Is downtime killing your productivity?
Unplanned stops and manual data entry make it impossible to know your true production capacity. You’re constantly reacting to problems instead of preventing them.
The worst part is seeing profits leak away from production bottlenecks and high scrap rates that you can’t seem to pinpoint or fix effectively.
Consider this: research from MaintMaster reveals the average cost of unplanned downtime is $260,000 per hour. That’s a staggering cost draining your bottom line daily.
Before diving deeper into OEE, remember that effective data backup can also help stop downtime fast in your operations.
But what if you could change this? The right OEE software gives you the real-time data to optimize performance and boost your plant’s efficiency.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through my top picks for the best OEE software. These tools are designed to help you monitor and improve your operations.
You’ll discover how to get clear visibility into your production lines, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions to increase your overall equipment effectiveness.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SafetyCulture → | Mid-size manufacturing teams | |
| 2 | TotalControlPro → | Large manufacturing enterprises | |
| 3 | Hertzler → | Small to large manufacturers | |
| 4 | Fiix → | Manufacturing maintenance teams | |
| 5 | Tulip → | Manufacturers with complex workflows |
1. SafetyCulture
Struggling with unreliable production data and constant downtime?
SafetyCulture’s platform digitizes inspections, assets, and training, giving you total visibility into your operations. This means you can easily capture data and share reports instantly.
The software helps you move away from paper-based systems, enabling you to identify and address operational gaps in real-time. This is a better way of working.
Here’s how SafetyCulture solves those OEE challenges.
It streamlines workflows by centralizing all your work, allowing your teams to capture observations, near misses, or incidents in real-time. Additionally, you can create training courses in minutes and keep a record of completion, ensuring your team is always up-to-date. Plus, with its asset management features, you gain total visibility into your asset’s history and upcoming activity, which is crucial for maximizing equipment utilization. The platform integrates sensors and IoT, providing real-time data for proactive decision-making.
The result is increased productivity and better decision-making for your manufacturing operations.
Key features:
- Inspections, Audits, & Checklists: Digitize any process to save time and paper, instantly capturing data and sharing reports for improved efficiency.
- Assets & Sensors: Gain total asset visibility with a digital register of history and upcoming activity, enhanced by real-time IoT monitoring.
- Training & Issue Reporting: Onboard faster, upskill teams, and reduce time to resolution by capturing observations and incidents in real-time.
Learn more about SafetyCulture features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: SafetyCulture’s integrated platform, with its robust features for inspections, asset visibility, and real-time issue reporting, makes it suitable as a top best OEE software solution. It empowers you to go paperless, reduce incidents, and improve audit efficiency by 3x.
2. TotalControlPro
Struggling with manufacturing downtime and inaccurate data?
TotalControlPro’s DYNAMXMFG offers real-time tracking of people, products, processes, and performance. This means you can finally connect, analyze, adapt, and evolve your entire manufacturing operation.
It takes all your demand and production data, making it available instantly to your production and shop floor teams, enabling clearer instructions and improved production control.
Streamline your production today.
TotalControlPro solves these issues with a powerful Manufacturing Execution System (MES), providing instant access to production data, ensuring your shop floor teams have clear instructions. You can track people, products, and processes to gain visibility and improve your production control. Additionally, its Digital Factory feature allows you to create a full digital representation of your plant, managing people, machines, tools, shifts, and work centers, enhancing overall operational oversight. Plus, the Shopfloor Data Capture feature offers purpose-designed interfaces suitable for any web-enabled device, making data collection straightforward.
The result is increased efficiency and reduced downtime.
Key features:
- Manufacturing Execution System: Tracks people, products, and processes to connect, analyze, adapt, and evolve your manufacturing process, providing instant production data.
- Digital Factory: Creates a comprehensive digital representation of your plant for managing people, machines, tools, shifts, and work centers, improving plant oversight.
- Shopfloor Data Capture: Offers purpose-designed interfaces that run on any web-enabled device, allowing for flexible and efficient data capture on the shop floor.
Learn more about TotalControlPro features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: TotalControlPro’s real-time tracking, comprehensive MES, and Digital Factory capabilities directly address pain points like downtime and data inaccuracies, making it a strong contender for the best OEE software. Its ability to deliver instant data and reduce machine setup times by up to 50% positions it as a valuable solution for boosting productivity and profitability.
