Total Productive Maintenance - Case Study Example

TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE IN JINDAL STEELWORKS PLANT 0 Forward  This study makes an attempt to study the basics of Total Productive Maintenance and related concepts. The paper will also focus on the processes that involve the use of TPM concepts like focused improvement (FI), Autonomous maintenance (AM), and Planned maintenance (PM) including the basic TPM method of 5S. This paper studies the case of Jindal Steel Plant wherein these concepts have been applied by the company management to gain competitive advantages. The paper will study the implementation of TPM approach and show how TPM affects the results of the processes involved in production and increasing employee satisfaction and morale. Increased efficiency and productivity are the main goals of TPM that are focused in this study.  Jindal Steelworks is a global company - a fast growing steelworks and fabrication company, with more than 7,000 employees. The company has recently been hit hard by the global recession and is presently facing hardships in maintaining its profits. The company management has decided to implement various management techniques with the help of available technological and HR management systems in the industry. A number of production and operational management techniques were utilized to increase the value of the system routing through a well defined systematic approach that assisted the company to identify better profits.  With the purpose of sustaining the future growth options, from a finer product based business approach towards higher operational excellence of the company, the management has decided to evaluate modern techniques, TPM, being one of them. By putting in the new management applications in the form of techniques like TPM, TQM, supply chain and inter-enterprise systems, Jindal Steelworks has been able to push through higher goals, better operational excellence, higher cost savings and competitive advantage, (Roberts, 1997). 2.0 Introduction  With the effects of recession on the company profit margins, and changing industry scenario, the company management has been searching for low cost operational and production techniques, along with higher effciency results and customer orieted reuslts. TPM has gained a lot of attention within the steel industry and has been successfully able to eliminate common problems to steel plants like machinery breakdowns, onsite accidents, procedural defects and lack of standards and work safety. Introduction of TPM at the work floor of Jindal steel works has helped to improve work conditions, reduced accidents rates and breakdowns by a considerable margin. TPM suggests various techniques and methods to employees’ to take care after the tools and equipments in order to increase the life span of the equipments and machinery. The basics behind TPM are zero step times, and zero accidents and no breakdowns. TPM effectively enhances the role of each machine part involved in the system and subsequently works to educate all employees, increasing awareness about manufacturing processes and operational systems, promoting team work and clean and safe working environments, (Chan and Kong, 2003). The main focus of TPM is on maintaining the machinery in its optimal functional state, reducing breakdowns and waste, conducting preventative, corrective, and autonomous maintenance at regular intervals. The definitive goals of TPM are zero machinery breakdowns and zero product failings, (Mcbridge, 2003). The following section lists out the various objectives of TPM :  2.1 Operational Objectives 1. Reduction in the cycle time 2. Productivity enhancement 3. Work –in-process inventory reduction 4. Quality enhancement 5. Wastage and Space requirement cut down 6. Higher Overall Equipment Efficiency 7. Reduction in manufacturing costs 2.2 Administrative Improvements 1. Order Processing errors minimized 2. Customer service rendered in real time, with no holding time. 3. Better focus on Customer demands, and out-sourcing of non-critical functions. 4. Higher turn over, with resultant savings in attrition costs 5. Team work and motivational enhancement of the work force  3.0 Case study – Jindal Steel Works Plant Jindal Steel had introduced TPM on its shop floors in January 2010. The basis for the TPM implementation was the Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED). SMED is itself a lean production based method which intends to reduce waste and reduces chnageover times in a productuion line by smaller lot sizes and improved product flow. The pilot TPM program was introduced in the Strip-mill section of the Jindal steel plant. TPM was applied to every device included within the section like the precision cutters, glow furnace and grinding units. Looking closer at the specific additions under the TPM program in the mill section at Jindal steels, the following changes had been initiated. A crane that was primarily being utilized for the purpose of rings installation was disassembled for overhauling purposes. The floor in the assembly room was rebuilt; thereby removing any kind of uneven surface and finally the packaging line was refurnished with oil mist ventilation to protect the employee health. Also, the floor managers were able to dispose of 75% of the items that were marked with red during inspection and were to be replaced with new ones. Also the floor and section managers were made responsible for detailed inspection of workplaces to ensure TPM standards are being followed. Along with inspection, regular control checks, and procedural compliance was to be maintained. These included strict measures related to marking schemes, item specifying methods, use of symbolic codes and colors, floor marking models, marking models of tools access zones, etc. Under the TPS scheme, the whole mill section is subjected to periodic and running checks and controls. Also, the Total Productive maintenance scheme further brought forward the option of cross control by workers / managers at different departments within the company so as to compare, judge and assess the usability of TPS.  