Implementing- Total Productive Management/Maintenance (TPM).

Implementing- Total Productive Management/Maintenance (TPM).

 By Stephen Obiji.

The basic concepts and aims of TPM are:

1.     To build profitable cooperate culture.

2.     To maximize effectiveness within an organization.

3.     To adopt preventive philosophy and eliminate loses, breakdown and failure.

4.     To involve all the workforce and members of the organization.

5.     To ensure employee convenience.

To achieve the aims of TPM, areas of improvement are:

1.     Productivity-P.

2.     Quality – Q

3.     Cost- C

4.     Delivery- D

5.     Safety- S

6.     Morale - M

PQCDSM, 5 and 6 are Human Related.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON THE AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT.

PRODUCTIVITY: Though the human related aspect of Productivity is more of Performance Management System (PMS) which I will cover in the course of this presentation.

Productivity in TPM introduces ways to;

1.     Eliminate Loses or Wastes of; (a) Materials (b) Time-: To start, Redo, Rework, Replace, Repeat, Rewrite….

2.     Prevent total breakdown or failure by scheduling planned/preventive maintenance.

3.     Training the employee to understand; the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Job Processes and his machine (manual).

QUALITY: I will present; Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and the Implementation of ISO, under Total Quality Management as part of ‘focused management initiative’ which I had recommended for your organization in my previous presentation.

TPM uses a focused and detailed approach to achieve Quality of Product and Quality of Service at a Low Cost. In TPM, we believe that Quality must not be capital dependent.

Reduction in the Cost of Production-cum-improved quality is as good as enhanced Quality Service delivery at a reduced Delivery time.

The way to Quality is to Set a Standard/Procedure/Specification/Benchmark and being able to measure/determine, achieve and continuously sustain it, without variation.

Examples: 1. A customer can be disappointed if the process/procedure of making transaction with a particular organization defers at different branches of the same organization.

                    2. I enjoyed the taste and texture of a particular Baked Bread, on first trial, but was later disappointed when the same product brand felt and tasted differently at several occasions.

The difference between Quality Control (QA) and Quality Assurance (QA) will be explained in my subsequent presentations.

Safety and Morale of the employee are paramount to sustain the driving force of the Organization.

Apart from the general view that remuneration boosts Morale, Japanese introduced the ‘Gemba Walk’, which requires that top management personnel and Directors can make out time to Visit the Field and the employee at the work place and if possible help or encourage them.

Example: 1. During my Pre Degree Work Experience as a Polymer Extrusion Machine Operator, the Director then made out time to understand the challenges we were facing and even helped in dismantling a full Polymer Roll from the Machine/Roller.

                  2. Mr. Mittal of Global Steel, most of the time (during Gemba Walk) is hardly distinguished from his employees at the Steel Melting Shop (SMS), Continuous Casting Section, or the Rolling Mill.

                  3. At my first Post Degree work, my morale was boosted when the Head of Sales in Tell Communication called me at the field, while I was building customer based subscriptions.

‘Safety, Health and Environment’ is one of the Eight Pillars of TPM which I will present next...