3. Hertzler
Are manufacturing quality blind spots costing you?
Hertzler’s solutions directly address your struggle with unreliable manual data and fragmented systems.
Their comprehensive platform eliminates those blind spots by transforming raw shop floor data into actionable insights. This means you can finally get real-time visibility.
Take control, detect, and improve.
Hertzler empowers you to manage SPC, OEE, scrap, and downtime within a single, unified system, moving beyond basic charting.
This means you get powerful self-service tools and a cloud-based solution that integrates with your existing systems, making data collection extremely easy to get to in a short amount of time. Plus, GainSeeker integrates with your MES and PLCs, offering Python scripting for advanced customization to meet your exact manufacturing needs, whether you’re a small shop or a global enterprise.
The result is faster, smarter decision-making that boost your operational efficiency and profitability.
While we’re discussing turning data into insights, my article on marketing analytics tools provides a comprehensive look at boosting ROI.
Key features:
- Unified Quality Management: Manage SPC, OEE, scrap, and downtime from one platform, eliminating fragmented data and providing a holistic view of operations.
- Real-time Actionable Insights: Collect and transform raw shop floor data into immediate, actionable insights, enabling faster and smarter decision-making for improved efficiency.
- Seamless System Integration: Integrate with your existing MES, PLCs, and other systems, allowing for comprehensive data collection and advanced customization with Python scripting.
Learn more about Hertzler features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Hertzler is a strong contender for the best OEE software, leveraging unified quality management, real-time insights, and seamless integrations. It excels at eliminating manufacturing blind spots by centralizing data, leading to faster decisions, boosted efficiency, and increased profitability for diverse industries.
4. Fiix
Struggling with unexpected equipment downtime?
Fiix CMMS offers powerful asset management and mobile capabilities to empower your maintenance team.
This means you can say goodbye to production bottlenecks and gain real-time insights into your equipment’s health.
It’s time to optimize your operations.
Fiix helps you overcome inaccurate data and manual reporting errors, streamlining your entire maintenance workflow. This allows you to track, control, and optimize asset performance, ensuring you hit production targets.
With Fiix, you can easily create, complete, and record work orders, and even manage maintenance from anywhere, at any time, even without an internet connection. Additionally, Fiix Foresight leverages AI to analyze your data, find trends, and help you act fast, while the Asset Risk Predictor helps you stop failures before they strike, reducing unplanned stops and boosting productivity.
The result? Reduced downtime and increased profitability.
While we’re discussing operational reliability, understanding advanced distribution management system is equally important for a stable power supply.
Key features:
- Work order management: Easily create, complete, and optimize work orders, keeping all your records in one place for efficient tracking and analysis.
- Asset management: Observe, track, and optimize asset performance with just a few clicks, leading to better equipment utilization and less guesswork.
- Analytics and reporting: Visualize and filter maintenance data in hundreds of ways to quickly spot opportunities to boost uptime and reduce waste.
Learn more about Fiix features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Fiix offers a comprehensive solution for manufacturing decision-makers, helping to reduce downtime by 27% and cut operating costs by 10%. Its AI-powered features, mobile accessibility, and robust reporting make it a strong contender for the best OEE software, enabling increased output and streamlined, insight-driven operations.
5. Tulip
Tired of unpredictable downtime and production bottlenecks?
Tulip helps you tackle these common manufacturing pain points by providing real-time visibility into your operations. This means you can gain critical insights to resolve issues and streamline your workflows.
Their platform allows you to error-proof operator workflows with connected apps, making manual data entry and reporting errors a thing of the past.
Here’s how they deliver solutions.
Tulip enables you to gain real-time insights into your production. You can track work orders and units through every step, ensuring you stay on top of your processes and prevent mix-ups.
Additionally, Tulip’s Tier Dashboards centralize real-time KPIs, allowing you to align teams and identify areas for improvement using holistic data. You can also automate data capture from machines and devices, providing a common data schema that unlocks insights and removes inefficiencies across your lines. Plus, their solutions include digital work instructions, quality inspection, and robust traceability for compliance.
The result is increased efficiency, maximized equipment utilization, and reduced waste.
While optimizing your production, streamlining financial processes is also key. My guide on best accounts payable software can help you manage cash flow.
