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by Rolly Angeles, Reliability Consultant
Spending at least 7 years as a TPM Senior Engineer in one of the biggest semiconductor industries in our country provided me some insight and indebt understanding as to why TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is not easy as you think to implement. Many books had been published on TPM with industries reaping its rewards and having a dramatic increase in their productivity, decrease in defects and breakdowns and not to mention the reduction in their operating and maintenance cost, but on the other side, many industries initiating a TPM journey in their plant had miserably failed and abandoned the process completely. I truly believe in the TPM process without a doubt, but TPM can only be successful if you know how to implement it correctly. Hence, before embarking on initiating a TPM Strategy, take note of the following because if these factors are not taken seriously, then all TPM efforts are doomed to fail in your industry. Therefore, for those plants initiating a TPM strategy in your plant, I believe this newsletter would be worth your reading.
1st : TPM is a Top-Down Approach
TPM is a Top-down approach and never a Down-up approach. TPM should be initiated by the highest member of the company which is a CEO, General Manager or President. As noted from TPM’s Twelve Developmental Steps, a formal announcement from the Top should help get your TPM started.
2nd : TPM requires an Office and not a Facilitator
TPM requires a full time staff and not a part time facilitator. Assigning one person to handle TPM would surely leads you to its doomsday and downfall. As to how many people will be staffed in the TPM Office will depend upon the size of the plant. Just to give you an idea, the plant I’ve worked for have around 6,000 employees, and 8 of us belong to the TPM Office and each one of us directly reports to the TPM Manager, I was assigned to carry on the pillar of Planned Maintenance and Early Equipment Management. TPM Office will provide the details and legwork on how each of the pillar is being implemented, initial audits and certifications per step and phase, training on their respective pillars, team recognition and most importantly consolidating the work of every single pillar. Remember TPM requires everybody’s involvement and all employees of the plant will have a specific pillar to attend to.
3rd : TPM is a long term approach not short term
Operations and maintenance want everything fast, therefore they result to quick fix solution in which eventually will resurface again in the near future. Management must understand that TPM is a long term and not a short term approach. Benefits will be realized first on a small scale which will eventually and gradually be felt on other areas of the plant. There is no short cut to this process. TPM is being implemented on a Step by Step approach.
4rth : TPM will require a Budget
The most difficult part in the TPM implementation would be the Preparatory Stage or Start-up. As most management are sensitive to the issue on cost. TPM is costly in the initial stages of implementation and believe me when I tell you. Some of the expenses in the initial TPM stages will include training and educating all employees on TPM and their respective pillars. Initial cleaning for Autonomous Maintenance in which the teams try to correct abnormalities in their equipment. Restoration activities for Planned Maintenance since the aim of TPM will be to bring back the equipment as close as possible to its original basic condition.
5th : TPM and company goals must be aligned
This is one of the most important aspects of any TPM implementation that is mostly overlooked. Both TPM and Company goals must be aligned, it cannot be different. Otherwise TPM will be seen as a separate activity and not as a plant directive. This will include the indices and KPI’s being tracked down to viewed the company’s progress. OEE or Overall Equipment Effectiveness should be part of the company’s primary measures.
6th : TPM is heavy on documentation
What is being done should be documented in the TPM process. Documents should be placed on Activity Boards and not on binders and folders so that everyone not yet involved in the TPM journey can see the benefits and results of TPM implementation. The activity boards should be updated regularly by the team involved in the TPM activity.
