RSA RELIABILITY NEWSLETTER

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Comparing  RCM and TPM which is the better improvement strategy !

 

In an attempt to compare these two World Class Improvement Strategies, I just can’t help thinking how  these two well know improvements  fair in a boxing ring if they would fairly square it out evenly. Also, not to mention that I’m still a bit overwhelmed by the victory of our very own Manny “Pacman” Pacquaio over his latest opponent David Diaz 

 

TPM have its origin from the east (Japan), while RCM originated from the west (UK) where its  origin can be traced to the works of Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap based on a study they had generated from the airline industry and later on adopted by the late John Moubray for use in the Nuclear Facility which later on spread to industries.  I hope you don't mind me writing this newsletter in this fashion. So let me hand you over to Michael Buffer for the introduction.

 

Ladies and gentlemen in attendance and to the millions of fans watching, .Lets Get Ready To Rumble!!!. Fighting for 12 round for the Undisputed Heavyweight Improvement Strategy of the World . . . .  In the red corner from my left hailing from eastern part of the world, Seichii Nakajimaaaaaaaaaaa, and his opponent from the blue corner hailing from western part in UK  the great legend John Moubrayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round 1 : How its being approach and which is easier to implement

 

One of main difference in approach regarding this two improvement initiatives is that TPM is always a Top Down Approach and a plant wide improvement initiative while RCM can be done from the ranks or Bottom Up Approach. Without management commitment and support it is very difficult for TPM to succeed. On the other hand, RCM is much more easier to implement than TPM.  I give this round to RCM.  ( RCM 10 points,  TPM 9 points)

 

Round 2 : Primary measure of performance

 

Although a lot of indices will be improve if any one of these two initiatives will be successfully implemented, the main indices used to measure TPM performance is OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness.  OEE is computed by multiplying the equipment’s Availability by its Performance Rate and Quality Rate.  OEE address six major equipment losses encountered on the equipment mainly breakdowns, set-up and conversion, start-up losses, idling and minor stoppages, design speed loss, defect and rework losses.  For RCM, the main measure of performance used is MTBF which is mostly related to equipment failures.

 

Although Moubray have some issues which he wrote on his book about OEE which states that:

There is often a tendency to focus too heavily on primary functions when assessing maintenance effectiveness.  This is a mistake because in practice trivial secondary functions embody bigger threats to the organization if they fail than secondary functions.  As a result every function must be considered when setting up the maintenance effectiveness and measures.  The OEE as defined above only relates to the primary functions of the asset.

 

What Moubray meant is that even if your OEE is high (85% for World Class Companies), and as long as availability, performance rate and quality rate is good, it does not guarantee you that the equipment is indeed reliable most specially  if there are secondary functions that are in a failed state such as protective devices.

 

But comparing these 2 primary measurements, OEE is still wider in scale than MTBF, since failures and breakdowns are just a subset of OEE.  I hope I am not confusing the readers as there are so many indices that can impact your plant when these 2 methodologies is successfully implemented, I am just referring to the main indices being used by the two.  In view of this, I give this round to TPM. (RCM 9 points, TPM 10 points)

 

Round 3 : What RCM and TPM believes

 

TPM believes that in order to advance to any improvement initiative, basic equipment condition must be carried out first.  These basic equipment condition includes cleaning, proper lubrication and bolting.  Why don’t you complete all the screws and bolts of your equipment before performing any vibration analysis on it.  On the other hand, RCM states that the first step is to change the way people think  and apply this change thought to their asset. 

 

I like what John Moubray is saying because even before basic equipment condition should be established both operators and maintenance should change the way they think about their assets if they want their equipment’s to improve.  I give RCM more credit to this round. (RCM 10 point, TPM 9 points)

 

Round 4 : Goal on maintenance

 

TPM’s goal is to zero out unplanned breakdowns, while RCM’s  goal is not about eliminating breakdown but to understand that each failure have their own unique set of consequences and if the consequences of the failure is not acceptable then all effort must be exhausted in order to  reduce its likelihood. 