Key features:
- Production Tracking and Tier Dashboards: Monitor work orders, track units, resolve bottlenecks, and visualize performance with real-time, centralized dashboards that align your teams.
- Digital Work Instructions & Quality Inspection: Guide operators with interactive, media-rich apps to error-proof complex tasks and integrate quality checks to prevent defects.
- Automated Data Capture and Connectivity: Seamlessly integrate with machines and devices to automate data collection, providing accurate, real-time insights for better decision-making.
Learn more about Tulip features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Tulip addresses common manufacturing challenges by providing real-time visibility and automating data capture, which helps reduce errors and improve efficiency. With capabilities like production tracking and integrated quality checks, it stands out as a strong contender for best OEE software, helping you cut downtime and boost productivity.
6. Mobility Work
Struggling with equipment downtime and production bottlenecks?
Mobility Work offers a community-based CMMS software to improve your maintenance management. This means you can quickly deploy it in your plant or workshop to gain immediate control.
You can expect +10% machine availability and a reduction in average maintenance intervention time by 15%. This shifts focus from reactive fixes to proactive maintenance strategies.
Here’s how Mobility Work helps.
It acts as a plug-and-play solution, designed for quick deployment in under a week. This allows you to effectively manage maintenance activities for optimized equipment availability.
You can easily manage your assets and inventory, import maintenance history, and generate statistical reports. Managing intervention reports from the field via mobile app also simplifies daily tasks. This data-driven approach supports better decision-making.
Additionally, its collaborative features enable real-time communication between production and maintenance teams, simplifying intervention requests, optimizing schedules, and guiding teams with checklists. Plus, you can access a network of industrial suppliers within the application.
Ultimately, your operations will be more streamlined.
Key features:
- Plug & Play Implementation: Quickly deploy and integrate the CMMS in less than a week, minimizing disruption and rapidly improving maintenance management for better equipment availability.
- Data-Driven Insights: Capitalize on rich field data through turnkey dashboards and data connectors, enabling smart decision-making, activity analysis, and integration with ERP, MES, and IoT systems.
- Collaborative Platform: Enhance communication and teamwork across sites and with external suppliers, streamlining intervention requests, scheduling, and knowledge sharing for faster breakdown resolution.
Learn more about Mobility Work features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Mobility Work stands out as a top contender for the best OEE software by delivering tangible results like +10% machine availability and significant reductions in intervention time and spare parts budgets. Its plug-and-play setup, data-driven insights, and collaborative features directly address the pain points of manufacturing decision-makers seeking improved efficiency and productivity.
7. Evocon
Struggling with unreliable production data and constant downtime?
Evocon offers OEE software tools, including Shift View and an OEE Dashboard, to provide real-time insights for your production process. This means you can track performance, understand efficiency gaps, and quickly address issues.
Your manufacturing operations gain a clear view with real-time data to help you overcome production bottlenecks. This equips your team with the understanding needed to make smart decisions.
Here’s how Evocon helps.
Evocon automates data collection from your machines, replacing manual entries with a reliable and accurate system. This minimizes errors and frees up your team’s time.
The software visualizes your production data, making machine and factory status accessible to everyone. You’ll understand how your production process is performing against expectations, enabling you to identify unused potential and areas for improvement. Additionally, Evocon includes Checklists to digitize recurring quality checks, boosting overall efficiency and reliability. The result is a platform for continuous improvement and cultural change.
Unlock real-time insights and boost your factory’s efficiency.
While we’re discussing powerful manufacturing tools, understanding the nuances of textile industry software can offer valuable insights for specific sectors.
Key features:
- Real-time OEE Monitoring: Track and analyze the performance of all your production shifts across different dates, stations, factories, and countries in real-time.
- Automated Data Collection: Digitize and automate the capture of production data directly from your machines to ensure accuracy and drive efficiency.
- Production Reports & Checklists: Generate clear reports for actionable insights and use digital checklists to improve quality and reliability by guiding operators.
Learn more about Evocon features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Evocon excels by providing intuitive OEE monitoring, automated data collection, and robust reporting, empowering manufacturing teams with real-time visibility. Its focus on reducing downtime and fostering continuous improvement makes it an excellent choice for the best OEE software for enhanced operational efficiency.
8. Guidewheel
Struggling with unexpected downtime and inaccurate production data?
