OEE is the product of three numbers: availability (how much of the planned time the machine actually ran), performance (how fast, compared with the standard cycle) and quality (what share of parts were good). In many plants it sits between 40 and 60 percent, which means half of the capacity you paid for goes unused.
A simple calculation: a shop with 10 machines at 55% OEE that reaches 65% produces 18% more, the equivalent of about 1.8 complete machines. No purchase, no installation, no hiring.
This capacity usually hides in four places: mold change and start-up time, short unrecorded stops, cycle times set longer than necessary "just to be safe", and scrap, especially start-up scrap. Cutting just one second from a 30-second cycle gives 3.3% more output.
The first step is measurement: until stops and scrap are recorded with their causes, every decision is a guess. That is exactly where a diagnosis begins.
This article is general guidance. The figures depend on each plant's conditions; for decisions, measurements on your own line are what count.