From Paper OEE Sheets to Hourly Submission Checks: A Wire and Cable Manufacturer’s Story
At a U.S. wire and cable manufacturer, supervisors could not finish reviewing production submissions until they had dealt with the paperwork. Operators recorded production by hand. Supervisors collected the sheets, searched for missing ones, and copied the figures into Excel. They had to wait until the next day to review the submissions in the report.
Today, operators record production at computers beside their lines, and supervisors can check for missing submissions every hour. Alliason supported the Power Apps deployment and corrected a separate reporting error that was giving managers an inaccurate picture of equipment performance.
Executive summary
Challenge: Paper sheets, missing records, and Excel re-entry slowed production reporting. Separately, a calculation error overstated shift time in the OEE report.
Approach: Alliason helped bring the manufacturer's Power Apps application into production, supported its Power Apps and Dataverse environment, and repaired the Power BI calculations.
Outcome: The manufacturer eliminated paper OEE sheets and Excel re-entry. Supervisors can check submissions hourly rather than waiting until the next day, and OEE calculations no longer count the same shift time repeatedly.
The daily search for production sheets
Production supervisors needed to know what each machine had produced, how much time was lost to stoppages, and whether the reported figures covered every shift. But their first task was often collecting the records.
Operators filled out paper sheets at the machines. Supervisors distributed and collected those forms, checked what had come back, and followed up when something was missing. Once the forms were gathered, someone still had to enter the information into Excel.
A missing record could leave a gap in the report, and supervisors could not always tell whether the problem was on the production line or in the paperwork. Supervisors could not review the day's submissions in the report until the following day.
The manufacturer wanted to stop carrying production information from paper to spreadsheets and give supervisors a way to see what had been submitted while production was still underway.
Operators began entering production results at the line
Operators now use a Power Apps application at their production lines to record what each machine produced, which production orders were involved, and any equipment stoppages. The application saves production and stoppage records in Microsoft Dataverse, removing the need for paper forms and manual Excel entry.
The app also gives supervisors a place to check whether production records have been submitted. If a line is missing an entry, they can follow up with the operator without waiting for a stack of forms to reach an office.
Getting the application into production on schedule
The manufacturer's IT team had competing priorities and planned absences as the OEE app approached its launch date. The application needed to reach operators without forcing the internal team to set aside its other responsibilities.
Alliason handled deployment activities and provided support with the Power Apps and Dataverse environment, including configuration and data management. The application went live on schedule without major reported issues. The customer's IT team said an internal-only deployment would likely have taken several additional weeks.
Correcting OEE figures that overstated shift time
After the application was in use, another problem needed attention: the Power BI calculations did not always treat multiple production submissions correctly.
An operator may record more than one production run during a shift. Each run needs its own production details, but the shift's available time should not be added again for every submission. The existing reporting logic was doing just that, inflating shift time and distorting the availability and OEE figures managers relied on.
Alliason corrected the calculations so repeated production entries no longer caused the same shift time to be counted multiple times. Managers could review the results without that error affecting the totals.
The Power BI reporting also lets the team move from the overall OEE result to the records behind it. Availability can be reviewed alongside downtime and stoppage details; quality results can be examined alongside scrap information; and production runs can be checked against submitted entries. When a result looks unusual, managers have supporting records to investigate.
Finding missing submissions during the day
Previously, supervisors had to wait until the following day to review the production submissions in the report. Now they can check the application hourly to see whether operators have entered their results.
If a production entry has not been submitted, the supervisor can ask about it that day, while the shift and its activity are still recent. The team no longer has to start by searching for a paper sheet or wondering whether someone has typed it into Excel.
One member of the manufacturing team described the new routine:
“Now we just need to verify if data has been entered into the app and know that day if we are missing entries or not.”
Supervisors check submissions hourly in the app; the Power BI report updates on its scheduled refresh.
More time for production, less time chasing records
The manufacturer has stopped distributing and collecting paper OEE sheets, and the figures no longer have to be recreated in Excel. Supervisors can find missing submissions during the day, while corrected Power BI calculations give them more dependable equipment-performance results.
A member of the manufacturer's team summarized the change:
“We can now drive everything out of the system.”
Another described what it meant for the people responsible for production:
“We can now focus more on our core responsibilities.”
Manufacturers considering a similar Power Platform application need to examine where production is recorded, how missing submissions are identified, and whether OEE figures can be traced to actual production entries.
If your manufacturing team still collects paper production sheets, re-enters figures into Excel, or questions its OEE numbers, Alliason can help assess the process and your existing applications.
