CRH Africa was able to increase their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) on a press machine, which uses progressive technology tools, by 9% in just 12 months.

This was achieved by using principles of Overall Equipment Effectiveness and Lean Tools.

CRH-Africa Logo

Company Background & Operations:

CRH-Africa (PTY) LTD is a manufacturer of metal-pressed components, welded and riveted assemblies for the automotive industry. CRH-Africa also has a subsidiary company, called Adient-PPC. HaldanMES is currently utilized to monitor OEE on their press machines which use progressive technology tools at their plant in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape.

In 2011, the Port Elizabeth plant relocated to a new facility in Korsten. The move brought about a new lease of life to the production facility by providing a larger floor space of 11,000m2. This presented an opportunity to improve factory flow.

At the new Korsten plant, there are over 350 employees. The factory has 53 presses, ranging from 60 to 800 Ton press capacity.
At the time, they manufactured pressings such as cones and shells for a range of customers, including Tenneco, Faurecia, Eberspaecher, VWSA and Benteler, amongst others.

It was around this time that CRH-Africa decided to do away with its paper-based OEE system, and instead implement an automated OEE data collection and reporting system. The decision stemmed from the inaccuracy of data in their paper-based methods which had made it extremely difficult to identify which processes needed improvement.

After careful consideration, they chose to roll out HaldanMES® OEE software on their shopfloor.

Key Challenges:

Initially, there was resistance from operators to the automated OEE implementation roll out. Their hesitation stems from their lack of experience using computers, leading them to believe that the new system would create more for them.

However, the company then created a platform for operators to raise their concerns and began to involve them in the continuous improvement activities. This stimulated a change in the company culture, particularly in the areas of operations and tooling. It was an important factor in the success of their OEE initiative and continuous improvement efforts.

Losses Identified:

After some time, the reports available in HaldanMES® revealed that over a period of 6 months, the companies biggest area of loss in OEE was availability. This indicated that CRH Africa had room for improvement on these machines, which utilize progressive tools to make parts.

A team was appointed to investigate these losses in more detail. This team was led by Lucky Lazarus, an Industrial Engineer at CRH Africa). By focusing on availability losses, they could see that idle activities contributed to 53.5% of their availability losses.