An Industry 4.0 approach toward overall equipment effectiveness management and control

Today's manufacturing systems continually evolve as technological advances are developed in communication, data analysis and storage, and sensors fields. Indeed, the dramatic changes caused by artificial intelligence, the internet of things, cloud and edge computing, simulation, cyber-security, and virtual reality can potentially increase the industrial infrastructure's efficiency and flexibility. However, integrating these innovations with traditional approaches used until now in manufacturing management poses a challenge. In Operation Management, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is the most common indicator used to measure and assess the efficiency of a manufacturing system. Therefore, in the present paper, a detailed framework is defined to guide the introduction of different technologies characterizing the industry 4.0 paradigm in the management and continuous control of OEE. Finally, new opportunities for optimization thus ensued are identified as well as limitations and possible drawbacks caused by this transformation.