In the calculation for Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) under which category is the time for unplanned breakdowns captured?

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a widely used metric that helps organizations measure the efficiency of their manufacturing processes. It is broken down into three primary components: Availability, Performance, and Quality.

The category of Availability specifically captures the time lost due to unplanned breakdowns. It reflects the percentage of scheduled operating time that is actually available for production. When equipment experiences unplanned downtime—such as machine failures or unexpected breakdowns—this directly affects the Availability metric. Therefore, unplanned breakdowns are critical contributors to the calculation of Availability, as they reduce the amount of time that equipment can be utilized effectively.

In contrast, the Performance category measures the speed at which the manufacturing process operates compared to its optimal speed, while the Quality category assesses the proportion of products that meet quality standards out of the total products produced. The Overall category is simply the combined metric that includes all three components but does not specify the individual contributions of breakdowns, hence focusing on Availability is essential for a complete understanding of OEE in relation to unplanned breakdowns.