Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a metric that captures how well a piece of equipment or an entire plant is operating. The formula for OEE is given below:

OEE=equipment availability X performance X quality

By monitoring a single value, OEE, changes in any of the three factors in the formula above can be detected.

For a fuller description and a discussion on how to assign numerical values to the factors equipment availability, performance, and quality go to the links below

Wikipedia

Modern Machine Shop

OEE.com FAQ

OEE.com Glossary

I would start by reading the first two articles and then follow with the two at OEE.com. The articles at OEE provide definitions and assume some basic knowledge of OEE.