Let's talk about a Lean Manufacturing tool that not only maximizes the productivity of your equipment, but extends the life of the equipment as well.
We're talking, of course, about Total Productive Maintenance, or TPM, a systematic approach . . . where preventative maintenance, total quality control and total employee involvement all combine to create a culture that assures production is never interrupted.
"Production never interrupted? We can’t do that at our plant," confessed one local manufacturer. "We have old equipment that is just worn out. Our machines have been poorly maintained - they’re always breaking down. It’s too late to implement TPM at our place!"
This company falls into the "run-fail-fix" category. And their bottom line is being negatively impacted from the losses they incur as a result of their faulty equipment:
- Unexpected breakdown losses – costs include downtime (plus lost production opportunities), labor and spare parts
- Set-up and adjustment losses – more lost production opportunities
- Stoppage losses – frequent production downtime (minutes that are difficult to record and usually hidden from efficiency reports)
- Speed losses – productivity losses when equipment must be slowed to prevent quality defects or minor stoppages
- Quality-defect losses – off-spec production and defects due to equipment malfunction or poor performance
- Equipment and capital investment losses – wear and tear on machines that reduce durability and productive life span – leading to more frequent capital investment in replacement equipment.
But it’s not too late for this company to turn their reactive approach, where maintenance is viewed as a service, into a proactive tactic where maintenance becomes a producer. That’s right, a producer, and the end result is capacity!
To get started, let’s look at four techniques:
- Efficient equipment – identify the losses that hinder performance. Calculate overall equipment efficiency (OEE). Determine where to focus most of your attention.
- Effective maintenance – launch a thorough and routine maintenance program. Your equipment operators are key to carrying out the daily maintenance regimen (precision checks, lubrication, parts replacement, simple repairs, and abnormality detection.) Consider adding corrective maintenance to the list as well – recording the results of daily inspections, and routinely submitting maintenance improvement ideas.
- Mistake-proofing – or "fail-safing" (lean experts call it poka-yoke), but whatever you call it, it’s about making mistakes impossible, or easier to detect/correct. You need to think about prevention devices and detection devices.
- Safety management – address potentially dangerous conditions and activities before they cause accidents, damage and unanticipated costs.
To launch your TPM program, the upper management team demonstrates their commitment by appointing a TPM coordinator, who introduces TPM concepts to the work force via an education program (that involves the techniques listed above.) Then the coordinator announces the first study (a small one), forms an action team, and undertakes the project using proven problem-solving techniques. The successful completion of this project is both recognized by upper management and well publicized. As the teams become familiar with the TPM process and experience success with smaller projects, they begin engaging problems with increasing importance and complexity.
How do you view maintenance in your operation? Is it a repair business, or is it a capacity producer? An effective TPM program can significantly impact your income statement and balance sheet . . . by increasing throughput and customer service, lowering inventory buffers, and decreasing cycle times.
If you want to talk more about TPM and/or other Lean Manufacturing tools, give us a call at 800-877-5182.