How do you select the right OEE system?

You choose the right OEE system by starting from the results you want to achieve. Look for eight things in a system:

1. is easy to use on the shop floor,

2. has reliable data,

3. delivers in-depth loss analysis,

4. provides real-time insights,

5. matches your machine park,

6. can be integrated with other systems,

7. supports daily management,

8. is scalable so you can start simply and then grow into more advanced functionality.

Then test the vendors against your actual production, not against polished demos.

Choosing an OEE system is one of the more strategic decisions a production or plant manager makes. The right system becomes the engine for continuous improvement in the factory for many years to come. The wrong system turns into a reporting burden that no one uses and, in the worst case, is replaced after just a couple of years.

Remember that an OEE system should not merely be a measuring instrument. It is a vital tool for continuous improvement work.

Where do you start when choosing an OEE system?

Start with the goal. The most common pitfall in an OEE project is starting with a list of requirements.

Operator interfaces, dashboards, integration capabilities, report formats. The list grows long, vendors check off the boxes, and the choice falls on the one with the most ticks.

The final reckoning shows something else. The plants that gain the most from their investment started at the opposite end. They asked themselves what they wanted to achieve. More capacity from existing equipment. Shorter changeover times. Less scrap and rework. Better maintenance insight. Clearer priorities in improvement work. More reliable production data for shifts, lines, and teams.

When you know what result you are pursuing, the requirements list becomes a consequence, not a starting point. You can evaluate each feature against the question: “Does this help us get where we want to go?” rather than “Does it have this feature?”

What should you look for in an OEE system?

1. Easy to use on the shop floor

This point determines more than any other whether the system will create value. If operators find the interface cumbersome, data quality drops quickly. Downtime is coded incorrectly, or not at all. The “Other” category expands. Improvement work stalls.

Good operator tools make four things easy. They allow operators to classify downtime without searching through menus. They let them add comments in just a few seconds. They manage scrap and rework in the same view. They make uncoded stops immediately visible so they are not forgotten.

At Orkla Nidar, confectionery manufacturers in Norway since 1912, one of the clearest insights was that operators could eliminate the “Other” category from reporting as soon as they received a tool that made it easy to code the correct cause immediately and gain better, more actionable information about losses.

2. Reliable OEE logic and trustworthy data

Attractive dashboards are useless if the underlying data is weak. The system must handle planned production time, operating time, stops, speed losses, quality losses, changeovers, scrap, and rework correctly. It should also highlight poor data so you can identify and rectify inaccuracies, building confidence in your data. Missing downtime reasons, unscheduled activity, incorrect order management, and unrealistic speed patterns.

A good question to ask the vendor: “As a superuser, how do I see that data quality is slipping, and how quickly?” If the answer requires consulting services, keep looking.

3. In-depth loss analysis

Simply providing an OEE figure is not enough. You must be able to break down the number by stop reason, cause category, line, part, shift, machine component, and trend over time. You should be able to answer questions like these quickly and independently:

• Why does part A run worse on line 1 than on line 2?

• Which downtime reasons have increased over the last month?

• Which losses are frequent but brief?

• Which are rare but costly?

• Which technical issues recur on the same machine component?

In-depth loss analysis is the difference between reporting and acting. At Sibbhultsverken, OEE rose by 19.4% in one cell and technical stops decreased by 73%, precisely because they could break down losses to this level of detail and prioritise the right initiatives.

4. Real-time visibility supporting action

Real-time data only matters if someone can act upon it while the stop is ongoing. Stoppages, missing reason codes, lost production, and current order status. That is the difference between follow-up and control. Follow-up happens after the shift, often the next day. Control happens while the shift is running.

The question to ask: “What does the production supervisor see right now, and what action is being taken?”

5. Connectivity that matches your reality

Few factories have only modern, connected machines. Most have a mix. Modern PLC-controlled machines. Older equipment with basic signals or no signals at all. Semi-automated processes. Manual stations. The vendor must demonstrate how they handle the full spectrum, not just the easiest scenario.

