In past years of advising Fortune 500 manufacturers, I’ve witnessed countless facilities celebrating impressive OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) scores of 85-90%, only to discover their actual production output is severely constrained by systemic bottlenecks that exist outside the machine. In 2025, Indian manufacturers are waking up to a critical realization: OEE is no longer enough. The shift to OPE (Overall Process Effectiveness) is not optional—it’s existential.

The stakes are high. Indian manufacturing is projected to reach a USD 1 trillion market by 2025-26, but infrastructure gaps, skill shortages, and outdated operational frameworks threaten to undermine this growth. This is where OPE enters the conversation as a game-changer, revealing the hidden inefficiencies that traditional metrics have concealed for decades.

DIAGNOSIS: The Systemic Pain Points Plaguing Indian Manufacturing

When I visited a leading automotive component manufacturer in Pune last quarter, the facility manager proudly showed me a dashboard displaying 91% OEE across their main production line. Yet when I asked about throughput performance, the answer was sobering: “We’re delivering only 78% of committed volumes on time.”

This is not an isolated case. Across Indian assembly lines, there are three persistent symptoms that OEE cannot capture:

1. Material Flow Delays: In 65% of Indian manufacturing plants, machines operate at peak capacity while waiting for incoming materials from upstream stations. A machine cannot be productive if parts don’t arrive on time—yet OEE blames only the machine, not the logistics failure.

2. Labor Productivity Gaps: Assembly line efficiency in India averages just 52%, meaning equipment sits idle 48% of staffed time despite being available. Workers struggle with unclear procedures, inadequate training, and bottlenecks in quality inspections—issues that OEE doesn’t measure.

3. Scheduled Downtime Blindness: Changeovers, maintenance windows, and setup times are often excluded from OEE calculations. Yet in Indian plants, these “planned” stops consume 25-35% of potential production time, creating cascading delays downstream.

The deeper issue? OEE measures what a machine does. OPE measures what a process achieves. The distinction is not semantic—it’s transformational.

OEE vs OPE: Understanding the Shift in Manufacturing Metrics

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IMPACT: How These Inefficiencies Cascade Through Indian Manufacturing Operations

The consequences of relying solely on OEE extend far beyond operational metrics:

Operational Impact: A facility with 90% OEE but 65% OPE is leaving 25 percentage points of throughput on the table. At a plant producing 1,000 units daily, that’s 250 units of unrealized capacity—or ₹50-100 lakhs in lost revenue monthly, depending on product margin.

Business Impact: Indian manufacturers face unprecedented pressure to compete globally. Delivery delays erode customer confidence. A survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry found that 68% of export orders faced schedule slippages due to internal process inefficiencies, not equipment breakdowns. In the absence of systemic visibility, factories cannot differentiate between machine performance and process performance—and thus cannot fix the right problem.

Workforce Impact: When processes are poorly designed, workers become frustrated. Line efficiency stagnation leads to wage pressure, higher attrition, and difficulty attracting skilled talent. Paradoxically, many Indian manufacturers are reluctant to invest in automation training because they haven’t identified where automation would add the most value—a question that OPE directly answers.

Strategic Impact: India’s manufacturing sector is at an inflection point. Factories that cannot measure and optimize their total process effectiveness risk losing competitiveness to global competitors and to other Indian facilities that embrace OPE-driven transformation.

PRESCRIPTION: How Automation Becomes the Strategic Response to OPE Challenges

Here’s where the solution becomes clear:

Automation is not about replacing humans. It’s about redirecting human effort away from bottlenecks and toward value creation.

When manufacturers shift from OEE to OPE, automation decisions change fundamentally. Instead of asking “How can we run this machine faster?”—factories ask, “Where is the process actually breaking down?” The answers typically point to three domains:

1. Material Handling & Logistics Automation

OPE diagnostics frequently reveal that material doesn’t flow smoothly between stations. Manual material movement consumes 20-30% of assembly line time in typical Indian factories. Automated conveyor systems, AGVs (Autonomous Guided Vehicles), and intelligent buffer management eliminate this waste.

Real Example: An automotive supplier implementing S&H DESIGNS’ material handling solution observed a 40% reduction in material wait time, translating to a 25% increase in throughput without adding capital equipment.

2. Labor Productivity Enhancement Through Intelligent Automation

Automation doesn’t displace workers—it reallocates them. Robotic process automation (RPA) and collaborative robots (cobots) handle repetitive, high-precision tasks, allowing human workers to focus on quality control, troubleshooting, and value-added activities. Factories that deploy cobots alongside workforce upskilling programs see labor productivity improvements of 30-50%.

3. Real-Time Process Visibility & Predictive Intervention

OPE demands data. IoT sensors, MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems), and AI-powered analytics provide end-to-end visibility into process performance. A Gurgaon automotive parts manufacturer reduced unplanned downtime by 40% within six months by implementing IoT-based predictive maintenance and alternate supplier partnerships—not through equipment replacement, but through better decisions.