Guidewheel offers real-time intelligence for your factory operations, designed to boost productivity and profitability. This means you can easily monitor OEE in real-time.
You’ll gain immediate visibility into your assets, allowing you to accurately track downtime and its root causes, preventing costly production slowdowns. The result is consistently accurate and reliable production insights.
Here’s how Guidewheel helps you win.
Guidewheel solves these challenges by providing simple, same-day setup for real-time visibility and instant alerts across all shifts and plants. You can monitor OEE in real-time, gaining crucial insights into trends over time.
You’ll gain immediate visibility, helping your teams quickly respond to issues by automatically tracking cycle times and performance targets. This system improves machine health and helps you learn of maintenance needs before they develop into issues. Additionally, you can monitor conditions like temperature and pressure to prevent issues and automate production reporting.
Plus, you can expand visibility by layering on AI-driven insights and additional sensors, surfacing patterns, guiding next-best actions, and integrating with your existing systems. This builds a foundation for continuous improvement, ensuring every additional machine, user, and factory contributes to compounding performance over time.
This equips your team to act fast and drive results.
Key features:
- Real-time Visibility and Alerting: Get instant alerts and a single, transparent view of performance across all lines and shifts, allowing for quick response to downtime.
- Automated Production Tracking: Accurately track downtime, OEE, cycles, and energy usage, replacing manual guesswork with reliable, data-driven insights for decision-making.
- AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance: Learn of maintenance needs before they become major issues and optimize production with AI-driven insights across your existing assets.
Learn more about Guidewheel features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Guidewheel excels at providing crucial real-time operational intelligence, helping you accurately track downtime, monitor OEE, and optimize production from your existing assets. Its ability to provide AI-driven insights and immediate alerts makes it an excellent choice if you’re seeking the best OEE software to improve factory efficiency, reduce costs, and empower your team.
9. Factbird
Are you struggling with unexpected production stops?
Factbird offers Production Insights, leveraging plug-and-play devices and PLC integration for real-time production monitoring, allowing you to streamline data capture.
This means you can gain holistic, real-time visibility across your shop floor, moving beyond limited views and manual data entry errors.
It’s time to optimize your shop floor operations.
Factbird helps you cut through complexity with an easy-to-deploy and maintain solution that provides quick time-to-value, often within hours. You get actionable, data-driven insights to boost efficiency and reduce waste.
The software’s Connected Operations application lets you digitize and go paperless, standardizing execution and making standard operating procedures easy to update and share. Additionally, it streamlines in-line quality checks and integrates corrective, preventive, and predictive maintenance.
This comprehensive approach also includes Knowledge Excellence, helping you build skills with training programs to reduce employee turnover and drive continuous improvement. The result is consistently engaged teams and improved profitability.
Key features:
- Real-time production monitoring: Gain immediate insights into multi-site OEE and line-specific downtime, enabling quick, informed decisions to reduce idle time.
- Digitized operations and quality control: Replace paper-based processes with digital tools, standardizing procedures, improving agility with in-line quality checks, and enhancing collaboration.
- Workforce development and continuous improvement: Build essential skills with training programs, identify skill gaps, and use digital tools for systematic improvement and knowledge retention.
Learn more about Factbird features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Factbird is an excellent choice as the best OEE software because it delivers a holistic manufacturing intelligence suite. It addresses key pain points like downtime and data silos, proven by customers like Raymundos who increased OEE by 20 points, offering real-time visibility and robust tools for efficiency and productivity gains.
Conclusion
Is downtime still hurting your profits?
Choosing the right OEE tool can be tough. Many options overpromise but underdeliver on giving you the real-time data your team actually needs.
The financial stakes are incredibly high. IDS-INDATA projects UK manufacturers lose over £80 billion in 2025 due to downtime alone. That is a staggering operational risk that you simply cannot afford to ignore.
So, what’s the best path forward?
From all my testing, SafetyCulture stands out. Its platform digitizes every operational process, giving you the complete visibility needed to eliminate bottlenecks for good.
I’m impressed by how it empowers you to go paperless and improve audit efficiency. Finding the best OEE software means getting a tool that delivers real results.
I suggest you book a free demo of SafetyCulture and see how its platform can streamline your entire production line.
You’ll boost productivity almost immediately.