Maintaining a clean and neat working environment and enhancing organization at the work floors was suggested to the Jindal employees. Successful collaboration between workers, expansion of knowledge and expertise helped to skills of the workers, helped to increase the motivation and sense of responsibility among employees. 4.0 Application of Autonomous maintenance to Jindal Steel works This type of TPM maintenance is basically geared with the approach of helping and training the machine operators of the work floor to be able to initiate and be solely responsible for small scale maintenance tasks. This would offer more time to the maintenance department to focus more time on other value added activities and operational and technical overhauling and repairs. The floor managers at Jindal Steel have been able to apply the concept of autonomous maintenance to a fairly large extent by keeping the machine operators responsible for prevention of machine parts deterioration. The activities that are included in this nature of maintenance are clean-up, greasing of parts, visual inspection, tightening of slackened bolts etc. 4.1 The policy / approach followed by Jindal managers under the Autonomous maintenance are as follows:   1. Incessant operation of equipments. 2. Flexible operators to control and preserve machine parts and equipments. 3. Eradicating the faults at the origin with the help of fast and active employee involvement. 4.2 Steps in Autonomous maintenance: These are the following steps that form the part of the AM schedule for Jindal work floor operators 1. Training of operators – The first step in the application of AM was to educate the floor and machine operators of Jinadl Steel works about TPM / AM and its benefits. Subsequently training the operators with regards to the machinery, oiling frequency, daily maintenance procedures, and frequent abnormalities and their solutions. 2. Preliminary cleaning of equipments and other minor parts – This step consists of cleaning up of machine parts, working in co-ordination with the maintenance department for executing detailed cleaning up tasks. Previous stains, dust, oil, grease to be removed with new oiling and greasing. Other worn out and loosened parts like nuts, bolts need to be checked and repaired.  After the cleaning up, tagging is done, which consists of white tags on tasks which can be handled by the operators themselves and pink tags which are to be taken care by the maintenance executives. 3. Receive instructions of counter measures – this step consists of receiving trainings with regards to the inaccessible regions, where it seems impossible for the operators to reach and rectify the concern. Also, timely modification of small machine parts to avoid accumulation of dust also forms a part of this step. 4. Setting up of tentative AM principles and policy – This step consists of setting up AM standards and following them rigorously. Scheduling of AM activities, in coordination with operators and maintainenance department is also called for under this step. 5. Universal and all purpose inspection  - The employees and floor operators are educated and given first hand information in various subjects like Pneumatics, electrical, hydraulics, lubricant and coolant, drives, bolts, nuts and personal safety as well. This knowledge assists the operators while personally inspecting the machine and reading instruction manuals.   6. A detailed autonomous inspection – This section of the task includes instructing the operators and floor managers to employ new and modern techniques of cleaning and lubricating the machine parts. This is done under the supervision of the maintenance department and as per the laid out schedule. Machine and other operational parts that never show up any problems are also removed from the list of regular maintenance check ups. Also, replacement of poor parts is done with quality standard parts to avoid poor performance. 7. Standardization – the above mentioned steps were related to machinery and equipments only. However, the last step includes the environment of the machinery or the shop floor of Jindal steel works. In this step, the machine operators, work force and floor managers are taught to keep the various things in an organized manner so that less time in searching things is required.   5.0 Application of Focused Improvement Procedure to Jindal Steel works Basically Focused improvements, a category of TPM, is targeted at small sized improvements, however the procedure is carried out on a continuous basis and maintains a close loop among every employee of the company. The fundamental behind this concept is that a very large number of small improvements are much more valuable than a smaller number of large improvements, if seen in the long run, (Seiichi, 2008). With this, the Jindal managers aim to reduce the existing losses in the operational chain of the company. However, Focused improvement activities have also been applied to the management of the company part from the operations. 5.1 The policy / approach followed by Jindal managers under the Focused improvements is as follows:   1. Apply and follow the concept of zero losses within each department of the company. 2. Follow cost reduction patterns for all types of resources involved 3. Enhance the overall operational effectiveness 4. Utilize PM analysis to reduce losses 5.2 Targets: The main objective of TPM is to increase the overall operating efficiencies of equipments and systems as a whole. One of the main pillars of Total Productive maintenance, Focused improvement concerns increasing equipments performance, operator performance and optimal utilization of resources. The managers at Jindal Steel works have aimed to focus the concept of FI on six various concerns that are as follows: 1.      