 

Maintenance is not about zeroing out or eliminating failures but simply trying to understand that it is more important to know the consequences of failure rather than eliminating them.  In reality, it is impossible to eliminate failures, what maintenance can do is to anticipate, prevent, predict, control or prolong the duration of failure.  RCM explanation here is much deeper than TPM, hence, I give this round to RCM. (RCM 10 points, TPM 9 points)

 

Round 5 : Operators involvement in maintenance

 

One of the similarities between these two improvement initiatives is that both RCM and TPM value the importance of operators in maintenance.  In any RCM analysis, operators must be part of the team doing the analysis since, it is the operators and not maintenance who have direct contact with the failure.  TPM is much broader in scope as it compose of 8 pillars and one of these pillars is Autonomous Maintenance where operators learn to understand that the equipment is both a shared responsibility for operators and maintenance.  Autonomous Maintenance is performed in 7 steps and are detailed in structure.  Maintenance teach operators about their equipment and operators learn not only to operate but to take good care of their equipment.  TPM’s role is to change the mindset that operators only operate while maintenance repairs and fix the equipment.  Autonomous Maintenance let operators understand that they too have a role in maintaining their equipment by performing the basics such as cleaning the equipment, monitoring its lubrication and checking for loose and incomplete bolts on their equipments. 

 

In short, the role of operators is much more detailed and structured in TPM.  Hence, I give this round to TPM. (RCM 9 points, TPM 10 points)  

 

Round 6 :  Its belief about continuous improvement

 

I believe that this is where both TPM and RCM have some form of contradiction.  TPM is heavy on improvements.  It believes that the equipment should be continuously improved, while on the other hand RCM focused more on understanding the consequences of failure with the aid of a decision diagram or algorithm. The team selects the most appropriate tasks for each failure mode as based from its consequences. In fact,  John Moubray in his book RCM2 on page 188 considers that maintenance first before redesign or modification for the following reasons that most organizations are faced with many more apparently desirable design improvement opportunities than are physically or economically feasible.  Most improvements take time to accomplish, some may even take several months, hence, a person who is on duty today has to maintain the equipment as it exists today and not what it should be there in the future.  Before considering improving and redesigning the equipment, have we asked ourselves, if the asset is here  to stay there for a long time or will it be decommission ?  I have seen a lot of improvements being wasted on their equipment’s because the people who performed the improvement did not know that their equipment will soon be decommission out.  Hence, before trying to improve or redesign the equipment we must have a concrete answer to these questions :

 

- Does the failure involved any major operational consequences ?

- Is the cost of scheduled breakdown maintenance high ? 

- Are there specific cost which can be eliminated by the design change ?

- Does the improvement have any harmful effects after the design change ?

- Is the asset to stay for a long time or will it be decommission out ?

 

I believe this credit belongs to RCM. I give RCM this round.  (RCM 10 points, TPM 9 points)

 

Round 7 :  RCM and TPM initial approach

 

RCM starts by determining the assets functions and failure modes, while TPM believes in addressing equipment’s basic condition first.  Many failures start from small things and it is from this small things which are often left neglected that cause big problem.  TPM believes that big failures can be prevented if we address the basics.  In fact some failure modes can be reduce if equipment’s basic equipment condition is well established on the equipment.  I give TPM credit for this round.  (RCM 9 points, TPM 10 points) 

 

Round 8 :  Plant involvement

 

TPM as its journey continues aims to involve everyone from the organization from the lowest ranks to even the CEO.  They will each have a TPM pillar to be busy about.  People from the offices such as HRD, Finance, Accounting and Administration will be part of Administrative or Office TPM which aims further to improve their systems and conduct administrative focused improvement.  I recall during our TPM days when we audit our HRD department where I ask for a 201 document file they have and time them by a stop watch on how fast they can retrieve these files in less than 30 seconds.  Have you gone lately to your admin department to ask some files and tell you to come back in a couple of days? This is what makes TPM fun.  On the contrary, RCM involvement would be limited to operators, maintenance, engineers and from time to time vendors mostly who have direct impact on the equipment being analyze.  I doubt if HRD can be involve in an RCM analysis.  Again, as for plant involvement, I give this round to TPM (RCM 9 points, TPM 10 points).  At this point of the round both RCM and TPM are dead even with a score of 76 points. Staggering left hook by RCM to TPM.

