators especially in informing operator of their daily targets. Wise production line management is
performance to date. Apart from that the data will important for this team to sustain.
also be able to guide the operator to maintain a
consistent pace throughout the day and this will The maintenance department is responsible for
result in a better implementation of work morale all technical matters on the industrial shop floor.
among the employees. Once the operators have been Preventive maintenance is the important task for this
tuned to react according to the management’s set department whereby the machine has to be checked
goals, this will automatically eliminate wasted time on timely basis to ensure optimum performance of
and hence produce more units per hour. the machines. This is to reduce machine parts
replacements. Apart from that the most critical
Essentially human capitalize nearly all the matter on industries is safety. When a machine is out
process on the industrial shop floor from the of shape, the higher chances for the human who
management to the layman (operators). Visualizing operates it will be injured.
an industrial environment which includes a big
number of people from various departments working 5.1 Operators or workers utilization
together in meeting the set goals. When it comes to
unmet goals, fingers are not to be pointed to an Operators or workers utilization falls under man
individual, whereby the supporting department also power utilization which includes any factors that
has their contribution on this matter. Monitoring of cause the production process to operate at less then
supporting departments in industries is another the maximum possible speed base on the time study
factor which should be taken in account for or cycle time. The major factor on measuring the
improving the production performance. By knowing performance of human workers is the operator’s
their performance, the departments can be aware of inefficiency. Base on fig 6 the man power utilization
the problems arising and counter measures can be is measured from the duration of actual operation
taken to further improve their working quality. The time. For manual process lines, man power
supporting departments play an equal role as the utilization is the ratio of actual production output to
production team in order to maintain the consistence target production output as in (5).
pace of work on the industrial shop floor. There are
three basic departments in industries which are the Man Power Actual Production Output (5)
=
total quality management (TQM), production Utilization Target Production Output
planning and control (PPC), maintenance and adding
to that is others (vendors) also is added to the list as For semi automated process lines, man power
one of the major contribution on production utilization is slightly different from (5) where by the
interruption. operators ideal cycle time is the minimum cycle time
that the process can be expected to achieve under
The TQM involves all the quality matters of the optimal conditions for a given process. This is due to
parts produced. When a machine is not calibrated the combination of humans and machine to perform
base on specification or irregular inspection on the a specific task on the same work station. Man power
parts produced it will result in higher rate of utilization should be separated from the machine
rejection or parts near to perfect. Rejection is a

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Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

performance for easy analysis. Therefore when it is OEE Factor Actual OEE Target OEE
multiplied by total pieces produced the result is
actual operation time. Man power utilization for Availability 83.96 % 85.00 %
semi automated process lines is calculated as in (6). Performance 42.70 % 90.00 %
Quality 57.89 % 95.00 %
(Operators Ideal Cycle Time x (6)
Total Pieces Produced) Overall OEE 20.75 % 73.00 %
Man Power
= Actual Operation Time –
Utilization
(Machine Ideal Cycle Time x Table 1 Data on machine overall efficiency
Total Pieces Produced)
6.2 Data on man power
5.2 Performance of supporting department
Table 2 shows the actual performance of the
Supporting departments in industrial are divided operator on a certain shift is 22.35%. Based on this,
into 3 basic departments and the performance should the management could optimize their human capital.
be measured individually before analyses are carried From the data collected in table 2, the management
out. Performance of the supporting department is can easily trace the major contributor for unmet
calculated as in (7) where by the down time for a targets. The management can also differentiate table
specific department is subtracted from planned 1 with table 2 for more details analysis to identify
operation time and divided by planned operation the root cause of the unmet targets.
time. This formula is a common formula for all
Factor Calculated Data Performance
types of process lines in industries.
Man Power (19 x 3) / 445
= 22.35 %
Utilization - (19 x 10)
(Planned Operation Time
Performance of – Down Time) (7)
=
Supporting Department Table 2 Data on man power utilization
Planned Operation Time

6.3 Data on the supporting departments

6 Sample data Table 3 shows the individual performance of all
the supporting departments involved in the
6.1 Data on machineries production process on a particular shift. The actual
performance of the production planning and control
Data distributed in table 1 shows the departments and others is at 100%. The actual
performance of a machine. By inserting these data performance of the maintenance department is at
into formulae discussed in the previous section. 98.11% and the highest down time contributor is the
Detail breakdowns affecting the machine can be total quality management department which is at
visualized. Analyzing the data shown in table 1 85.85%. Such valuable information in table 3, will
clearly indicates that the overall equipment be sufficient for the management to attempt on
effectiveness of the machine used as the test bed is at rational actions to ensure improvements can be seen
20.75%. From table 1, the machines availability is at on the process line.
83.96% followed by quality of parts produced is at
57.89 % and the worst is on the machine
performance at 42.70 %. Base on the collected data, Department Calculated Data Performance
it is very clear that none of the factors have complied Total Quality 530 – 75 /
= 85.85 %
the set targets. This implied that the true Management 530
performance of the machine is at a very poor Production
condition and if necessary measures are taken by the Planning 530 – 0 / 530 = 100.00 %
& Control
responsible personnel, then the improvement could
be seen by the management. Stage by stage all the Others 530 – 0 / 530 = 100.00 %
figures in this factors can be corrected to improve 530 – 10 /
Maintenance = 98.11 %
efficiency of the machine. Once the factor of OEE is 530
broken down into categories, analysis is simplified
by tracing the crucial factor affecting the machine. Table 3 Data on the supporting departments

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Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, ELECTRONICS, CONTROL and SIGNAL PROCESSING (CSECS'08)

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