Industry Forum

Key to TPM successWhat do we have to do to make sure our investment in TPM pays off? How can we ensure we reap the promised business benefits?

We can’t give you a magic wand that ensures instant results. But we can share with you these three vital activities practised by JIPM award winning companies, such as Coca-Cola Beverages, Panasonic and Tetra Pak.

You will notice a common denominator for all three; time. TPM is not something that can be implemented overnight. Organisations take five years and more to even become eligible for the first level of awards.

The good news is that it doesn’t take that long for the performance benefits to start accruing. The sooner you start your pilot activities the sooner you can see a difference and improve your bottom line.

 

1. Obtain commitment from the very top
It’s no coincidence that the very first step on the 12 step journey is called “Declaration by management”.

The senior management team must first understand the reasons their company is embarking on this journey. And then they must communicate their intention to the entire workforce.

 

12-steps

 

We have seen how companies who don’t start here take much longer to get results. Even the best efforts prove difficult to sustain and at worst the programme just fizzles out.

 

2. Integrate TPM activities into your company’s policy and strategy

Companies that are serious about using TPM to continuously improve their business performance, integrate it into their existing Policy Deployment plans. In fact this is the focus of the work in step 4 of the 12 step journey.

Think of it as a two pronged approach to support achievement of:

  • Daily performance targets derived from customer requirements.
  • Stretch goals derived from the annual policies.

Treating TPM as a set of activities additional to your short term or long term targets, dooms them to being side lined when the going gets tough.

You may have already experienced this scenario. You put a lot of time and effort into training your production associates in Autonomous Maintenance (AM). Once the production plan is complete the teams stop and move onto their AM work. Initially output and quality improve and unplanned downtime is reducing. AM works!

Then one Friday you haven’t met the plan, so you keep manufacturing. Maybe your order book is increasing or you had a particularly unusual and lengthy breakdown.

What we find is that if this happens regularly, the benefits of the TPM programme become forgotten and production output at all costs is the priority. The TPM activities cease over time, morale decreases and people become resistant to new initiatives.

Instead of treating TPM as a set of bolt on activities, integrate it. Specifically target use of the tools to prevent that breakdown happening again and to increase capacity over time.

The tools need to become part of daily working, not something scheduled for the end of the week. This applies at the shop floor as much as it does the boardroom.

 

3. Include every single person in the organisation

In a previous blog we learned that the main aim of TPM is to achieve zero losses. These losses can occur in every function and at every level within your business.

So to root out every loss you need to involve people from every function and at every level.

When only a proportion of the workforce are involved we always find losses and, of course, the costs associated with them.


  • If you want to find out more about the future of TPM, it’s integration with Industry 4.0 and how it can help your organisation reduce costs and improve quality then make sure book your place at Industry Forum’s TPM seminar.  This one-day event will allow you to learn from world-class, award winning manufacturers alongside speakers from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance.

 

 

 

 

If you want to speak to a member of the team to find out more about TPM and how Industry Forum can support your TPM implementation give us a call on +44 (0)121 717 6600 complete our enquiry form or email us at enquiries@if.wearecoal.work

 

 

Race lead winningBoth the Autonomous Maintenance and Planned Maintenance pillars of Total Productive Maintenance are used to improve production efficiency.

The pillars are both centred on improving or upskilling the people so that they can improve the equipment.

What you will discover when you start to deploy these pillars is that they both rely heavily on the same few people. This can be difficult to overcome. Which pillar comes first? Who takes the lead?

The smoothest approach is realised when the teams work together and alternate the lead. To help explain this let’s use a sporting analogy.

The Team Pursuit

In this endurance cycling event the team of 4 cyclists on the track take turns in the lead in a bid to get 3 of the team over the line in the fastest time. Check out the action at the Rio Olympics, where Team GB won gold in both the men’s and women’s events.

 

Velodrome cyclists

 

The key to winning an endurance race is the reduction of aerodynamic drag

However it’s not just the cyclists that make up the team. There are also trainers, bike designers and physiotherapists. All have a contribution to make.

