Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a critical metric for measuring the efficiency of manufacturing operations. 

Many companies routinely hit capacity constraints and immediately consider adding overtime for existing workers, hiring workers for a new shift, or buying a new line. Relatively few companies have made the more modest investment that is required to optimize the performance of their existing lines.

Multistation automated assembly systems are a wonder to behold. A well-designed system can mass-produce hundreds of assemblies per minute with minimal human intervention.

By the late 1940s, many U.S. manufacturers began creating and building products for the post-WWII economy.