234 Int. J. Process Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2008 Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A proposal: evaluation of OEE and impact of six big losses on equipment earning capacity Anil S. Badiger* Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Peelamedu, Coimbatore – 641004, Tamil Nadu, India E-mail: badigeranil@yahoo.com *Corresponding author R. Gandhinathan Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Peelamedu, Coimbatore – 641004, Tamil Nadu, India E-mail: rgandhinathan@hotmail.com Abstract: In the recent past maintenance strategy has gained heightened importance in organisations and requires the manufacturing and maintenance managers to develop and follow well devised production and maintenance plans. Remarkable improvement has taken place in the maintenance management of physical assets and productive systems, to reduce wastage of energy and resources. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) methodology is a proven approach to increase overall performance of equipment. In the present paper, a method is proposed to evaluate OEE by including a factor known as usability, in the OEE calculation method. Further, an approach is developed to evaluate the earning capacity of addressing the six big losses, with incremental improvement in OEE, as an extension to the maturity of OEE. Keywords: Overall Equipment Effectiveness; OEE; availability; performance efficiency; quality rate; usability; earning capacity; productivity. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Badiger, A.S. and Gandhinathan, R. (2008) ‘A proposal: evaluation of OEE and impact of six big losses on equipment earning capacity’, Int. J. Process Management and Benchmarking, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.234–248. Biographical notes: Anil S. Badiger received his Degree in Automobile Engineering from BVB College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli, Karnataka University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India in 1990 and his ME Degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialisation in Automobile Engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India in 1998. He is currently pursuing his PhD Degree in Industrial Engineering, from Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has published papers in national and international journals and conferences. R. Gandhinathan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Madras University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1981 and his Master of Engineering Degree from Bharathiar University Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India in 1984. He completed his PhD in 1998 from Bharathiar University,