All-round improvements

"TPM has been a key enabler for this business," says Mick Horan, general manager at Corus Steelpark Strip Processing. His 140-employee plant, near Wolverhampton, takes steel coil, which it slits and processes for others to then use. The site has a number of large slitting machines that have benefited from the maintenance regime, as well as a lot of materials handling equipment - substantial-sized cranes, as well as forklift trucks and more. Horan doesn't claim to be an expert on TPM, but the story of its introduction at this Corus site is interesting. "We are a business that has tried to step up to the lean challenge," he explains, "and gradually we have realised that TPM is an integral part of that." Three years ago, however, when Horan moved to this site, that realisation had yet to dawn. "By pushing forward with other lean approaches, we have been forced to get to grips with TPM." The site has worked hard in a number of areas - safety, continuous improvement, productivity, SMED and 5S, to name but a few. And the business has found that TPM is not only an integral part of all these; it is, in fact, essential. Despite this, Horan has deliberately chosen not to brand the technique as TPM. "You can get operator fatigue from initiative overload," he says. One area where TPM has helped, not surprisingly, is safety. In the past, the lost time accident frequency rate (LTAFR) was 17, says Horan: "Now, however, we haven't had an accident - we have totally changed the culture." How did TPM help? Take cranes, for example. "We realised that preventative maintenance is an integral part of safety," says Horan. "Until you spend time on TPM, you are not going to engineer out safety problems." For the cranes, much analysis was carried out to understand how the equipment was performing - and all the cranes are now managed via TPM. "We do time-based maintenance, usage-based maintenance, track all movements, monitor the kit... and all this is done as a matter of routine." He is convinced that the only way to ensure maximum safety and productivity for the crane operations is with TPM. Remember, however, that Horan has not branded it TPM. "What we've done is establish a very deliberate path, starting with strategy deployment." A strategy was generated and communicated, with specific information given to the employees. What's more, this was all deployed visually. This embraced a good deal of the basics, such as 5S, but Horan built TPM into everything. And it's not only safety that benefits. "5S and SMED are inherently TPM territory," he points out. Another interesting aspect has been the impact on the shopfloor. Despite having what he describes as a great maintenance department, "we had an issue with the culture here, where operators didn't even bother reporting faults". It seems work was planned, prioritised, then carried out - but as the operators didn't see this straight away, they didn't believe things were actually happening. "Operators felt that they had no impact on maintenance," he explains. Now fault lists, wish lists - even 'what would you like your machine to look like' - are all documented by the operators on the machines. The fault reporting system changed radically. Now, when a repair is carried out, the person who raised the fault must sign it off to say they are happy with the work. "It becomes a virtuous circle," says Horan. Notably, this has resulted in autonomous maintenance being taken away from the operators. Daily inspections were being performed, but the system as a whole wasn't working. "So we've brought inspections back within the remit of maintenance," says Horan. The result? "Clarity of roles." He admits this approach wouldn't work for every business, but he advises trying different strategies before deciding whether they are appropriate. It certainly worked in this case. Technology is used to support the maintenance effort, using software from Shire Systems. "We run it religiously," he says, "and we love it. It's absolutely vital to record everything. It gives us the data to challenge things, for tracking, and for predictive maintenance." In addition to the massive improvement in safety at the site, productivity has increased by 35% in 12 months. He is in no doubt that the use of TPM - albeit "behind the scenes" - has been the driver for this. Even without the branding, TPM still supports all improvement efforts at the plant. "Operators wouldn't necessarily say this, but I know it is. Our maintenance approach now has a professional edge." This is a great example of the importance of TPM, but there are some key points for everyone - leadership, measurement, systems and, of course, doing what's right for your business. Chris Ellins of consultancy Total Flow is very clear about the leadership issue. "The success of TPM, like most elements of world-class manufacturing, consists of 10% technical knowledge, 20% strategic context and 70% management commitment and leadership." Ellins says that part of the leader's role is to educate. "Adults simply do not respond well to being told what to do, without learning for themselves why. Too few operational directors have been exposed to the concepts of adult education to understand the fundamental need to enable engineers, operators and supervisors to jointly study, discuss, modify and maintain operating assets together," he says. "If your business is one where engineers are summoned, grumbling from their hidey-hole to fix machinery under the blank gaze of an onlooking operator, while being berated by the shift supervisor for being useless, lazy and/or slow, you know that you - not they - are at fault." If this sounds