Quick overview
This workflow captures per-shift machine production and downtime data via an n8n Form or an authenticated webhook, calculates OEE and TPM Six Big Losses from Google Sheets data, uses OpenAI for structured root-cause analysis, then sends a WhatsApp report with a Pareto chart and updates maintenance work orders.
How it works
- Accepts shift production and downtime entries from an n8n Form and/or an authenticated webhook from an IoT/PLC gateway, normalizes and validates the payload, and upserts it into a Google Sheets “Shift Log” tab.
- Runs on a schedule 15 minutes after each shift end to identify the completed shift and load the “Machine Master” and “Shift Log” data from Google Sheets.
- Calculates plant and per-machine Availability, Performance, Quality, and OEE, breaks downtime into the TPM Six Big Losses, and flags critical machines and anomalies against a rolling 7-day baseline.
- If no shift data is found, sends a WhatsApp alert to the plant head listing missing machine logs.
- If shift data is found, sends the shift KPIs to an OpenAI-powered agent that queries Google Sheets “OEE History” and “Maintenance Tickets” to generate a structured RCA report with assignable actions.
- Builds a WhatsApp-ready summary plus a QuickChart Pareto image URL, sends the report and chart to the plant head via WhatsApp, and appends per-machine KPI rows to the Google Sheets “OEE History” tab.
- For each critical machine, looks up open tickets in Google Sheets and either updates the existing ticket or creates a new work order in the “Maintenance Tickets” tab, then sends a combined WhatsApp escalation message to maintenance.
Setup
- Create a Google Sheets workbook with tabs named “Machine Master”, “Shift Log”, “OEE History”, and “Maintenance Tickets”, and populate “Machine Master” with machine_id (and optional line, ideal_cycle_time_sec, and active flags).
- Add Google Sheets credentials and replace all REPLACE_WITH_GOOGLE_SHEET_ID values with your spreadsheet ID across the workflow.
- Add an OpenAI credential for the Chat Model used by the AI agent.
- Add WhatsApp Business Cloud credentials, set your phoneNumberId, and fill in the plant head and maintenance recipient phone numbers in the shift configuration.
- If using the IoT/PLC feed, configure header authentication for the webhook and point your gateway to the webhook URL path (oee-iot-feed) with the matching header token.
- Review and adjust shift times/cron schedule, OEE targets, critical thresholds, anomaly z-threshold, and breakdown alert minutes in the shift identification step before activating.