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Operational metrics evolve as enterprises scale

Key performance indicators are expanding across the enterprise.

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As management guru Peter Drucker wrote, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” This adage has never been truer as food and beverage companies emphasize plant utilization after years of consolidation. However, more sensors and advanced industrial networking are also producing challenges in analyzing mountains of plant data.

With the digital transformation underway, key performance indicators (KPIs) are evolving and expanding across the enterprise.

“Multiple systems make it difficult to accurately compare performance via KPI metrics from plant to plant,” says Keith Chambers, director of operations, execution software and industry business at Schneider Electric. “This comparison is exactly what is necessary to implement long-term manufacturing IT cost-reduction and digitization strategies.”

The decades-old metric of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) — availability x performance x quality — is a good fit for high-speed production lines in food and beverage plants, especially for companies with multiple production plants.

“Implementing a system to manage OEE is a minimum requirement to begin a digital transformation across a multisite manufacturing enterprise,” says Chambers. “Companies that are rolling out OEE as a multiplant initiative can utilize this approach as a platform for future digital operations management, process improvement and support programs.”

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