depressingly familiar, fear not. It's simple to break this cycle, says Ellins. "The TPM cocktail requires one strong leader, a real business need, a simple framework to work within and a well balanced blend of operators, engineers and supervision. Depending on your taste, your ingredients can be shaken or stirred prior to serving." Marty Osborn of Infor, which owns the Datastream asset management software, is in agreement. Infor itself has changed radically through acquisitions in recent years, in ERP, supply chain and the acquisition of Datastream - a product focused on the subject of maintenance and maintainability, says Osborn. He sees strong leadership as fundamental. For any change to be successful, "you need the CEO to say 'we will use this. Period'," says Osborn. As he so neatly puts it: "At the end of the day, who is running the hen house?" Management must manage the change. That is the challenge. A problem exists with the image of maintenance, though: "It has never been sexy. Typically, you don't find a 'VP of maintenance' for example," he says. Infor did a study with The Aberdeen Group to find out about asset management strategies. Some 93% said that asset management was important, but less than 30% have senior management involved in that piece of the business. "Maintenance is fairly simple," says Osborn."If you focus on a few key items, you can have dramatic results." These results can be seen through good measures. "How many are really measuring it?" questions Osborn. "Two thirds of PMs never get done." If you measure it, you reap the results. "You get what you measure - so 30% compliance can go up to 60% or 70% compliance." As we've seen with the Corus example, this is where systems can help. Of course, Osborn supports this view. "Have the software tools to measure and make sure the tools are being used." Like Ellins, he believes education by management is key. "People have to be able to go to the management and ask why this is important." And the answer comes back, with management explaining to people now doing PMs or simple maintenance activities, or reporting in a new way to a maintenance system: "This is why it is important." One side of TPM that can be missed is that operational and maintenance people may want new tools to help them plan and measure, but may not be able to articulate what they need, in terms of value. Perhaps this is why boardrooms turn a blind eye to the topic. "We help people equate things back to ROI - what money is being added back to the bottom line," says Osborn. It's clear that a solid strategy, including these basics, can really pay off. But Osborn sounds a note of caution. "The world today isn't just 'cost, cost, cost.' When you are in that mode, it can be hard to become better, to become world class, because you are just in a 'cut' mode. Reliability and uptime - these open the doors for things to happen." Changing the mindset from cost - out to looking at productive maintenance, reliability and maintaining uptime - will deliver for your business. Paul Cooper works for WCI, a consultancy that works with clients on lean operations in agrochemical, pharmaceutical and automotive plants. WCI recently completed a full world-class programme, including TPM, at Huddersfield Manufacturing Centre (HMC), part of Syngenta, a global agrochemical producer. One aspect of successful TPM is the organisation of tasks between operational and maintenance staff, says Cooper. Although the Corus example demonstrated success in moving away from this, Cooper says that operators should be carrying out basic maintenance tasks: "That is your classic TPM," says Cooper. "The shopfloor owns the equipment, tagging, owning spares and so on. They identify a fault, tag it and raise it to a visual board. Maintenance and operators talk about it there and then, or at a daily start-up meeting." Beyond that, the strategy for other maintenance operations should be in place. WCI has used a tiered system, with operators as first line; second line is about maintenance teams doing tasks such as repairs and PMs; and finally comes a third line maintenance specialist looking at managing spares and contractors. The real thing that makes the difference, though, whether re-invigorating or starting out anew, is shopfloor engagement. At Syngenta, says Cooper, "it was their programme, we involved them in 'blitz' events... including all operatives, maintenance, management, quality... the team discovered more about why and where the equipment was failing, and how to improve it." He adds: "You have to engage and involve them - make them part of the team right at the start." In some cases, this may be the first time the operators have been given the chance to talk about equipment with management and maintenance. Finally, there is another reason to kick off, or re-invigorate, TPM. Linda Middleton-Jones has an operational role at South West MAS, working with the specialists to provide lean support. She has completed research at the University of Exeter, linking business to sustainability. In the area of how TPM can help to provide sustainability, "manufacturers' responses were quite illuminating," she says. Why? Extending the life of a machine has - as yet - undefined environmentally sustaining benefits. That is, in essence, less energy or raw materials required to replace the machine. Her research highlights that this is only just dawning on businesses. "It doesn't matter if it's preventative maintenance, TPM, rebuild or repair - each has a sustainable benefit," states Middleton-Jones. But do you really need another reason - when so many are already evident in successful manufacturing companies using TPM?