7th : Managers Model Machine for Managers
Managers must be involved and must have their share of responsibility in the TPM Process and most specially they should be part of a team. This will be an initial requirement for any industry aiming for TPM Certification and therefore essential to the success of any TPM implementation. Part of their role is to see to it that their pillar is moving and advancing to the next step. Remember that each TPM pillar is performed on a step by step approach and there are not shortcuts to it. |
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Team performs Planned Maintenance Restoration
8th : AM must be done in parallel with PM
Although Autonomous Maintenance (AM) would be the largest pillar in terms of population on the number of people involved, Planned Maintenance (PM) should be and must be the strongest pillar in any TPM implementation. The equipment is always a shared responsibility for both operations and maintenance together. One of Planned Maintenance utmost responsibility will be to educate the operators on their equipment, as operators learn to accept some minor responsibilities in their equipments such as doing the basics which are maintaining the equipment clean, proper lubrication and tightening of bolts, these things can only be appreciated by operators with the aid of Planned Maintenance as their mentors. If Planned Maintenance Structure is weak so will be its Autonomous Maintenance. Planned Maintenance should serve as the Autonomous Maintenance coaches and mentors in their equipments. On the other side, maintenance can only advance to other maintenance activities and get out from the reactive mode of firefighting if Autonomous Maintenance will take part in their shared responsibility on their equipment.
9th : Management Commitment and not Support
Management can support and never commit to any TPM activities. In TPM what we need are Managers who can provide commitment and be part of the process. This is a very important lesson in TPM. These two words are entirely different “Support and Commitment”. Remember that TPM must be done not as a separate activity but rather management must realize that their day to day activities must be part of the TPM process. TPM is not a once a week meeting or activity but rather a continuous process.
10th : TPM is all about people and not machines
Most industries that implement TPM think that it is all about improving equipment yet little regard is being provided in educating its workforce. Many say that people are the companies greatest asset, I hate to disagree with this statement because I think that the right people are a companies greatest asset. And how can we have the right people ? Only if they are equipped with the right knowledge to perform their jobs correctly. People will improve their equipments and its not the other way around. Hence, people must continuously be educated and their knowledge upgraded.
11th : OEE is the impact of all TPM Pillars combined
Having a high OEE is not a product of only one pillar but rather is the consolidated effort of all pillars involved. Improving OEE means improving the six major equipment losses and all pillars will have their corresponding role in improving them. Below is the six major equipment losses and the pillar that will impact them most.
Breakdown Losses by Planned Maintenance, Set-up, Adjustment and Conversion by Focused Improvement and Planned Maintenance Pillar / Start-Up Losses by Planned Maintenance and Early Equipment Management (Initial Flow Control Activities) / Idling and Minor Stoppages (chokotei) by Autonomous Maintenance, Focused Improvement and Planned Maintenance / Design Speed Loss by Focused Improvement Pillar / Defects and Rework Loss by Focused Improvement and Quality Maintenance Pillar
12th : TPM is not culture bound
Although TPM originated from the east “Japanese”, it will work on any industry since it is not bounded by culture and beliefs. Japanese have a certain way of doing things, and what is important is not to imitate them but rather to be flexible and transparent in adopting TPM to our own culture.
I would like to dedicate this newsletter to my former TPM team in which some of them I am still in contact with and some I don't. Having been asked several times by industries to work with them and initiate a TPM journey which I decline would only be possible should I be working with the SAME TEAM and to my former TPM team, wherever you are, it was an honor and privileged working with you.
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RELIABILITY NEWSLETTER |
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Welcome to your Reliability Monthly Newsletter for the month of November 2007. You are receiving this email because at some point in time and for reasons that you opted to be included in our Newsletter mailing list from our web at www.rsareliability.com
Our newsletter will be sent out once a month and provide you with quality articles and resources on our most common link which is reliability and maintenance, as well as regular updates on our articles. I would like to personally invite you to visit our new website regularly and check out updates on our articles and training courses.
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Finally should you be interested to contribute to our articles section or share any feedback, I encourage you to email me at rollyangeles@rsareliability.com. If for any reason you wish to unsubscribe from our newsletter, kindly send my a blank email with unsubscribe as the heading and we shall remove you from our mailing lists. Once again I hope that you enjoy reading our Reliability Newsletter.
My Warm Regards,
Website : www.rsareliaiblity.com Email : rollyangeles@rsareliability.com |
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Issue No. 7 - November 2007 |
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RELIABILITY & MAINTENANCE CONSULTANCY FIRM
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