Relationship Between Employees Participation and Overall Equipment Effectiveness: An Empirical Study

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a hierarchy of metrics which focus on how effectively a manufacturing operation is utilized. OEE breaks the performance of a manufacturing unit into three separate but measurable components: Availability, Performance, and Quality. Each component points to an aspect of the process that can be targeted for improvement. OEE measurement is also commonly used as a key performance indicator (KPI) in conjunction with lean manufacturing efforts to provide an indicator of success. Nevertheless human related dynamics have not been accounted for direct impact on this metric. A case study was conducted in order to establish the relationship between OEE and work practices like participation, organization and association. Results indicate that the level of employees' participation is a predictor for OEE quantitative results.