Specific questions to ask:

• How do you connect new machines?

• How do you connect 20-year-old machines without modern interfaces?

• How do you handle semi-automated processes where the operator carries out part of the work?

• How do you support manual stations that need to be tracked?

• What is required from us in terms of IT?

• Are you ISO 27001 certified (information security)?

Platforms built for reality often have their own IoT solution that is straightforward to install. At System 3R, a Swedish tooling and automation company, a manual CNC machine was connected via Good Solutions’ IoT box, which plugs into 230 V and is configured via smartphone without IT support. The capacity of that machine was subsequently doubled.

6. Integrations that minimise manual work

The system must not become an isolated island. It should collaborate with your broader operations. Order data, item data, shift patterns, BI tools, and potentially ERP, MES, or maintenance systems. Questions to ask:

• How do we synchronise production orders?

• How do we manage master data and part information?

• Is there support for shift schedules and calendars?

• SSO and role-based access?

• Export to our BI tools?

• What are the API capabilities for future integrations?

7. Support for daily management and continuous improvement

This is where most vendors fall short. A system that merely reports OEE once a day changes nothing. A system that lives within daily operations does.

The platform must work effectively in shift handovers, daily stand-up meetings, production reviews, maintenance assessments, weekly improvement sessions, and management reporting. Different roles need different views. The operator wants to see the current order and stops.

The production supervisor wants to view the shift in real time. The continuous improvement lead wants to analyse trends and prioritised losses. Management wants to track performance against targets over time.

This is where lean principles and OEE converge. Plan, Do, Check, Act only functions if everyone in the cycle works from the same facts at the right time. The platform should make it straightforward to identify where standards are slipping, where improvements have yielded results, and where to direct the next initiative.

8. Scalability over time

The best choice is rarely the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that meets today’s needs and supports tomorrow’s ambitions. Think beyond the pilot. Questions to ask:

• Can the system scale across multiple lines, teams, and sites?

• Can we keep definitions consistent across the entire group?

• How have other corporate clients rolled it out?

• What happens to the data as we grow?

At SCA Wood, the platform was rolled out across five plants: Bollsta, Tunadal, Munksund, Gällö, and Stugun. The transition was conducted using parallel runs to verify the results, ensuring nothing was missed along the way. That is how a scalable solution should be managed.

What are the most common mistakes when buying an OEE system?

The most common mistakes are choosing dashboard design over usability, underestimating the operator workflow, assuming data quality resolves itself, and buying for monthly reporting rather than daily management. Experience from implementations in 300+ factories shows that the same errors recur. Here is how to avoid them.

Choosing dashboard design over usability. Demos are often staged. What matters is how operators use the system on an ordinary working day.

Underestimating the operator workflow. If the interface requires more clicks than strictly necessary, data quality degrades immediately.

Assuming data quality takes care of itself. It does not. Data quality requires tools, routines, and attention from day one.

Placing too little focus on machine connectivity. This is often the hidden cost in an OEE project. Ask specifically how connection is achieved, what you must do yourselves, and what happens with legacy machinery.

Ignoring manual and semi-automated processes. Many systems are built solely for fully automated lines. If a plant has manual elements, the system must support them fundamentally.

Valuing reports more than loss analysis. Fancy reports improve nothing. The ability to understand and resolve losses is what makes the difference.

Treating integration as secondary. An OEE system that does not communicate with your other systems rapidly becomes a parallel view creating duplicate work.

Leaving maintenance, IT, or continuous improvement teams out of the evaluation. All three will use the system. All three should participate in the decision.

Buying for monthly reporting rather than daily use. The value lies in daily utilisation. If the system is only used for monthly reports, you have bought the wrong tool.

Starting too broadly rather than where value is highest. Successful factories often begin with one line or area where the value is clearest, prove the process, and scale from there.

How do you run a better evaluation?

Run the evaluation in three steps. Define your manufacturing challenges and business goals first, involve the right people from production, maintenance, continuous improvement, and IT, and test vendors against real production scenarios rather than polished demos.