  • Designers reduce the weight of the bikes and improve the aerodynamics. They are constantly trying new materials and technologies.
  • Trainers and physios work on getting the cyclists to peak fitness in time for each event and also, with the riders, work on the best sitting position to maximise power and reduce drag.
  • Cyclists take turns in the lead. The riders in the slipstream can travel at the same speed but as there is less drag they expend less effort.

The deployment of Autonomous Maintenance and Planned Maintenance in order to improve production efficiency and achieve the goal of zero breakdowns is very much an endurance event. As well as making use of new technologies, materials and methods, both teams require training in the best techniques.

This is where taking the lead in different activities as well as utilising the support of other pillar teams becomes vital. Working together to change the mix of skills and activities undertaken by each team allows both teams to move to a more proactive way of working.

  • Initially the Planned Maintenance team provide technical assistance to the Autonomous Maintenance teams to help them eliminate forced deterioration. The Training and Education pillar provides support here.
  • This results in in less urgent breakdowns and failure intervals become stabilised. The Planned Maintenance team can now utilise the generated time to do corrective maintenance. This further lengthens the life of the equipment.
  • As equipment becomes more reliable the Planned Maintenance teams can start to train the Autonomous Maintenance teams in general inspection techniques. The Autonomous Maintenance teams now move from preventing forced deterioration to monitoring natural deterioration. As the Autonomous Maintenance teams reduce the time to do their cleaning, inspection and lubrication (CIL) activities, they release time for further development.
  • The Autonomous Maintenance teams to learn more about the materials being handled and enhance their skills in making correct adjustments and settings.
  • Both teams can now move onto activities to build a periodic maintenance system.
  • As the lifetime of the equipment extends further the Planned Maintenance teams generate time for training in predictive maintenance skills and exploring the use of new materials, methods and technologies.

You can read more about how to change the mix of skills and activities undertaken by the Autonomous Maintenance and Planned Maintenance teams here.

Or contact the IF team for more information on any aspect of Total Productive Maintenance.

 

 

Applying Focussed Improvement and Autonomous Maintenance to increase yield and throughput

iStock_000016450542Large

 

Background

The client processes fresh natural raw material to prepare for further processing at another internal business unit. The process is labour intensive, but relies on a handful of key machines to keep productivity globally competitive. The site believed they were close to achieving the theoretical maximum yield from the product although the process yield and efficiency regularly changed and was believed to be due to differences in natural raw materials.

The Challenge

There are many factors that affect the yield and performance of the process, not least the impact of the size and texture of the natural products arriving direct from their harvested environment. The team were aware that the raw material variation could be used as an excuse for variation in performance, and set out to prove which of their process inputs were significant to the yield and throughput. The throughput rates needed to improve to remain competitive and the standard yield target had not been altered since the era when products were processed purely by hand.

The Objectives

The client group have a corporate approach to continuous improvement which incorporates Lean manufacturing, six sigma and Total Productive Maintenance principles. The site team had limited experience of applying the improvement tools, so required support to implement the tools to improve the team’s understanding and control of the process.

The Industry Forum Solution

Recognising the size of the site and the amount of resource available for improvement activities, Industry Forum facilitated a Loss Tree Workshop to understand the current losses seen in the process. This highlighted a key machine to run a Focussed Improvement Workshop and an Autonomous Maintenance Workshop in the initial processing area of the factory. Time was spent analysing the differences between machines and raw materials to pinpoint several causes of variation in the process. The 4M (Manpower/Machine/Material/Method) inputs were considered and a matrix created to highlight what potential variations needed to be fully understood in terms of their impact on the process performance. Carefully controlled trials were designed and performed by the team to further understand the variation sources. After full analysis of the trial results, several solutions were implemented:

  • Grading of the raw material introduced
  • Standardisation of optimum machine settings matched to material size
  • Introduction of Autonomous Maintenance checks to ensure optimal equipment conditions
  • Equipment improvements through modifications to rollers and trays as well as replacing worn components
  • Modifying the team structure to allow better process control and data analysis
  • Specification of a raw material freezing method designed for optimal yield
  • Improvement of data collection documentation and elimination of duplication

The 18 day programme has generated savings of £175k through the combined impact of increased throughput (+2%) and yield (+2%) achieved.  Based on the improvements a new standard yield target has been set at the highest ever level.

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