At what point are we going to run out of discrete manufacturing acronyms?
Despite what may already feel like an overwhelming alphabet soup, Simon Holloway gives us two more in a recent article posted to IT Director: CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). For those who prefer to live in an acronym-less world, you are in luck as these acronyms easily combine into just one overall discipline: plant maintenance.
CMSS and OEE basically address two different sides of the plant maintenance coin: CMSS aims to create a database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations, while OEE is aimed at measuring actual machine performance.
I posted before about how proper plant maintenance leads to overall better plant performance. By leveraging plant maintenance best practices, many manufacturers actually improved plant operations and business metrics during our recent economic downturn.
Allowing these best practices to be guided by plant maintenance solutions afforded companies the ability to make the decisions necessary to prevent equipment breakdown and improve the efficiency and productivity of staff.
Overall, it really doesn’t matter what we’re calling the solutions and systems we use, as long as they are in place and providing us the data we need to make proactive decisions. Regardless of lettering, plant maintenance ultimately spells out Peak Plant Potential – or – PPP.
I’d welcome your thoughts on the importance of plant maintenance, or any new discrete manufacturing acronyms.
Peter van Leeuwen