Define manufacturing challenges and business goals first. What are you unable to do today that a sound system would deliver? Put that in writing before the first vendor meeting.

Involve the right people. Production, maintenance, continuous improvement, and IT should take part. They represent different facets of the challenge.

Test vendors against real scenarios, not polished demos. Ask them to demonstrate how the system handles concrete situations you actually face:

• A stop occurs and is not coded immediately. What happens? Who sees it?

• The night shift crosses midnight. Can you obtain a coherent production day report?

• A part performs differently across two lines. How do we determine why?

• A recurring technical issue needs to be isolated and analysed. How do we do that?

• A manual station requires meaningful performance tracking. What do we see?

The responses to these scenarios reveal more about the system than any rehearsed demo.

What should you examine particularly closely?

Examine three things particularly closely: information security and ISO 27001 certification, support for sustainability reporting under CSRD, and support for lean and continuous improvement in daily operations. These three areas have gained significant prominence over the past year and directly influence the choice today.

Information security and ISO 27001

An increasing number of buyers require ISO 27001 certification. For larger clients, this is an absolute prerequisite. Request proof of certification, ask about data hosting within the EU, and verify how the vendor addresses GDPR and access control.

Sustainability reporting and CSRD

Large enterprises subject to CSRD must report energy and emissions data in a structured format, and more suppliers are receiving requests for this data from their clients. An OEE system that also measures energy consumption per produced unit, mapped to parts and downtime reasons, provides robust source data for this purpose.

Support for lean and continuous improvement in daily operations

This is not new, but more buyers now recognise that an OEE system operating in isolation from daily improvement activities yields little value. The platform must support morning stand-ups, shift handovers, and improvement workshops, rather than sitting in a silo.

How does Good Solutions approach this?

The platform from Good Solutions combines machine connectivity, operator tools, dashboards, timelines, reporting, quality management, maintenance, andon, energy tracking, and operational deployment into one cohesive system. The principle is that everyone across the plant, from operator to Managing Director, works from the same facts at the cadence suited to their role.

The platform currently supports 300+ factories. At Willo in Växjö, running approximately sixty CNC machines, half the plant was up and running within six weeks.

What underpins these results is not software alone. It is the combination of the platform, a proven implementation process steered by manufacturing experts, engaged factory teams, a Swedish support organisation backing you over time, and an explicit commitment to supporting lean and continuous improvement in daily operations.

Good Solutions’ ISO 27001 certification from April 2026 also meets the compliance requirements of larger manufacturers and industrial groups.

Read more about how others have increased their factory productivity

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to implement an OEE system?
This varies depending on scale and complexity. A single line can be operational within weeks. At Willo, with around sixty CNC machines, half the factory went live in six weeks thanks to a well-structured rollout. For multi-site groups, implementations are often phased over six months or more, running parallel operations to validate outcomes at each stage.

What does an OEE system cost?
The cost depends on the number of machines, the modules required, and your chosen implementation approach. Most vendors operate on a subscription model covering software, IoT hardware where needed, cloud hosting, support, and updates. Request a proposal detailing both first-year and recurring costs so you can compare on equal terms.

How do we justify the investment?
The most common approach is basing calculations on an estimated OEE improvement. Even a modest gain, from 50% to 55%, represents a 10% increase in output over identical machine hours. For a facility that would otherwise need an additional shift or new capital equipment, the savings are often substantial. Factor in reduced scrap, lower energy consumption per unit, and shorter changeovers.

Do we need to replace our current system?
Not necessarily. Many plants run systems in parallel during a transition period to ensure the new platform provides comparable or superior data. Questions to ask a new vendor: Can we monitor the same KPIs? Can historical data be migrated, and what happens to our existing machine signals?

Which roles should participate in the evaluation?
At least four roles. Production, because they work with the system daily. Maintenance, because maintenance logs and OEE data must integrate effectively. Continuous improvement, where the financial value is realised. IT, because integration and security must be addressed. For larger enterprises, executive leadership and procurement should also be involved from the outset.