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What Is OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)?

OEE is a standardized metric that measures the percentage of planned production time that is truly productive. It was developed as part of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) framework and has become the gold standard for benchmarking manufacturing efficiency.

OEE captures three dimensions of performance in a single score:

• Availability: Was the machine running when it was supposed to be?

• Performance: When it was running, was it running at its intended speed?

• Quality: Of the parts produced, how many were good on the first pass?

A perfect OEE score of 100% means your machine ran the entire scheduled time, at full speed, producing only good parts. In practice, world-class manufacturers target 85% or higher.

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How to Calculate OEE

The Three Components

Availability = (Run Time ÷ Planned Production Time) × 100

Performance = (Ideal Cycle Time × Total Parts Produced) ÷ Run Time × 100

Quality = (Good Parts ÷ Total Parts Produced) × 100

OEE Formula

OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality

Example: If your machine has 90% Availability, 95% Performance, and 99% Quality:

OEE = 0.90 × 0.95 × 0.99 = 84.6%

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Notice how three individually strong numbers produce a composite score that still has meaningful room for improvement. This is why OEE is so valuable — it reveals the compounding effect of small losses across multiple dimensions.

Why Use an OEE Calculator?

Calculating OEE manually requires collecting three separate data streams (runtime, cycle time, quality data), performing multiple calculations, and then aggregating results across shifts, machines, and time periods. For most shops, doing this by hand is impractical at scale.

An OEE calculator — especially one connected to real machine data — gives you:

• Automatic calculation of Availability, Performance, and Quality for every machine, every shift

• A clear view of where your biggest losses are occurring (downtime? slow cycles? scrap?)

• Trend data so you can measure whether your improvement efforts are working

• Benchmarking across machines and cells to identify your best and worst performers

• A common language for operators, supervisors, and leadership to discuss production performance

OEE also creates accountability. When everyone can see the score, improvement becomes a shared goal rather than a management directive.

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How Caddis Systems Helps You Track OEE

How Caddis Systems Can Help

• Automatically calculates OEE for every machine, every shift — no spreadsheets, no manual entry

• Breaks OEE down into its three components so you can see exactly where losses are occurring

• Displays live OEE scores on shop floor dashboards visible to operators and supervisors in real time

• Tracks OEE trends over days, weeks, and months to measure the impact of improvement initiatives

• Generates OEE reports by machine, cell, shift, or operator for targeted analysis

• Identifies your top and bottom performing machines so you can focus improvement efforts where they matter most

• Supports lean and TPM programs with the data infrastructure needed to drive continuous improvement

Caddis Systems starts at $100/month per machine — making real-time OEE tracking accessible to small and mid-sized manufacturers who previously couldn't justify the cost of enterprise monitoring software.

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