Supply Chain Wizard (SCW, supplychainwizard.com), a full-service global consulting firm specializing in serialization and traceability, supply chain strategy and operational transformation programs, introduces a user friendly yet powerful OEE Tracker, an analytics-based tool to improve the overall equipment efficiency of pharmaceutical packaging and manufacturing lines in a cost-effective, expedited fashion.

As manufacturers continue to implement serialization and traceability solutions, including the outfitting and upgrading of packaging machinery, line efficiency is negatively impacted.  Since production performance is a key factor in profitability, solutions for improving overall efficiency are in high demand from manufactures of all sizes. 

Supply Chain Wizard’s operator-friendly OEE Tracker is a simple, cost-effective means of measuring and improving line efficiency by uncovering and honing line-specific best practices.  The solution amounts to a business-bolstering way to utilize the vast amounts of data generated by systems necessary to stay compliant with modern-day regulations, especially those pertaining to serialization and aggregation.

“The key to OEE improvement is the digitization of manual data collection methods, along with the utilization of data sharing and reporting tools,” says Evren Ozkaya, CEO of Supply Chain Wizard.  “Sharing these digitized results greatly increases effective communication between line operators, engineers and managers, and helps them make thoughtful, data-driven decisions for improving efficiency.”

After initial customer consultation, Supply Chain Wizard can configure and deliver an OEE Tracker in one day.  As the tool tracks each operator activity/task, real-time data is collected across sites and lines and displayed in dashboards. In effect, the OEE Tracker is a complete Digital Factory that captures data from operators, equipment and line-mounted wireless sensors, then processes and visualizes this data in dashboards and reports.

Eight predefined reports provide details of OEE performance, exceptions and root causes of discovered shortcomings, with “live view” and “historical view” dashboards highlighting issues as well as opportunities.  The OEE Tracker also offers an advanced analytics package that supports scheduling optimization and “keep or buy” decisions for best asset replacement and predictive maintenance.

Essentially, Supply Chain Wizard’s OEE Tracker tool offers a replacement for the Excel files and manual recordkeeping still prevalent on many production sites today; by freeing up the time managers would otherwise dedicate to data gathering and reporting, productivity & data accuracy are greatly enhanced.  For example, site managers using the OEE Tracker can regularly meet with production teams to discuss live results, compare line and site performance, visualize key performance indicators, and track work orders and schedules.  In doing so, they support operators and supervisors in targeting the real root causes of bottlenecks and downtime, significantly increasing overall efficiency.

“Our OEE Tracker is the logical next step up from traditional efficiency monitoring methods,” says Aytac Atac, digital innovation manager, Supply Chain Wizard.  “It reflects years of expertise focused 100% on pharma production.  Affordable for even small manufacturing sites with limited production lines, we provide installation and training in a single day for each line, so customers can start measuring and improving OEE almost instantly.”