To know more, connect with us at design@shdesigns.in

EXECUTION: A Practical Roadmap for Indian Factory Owners

OPE optimization is not a “big bang” transformation. Here’s a phased approach that works across manufacturing scales:

Short-Term Actions (Months 1-3)

• Map your current process end-to-end: Document every step from raw material receipt through final shipment. Identify where material sits idle, where quality checks slow production, and where workforce inefficiencies cluster.
• Measure OPE baseline: Calculate OPE = (Good Units × Ideal Cycle Time) / Total Available Time. Include material flow delays, labor downtime, and scheduled maintenance. This reveals the true cost of current practices.
• Conduct a bottleneck analysis: Use Pareto charts to identify which 20% of issues cause 80% of process delays. Focus here first.

Mid-Term Actions (Months 4-9)

• Pilot automation in high-impact areas: If bottleneck analysis reveals material handling as the primary constraint, pilot an automated conveyor or AGV system in one production cell. Measure OPE improvement before scaling.
• Implement standard operating procedures (SOPs): Standardize changeover sequences, inspection protocols, and material staging to eliminate ad-hoc decision-making.
• Launch workforce capability programs: Train operators on new systems, quality inspection methodologies, and basic troubleshooting. A skilled workforce is prerequisite to automation success.

Long-Term Actions (Months 10+)

• Integrate advanced technologies: Deploy IoT sensors, MES, and predictive maintenance platforms to create a digital nervous system for your factory.
• Establish OPE as the strategic KPI: Move beyond OEE reporting. Make OPE your primary performance indicator, linking it to plant bonuses and strategic reviews.
• Build a continuous improvement culture: Create cross-functional teams to review OPE monthly, identify emerging bottlenecks, and drive incremental improvements.

IMPACT Framework: Five-Pillar Strategy for Optimizing Overall Process Effectiveness in Indian Manufacturing

PARTNERSHIP: How S&H Designs Enables Your OPE Transformation

This is where industrial expertise meets business outcome. S&H Designs, with over three decades of manufacturing systems experience, has guided more than 200 manufacturing facilities across India and globally to improve productivity by 40-50% and reduce operational costs by 30-40%.

The firm’s differentiator lies in its end-to-end systems approach. S&H Designs doesn’t just sell equipment—it diagnoses, designs, and deploys holistic solutions:

1. Process Optimization & Layout Design

Using proprietary methodologies, S&H Designs conducts comprehensive plant audits to map material flow, labor patterns, and equipment utilization. The firm then redesigns facility layouts and logistics networks to eliminate waste. Typical outcomes include 40-50% improvement in space utilization and 25-35% reduction in material handling time.

2. Material Handling Solutions

From automated conveyor systems to gripper design for robotic arms, S&H Designs offers a portfolio of 500+ unique systems refined over decades. The firm specializes in handling automotive components, a sector where precision and reliability are non-negotiable. S&H DESIGNS’ air balancers have delivered real results: at a renowned facility, 100% reduction in product damages, 4x improvement in efficiency, and savings of 3 operators per line.

3. Special Purpose Machines & Automation Integration

For high-complexity manufacturing processes, S&H Designs designs and manufactures custom SPMs (Special Purpose Machines) tailored to specific production needs. Whether it’s flywheel ring polishing, sensor wire inspection, or precision assembly, these systems are engineered for reliability and OPE optimization.

4. Strategic Consulting & Implementation

Perhaps most critically, S&H Designs provides consulting expertise rooted in the IMPACT framework: Diagnosis (identifying where OPE is lost), Impact (quantifying the business cost), Prescription (designing automation solutions), Execution (phased implementation), and Partnership (ongoing optimization).

The firm partners with manufacturers like Saint Gobain, Talbros, and Sandvik—companies where systemic bottlenecks are measured in millions of rupees daily.

How OPE Reveals Bottlenecks Hidden by OEE: Real-World Manufacturing Example

REAL-WORLD IMPACT: A Case in Numbers

Consider a mid-size automotive component manufacturer in Pune—a snapshot of the challenges and solutions across Indian industry:

This facility didn’t build new plants or hire significantly more workers. It simply saw what OPE revealed, implemented automation in the right places, and redesigned processes for flow. The result: 19 percentage points of process effectiveness improvement—a transformation impossible to achieve by chasing OEE alone.

The Path Forward: Why 2025 Is the Inflection Point

India’s manufacturing ambition—to reach USD 1 trillion in sector size by 2030—is achievable. But it demands a paradigm shift from equipment-centric thinking (OEE) to process-centric thinking (OPE).

Factories that embrace this shift will:

• Unlock 15-25 percentage points of productivity improvement through better bottleneck identification
• Reduce capital expenditure by deploying automation strategically, not everywhere
• Build resilient supply chains by addressing process inefficiencies rather than equipment shortfalls
• Attract and retain talent by creating better working environments and clearer career pathways

For factory owners and operations leaders, the question is no longer “What is our OEE?” but rather “What is our OPE, and where do we lose process effectiveness?”

S&H Designs stands ready to help you answer that question and build a transformation roadmap tailored to your facility’s unique challenges. With proven expertise in material handling, layout optimization, and custom automation solutions, the firm is positioned as the partner of choice for manufacturers ready to lead the OPE revolution.

Gear Up

Contact S&H Designs for your OPE assessment:

📧 sales@shdesigns.in 📞 +91 79720 53255 🌐 shdesigns.in

This article reflects insights from battle-tested experience of manufacturing advisory work, field research across 200+ Indian manufacturing facilities, and emerging industry trends in 2025. The framework, data points, and recommendations are grounded in published research, case studies, and real-world implementations.