Reduce failure of equipments that are a major cause of production downtime. Equipment failure causes production downtime. In this case, FI is carried out by utilizing preventive maintenance methods and design changes, (Ming, Hong, 2004).  Also, before hand analysis of the information collected about failures and down times can be utilized for preventive maintenance. 2.      There are many time laps that are caused to the difference between the product types and operations. There is a requirement to reduce these time gaps as this time lapse is not usually included in the planned downtime. 3. To avoid short timed stops that are a common cause of worry for the floor managers at jindal steel works. These small timed stops of the operations are given for cleaning and logistics, (Mora, 2002). 4. To reduce as much possible the losses that occurs due to the inefficient speed of parts and equipments. The main cause of inefficient speed are wear of parts, substandard materials, poor design etc. 5. To decrease the losses that occur due to the poor quality of resources and labor (lack of expertize / skill) used up on the shop floor.   6.0 Application of Planned maintenance to Jindal Steel works – Jindal steel works management was careful while segregating the various type of maintenance as per their requirements, existing conditions while prioritizing customer satisfaction. While utilizing the concept of planned maintenance, which is another category of TPM, it is kept in mind that the efforts in this direction are strained from a reactive to a proactive approach and utilizes the maintenance department professionals to train the machine and floor operators to help maintain machine parts and operational activities, (Mora, 2002). 6.1 The policy / approach followed by Jindal managers under the Planned maintenance is as follows:   1. Accomplish and uphold accessibility of machines and equipments 2. Best possible maintenance expenditure 3. Trim down spare parts inventory 4. Develop dependability and maintainability of equipments and other operational parts 6.2 Target: 1. Zero equipment operational failure and machine break down. 2. Enhance dependability and maintainability of machine parts by at least 60-70 % 3. Diminish maintenance expenditure by at least 30 % 4. Make sure easy accessibility of spares is available at all time. 6.3 Steps in Planned maintenance: These are the following steps that form the part of the planned schedule for Jindal work floor operators 1. Equipment evaluation and recoding present status 2. Restore deterioration and improve weakness of the operations 3. Setting up a strong information management system 4. Prepare prophetic maintenance scheme by initiating equipment diagnostic modus operandi   7.0 Fish Bone Analysis The fishbone diagram has been utilized to offer a systematic method to identify the effects and the causes that are the reasons behind the problem occurring within the Company’s operational chain. Here is a Fish Bone analysis for the Jindal steel works which states the various problems that lead to the cause of incompetent operations and profits for Jindal Steel works. 8.0 Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) – This is a function of the below mentioned three factors - Thus OEE is a function of the three factors mentioned below. (Imaginary figures taken) 1. Availability or uptime (downtime: planned and unplanned, tool change, tool service, job change etc.)  = (A) (In case of Jindal, it can be estimated that the uptime may increase from 60% to 90%) 2. Performance efficiency (actual vs. design capacity)  = (PE) (In case of Jindal, it can be estimated that the PE may increase from 60% to 90%) 3. Rate of quality output (Defects and rework)  = (Q) (In case of Jindal, It can be estimated that at 90% of the time, quality output is produced) Thus OEE = A*PE*Q = (90%*90%*90%) = 27% 9.0 Benefits of TPM to Jindal Steel Works Jindal Steel works can look forward to a number of benefits from the application of TPM in their organization. Here are some of them as follows: 1. Higher rate of employee involvement and increased motivation 2. Acquiring of new skills and enhanced creativity to better performance 3. Employees possess a feeling of ownership for their tasks as compared to earlier 4. Higher work efficiency ( as per experts, the figure may reach upto 150% in some cases) 5. Breakdown reductions for the shop floor at Jindal (Upto 95%) 6. Reduction in accidents upto 99% 7. Reduction of internal waste from resources and labor; 8. Higher work quality and production quality 9. Quality increase in terms of output 10. Expenditure fallen and profit margins increased TPM and its related maintenance methods are in fact customer oriented and assist the managers to obtain permanent advantages with respect to their competitors. Direct paybacks, icreased customer satisfaction and operational benefits are some that can be derived through effective implementation of TPM at Jindal Steel works. 10.0 References 1. Ming-Hong, L. (2004), Factors affecting the implementation of Total Productive Maintenance System, eThesys 2. Chan, F.T.S., Lau, H.C.W, Ip, R.W.L., Chan, H.K., Kong, S., (2003), Implementation of Total Productive maintenance, A case study, International Journal of Production Economics, pp 71-94 3. McBRIDE, D. (2004), Implementing TPM Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Lean Manufacturing Consulting and Training, EMS Consulting Group (http://www.emsstrategies.com) 4. Mora, E. (2002), The Cost of not implementing TPM, article on tpmonline.com. 5. Mora, E. (2002), The Right Ingredients for a Successful TPM or Lean Implementation, article on tpmonline.com. 6. Roberts, J. (1997), TPM TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE, History and Basic Implementation Process, Technology Interface / fall. 7. Seiichi Nakajima, TPM Development Program, Productivity Press, 1989 _in_ J. Brzeski, M. Figas company Lean Visions:Introduction to TPM, (2008)     Read More