 

Round 9 :  Focus on maintenance

 

Although I like to limit this discussion on the equipment side, TPM focus on addressing the 6 big equipment losses.  By reducing these equipment losses OEE will improve.  On the other hand RCM focus on both primary and secondary functions of the equipment.  RCM highlights the importance of secondary functions of the equipment and that it allows us to understand that there are cases where failure of secondary functions pose a bigger treat rather than the failure of a primary function.  Imagine a multiple failure occurring because the protective device which is a secondary function is in a failed state.  I think both RCM and TPM have good points on this and I consider this round to be a draw.  (RCM 10 points, TPM 10 points)

 

Round 10 :  Applicability on industry

 

Speaking about its applicability to industries, I believe that RCM have an edge on this as its process can be applied and can suit mostly any type of industry from the Nuclear, Oil and Gas,

Mining, Metals, Airline Industry where it originated, Shipping, Power plants, Automotive, as long as there are equipments and asset to maintain.  TPM’s application is mostly suited to manufacturing industries, I just wont recommend TPM to use for the Oil and Gas sector or the Airline Industries.  Hence, for industry application, I think RCM is more diversified than TPM.  I’ll give this round to RCM (RCM 10 points, TPM 9 points)

 

Round 11 : Flexibility of combining TPM and RCM

 

If we buy a pizza, TPM itself is the whole pizza, while RCM is just a mere slice.  I see RCM fit perfectly into the higher phases of Planned Maintenance which is one of the 8 pillars of TPM.  In fact several TPM case studies, includes doing RCM on their equipment.  Although according to the author of RCM, John Moubray no mention of alignment to other improvement initiatives had been mentioned in his book.  He also provides a standard SAE JA1011 to differentiate his classical RCM with those of streamlined RCM versions.  In view of this, I think TPM is more flexible than RCM, therefore, I give this round to TPM ( RCM 9 point, TPM 10 points)  

 

Round 12 : What RCM and TPM wants to achieve in maintenance ?

 

TPM aims for Maintenance Prevention

RCM aims for Proactive Maintenance

 

TPM aim is more idealistic, since in reality, we really cannot eliminate maintenance.  Our equipment is not a plug and play asset where we expect it to be reliable all the time by doing nothing.  TPM wants us to think about an ideal plant with zero breakdown, accidents and defect, and what would it take to bring our company closer and closer to it.  An ideal plant had been chosen by TPM so that its people will continuously improve, TPM do not want us to  remain in the status quo, but to improve gradually step by step, drip by drip. People believe that TPM is a continuous journey and if they have one word that is out of their vocabulary it is the word “BEST”, because they believe that the best can still be improved.  On the contrary, RCM aims for being Proactive, finding the most suitable maintenance tasks for each failure mode uncovered, doing RCM increases the assets integrity by considering both environmental and safety implications before considering effects on operations.  RCM believes that maintenance is about understanding the consequences of failure rather than eliminating the failure itself.  RCM is much more realistic in this fashion as is it allows us to understand what maintenance can and cannot do. 

 

I think that both RCM and TPM clearly explains what they want to achieve in maintenance.  Both initiatives understand that the key to all of this is their people.  If people change, their assets will be improve.  Hence, I consider this round to be a draw.

 

What a match.  Honestly, I believe in this 2 strategies and do not really know which improvement initiative have an edge until we detail it through the rounds.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The results of this comparison is purely based upon my experience and knowledge with these two powerhouse improvement strategies and might differ from other experts opinion.  I hope that you enjoy reading this reliability newsletter.