Uptime: TPM — A Foundation for Asset-Management Systems, Part II

Last month’s “Uptime” column set the stage for this multi-part series by stating that if you can’t make Total Productive Maintenance work in your plant, you will surely struggle with the ISO-55000 Asset Management Standard. And while there are five basic Pillars of TPM, the most important is Improving Equipment Effectiveness by Targeting the Major Losses. As the first TPM Pillar, it serves two essential purposes: a) What to focus on; and b) how to measure progress.

This series of columns helps weave the five basic TPM Pillars together in ways that can open eyes and minds for the asset-management journey and achieve fast sustainable results along the way. In many plants, unfortunately, TPM has been boiled down to nothing more than “involving operators in the maintenance of their equipment” as a stand-alone work process. Here, the benefits of the interdependent relationships among the five basic TPM Pillars have been lost, leading to marginally sustainable results. To recap, the five basic TPM Pillars are:

1. Improving equipment effectiveness by targeting the major losses
2. Involving operators in the maintenance of their equipment
3. Improving maintenance efficiency and effectiveness
4. Training to improve skills and knowledge
5. Early equipment management and maintenance prevention design

TPM = focused improvement

TPM is a focused-improvement strategy rather than a program to be implemented plant-wide. As an example, my September column identified Machine Z as our focal point because it is a single-point-of-failure constraint in a production process critical to business success. This means Machine Z sets the pace for the entire production process, and when it fails, the entire production process fails. While a breakdown is an obvious failure, from a reliability perspective, a functional failure occurs when Machine Z fails to perform as intended (such as a cycle time slowdown). Regardless, when Machine Z fails, it has a detrimental effect on the organization’s business goals.

Once the critical, at-risk equipment has been identified, the next step is to determine the major losses that must be targeted to improve Machine Z’s effectiveness. As discussed in last month’s column, this is where the first TPM Pillar comes into play: What is the equipment-performance data telling us about Machine Z?  The answer becomes clear when there is a process in place to collect, analyze, trend and report equipment-related performance (type, frequency, duration). The three primary equipment-effectiveness TPM loss categories include:

• Availability Losses: Planned downtime and unplanned downtime
• Performance Rate Losses: speed and cycle time
• Quality (Yield) Losses: Defects, rework and scrap

But, don’t stop there. There are many more equipment-related loss categories. Collect, analyze, trend and report the following categories to further define the major losses:

• Utilization time: Scheduled operating time vs. actual operating time
• Mean time between failures (MTBF) between repairs (MTBR): Average length of time between failures/repairs
• Mean time to repair/restore (MTTR): Average time to repair/restore operating state
• Maintenance costs: Total period maintenance labor and parts cost; maintenance cost/unit produced

Equipment-performance data communicated in Pareto charts highlight the major loss types. Frequency of the losses will help separate chronic from sporadic (one time) losses. Duration of the losses will help determine the impact to the business goals. The business goals impacted by the major losses should dictate the priority of TPM actions based on the remaining TPM Pillars. And finally, root cause analysis will point to causes and contributing factors setting the stage for corrective actions.

TPM Pillar 2: Involving operators in the maintenance of their equipment

The second Pillar of TPM means more than merely assigning routine equipment maintenance tasks to operators. Involving operators in such task makes sense only if the tasks performed contribute to sustaining or improving equipment performance, reliability and effectiveness in ways that support the goals of the business.

The key to success comes from involving the right people, skilled in the right work processes, focusing on the right equipment components. The major losses identified in Pillar 1 (above) should guide TPM actions and measure the effectiveness of the actions, including operator tasks.

The following people should be involved in developing and deploying TPM Pillar 2 actions:

• Operations top management
• Operations supervisors
• Skilled equipment operators from all shifts
• Skilled maintenance technicians (equipment specialists)
• Production planning & scheduling
• Maintenance planning & scheduling
• Equipment OEM representatives (depending on the types of losses being addressed)

TPM Pillar 3: Improving maintenance efficiency and effectiveness

Improving maintenance is a broad subject. However, TPM actions for improving maintenance efficiency and effectiveness should be focused. Again, the key to success comes from involving the right people, skilled in the right work processes, focusing on the right equipment components. The major losses identified in TPM Pillar 1 should guide and measure the effectiveness of the maintenance improvement actions.

The following people should be involved in developing and deploying TPM Pillar 3 actions:

• Maintenance top management
• Maintenance supervisors
• Skilled maintenance technicians from all shifts
• Maintenance engineers
• Reliability Engineers
• Maintenance planning & scheduling
• Production planning & scheduling
• Spare parts management
• CMMS/EAM information specialist
• Equipment OEM representatives

TPM Pillar 4: Training to improve skills and knowledge

While training is an often-used performance improvement process, it must be taken to a new level to achieve TPM results. All training to target the major losses should include a formal process for on-job-performance demonstrations—“qualifying” employees to perform the required tasks. Again, the results of TPM Pillar 1 should guide TPM actions and measure the effectiveness of the training actions.

The following people should be involved in developing and deploying TPM Pillar 4 actions:

• Operations and maintenance top management
• Human resources/Training top management
• Trainers, instructors, on-job coaches
• Training participants: Operators, maintainers, supervisors, technicians, et al

TPM Pillar 5: Early equipment management and maintenance prevention design

Equipment reliability and asset management spans the entire life cycle, starting in the equipment design and selection and ending in decommissioning or restoration. The fifth TPM Pillar reinforces the need to design in reliability and to develop the required work processes necessary to assure the equipment performs as intended throughout its life cycle.

The development of equipment standards, preventive maintenance, condition monitoring and operations and maintenance training are all part of TPM Pillar 5. Designing the equipment to require less maintenance (maintenance prevention) and making required maintenance easier to perform (improved efficiency and effectiveness) are essential actions of this Pillar.

The following people should be involved in developing and deploying TPM Pillar 5 actions:

• Equipment engineering
• Maintenance engineering
• Reliability engineering
• Equipment operations
• Equipment maintenance
• Spare parts management
• OEM engineering/technical specialist

Putting the pieces together

The overall approach that makes TPM work is the same approach that will make ISO-55000 Asset Management work: the systematic integration of all activities that ensure the equipment (assets) are properly cared for throughout their life cycle. One such plant-floor application of TPM activities is reflected in “Standards for Equipment Maintenance” that 1) are specific to the equipment; 2) define specific roles and responsibilities; and 3) are required work processes.

Think of the “Standards for Equipment Maintenance” as containing the following equipment-specific information documented on a placard posted on the equipment:

• Maximum response time for emergency repairs and/or corrective actions
• Unplanned/emergency downtime incident reporting requirements
• Root cause failure analysis completed within X days
• Spare parts availability & locations
• Skills & knowledge (qualifications) required to operate, maintain, repair
• Equipment document location(s)
• PM schedule compliance (completed within X days of due date)
• Operator-performed maintenance requirements
• TPM, Lean, Continuous Improvement requirements
• And other relevant information

These “Standards for Equipment Maintenance” can also be prepared for a variety of equipment risk or criticality categories decided upon by stakeholders in the organization. The following list details examples of equipment criticality criteria:

A = Most Critical: No work-around or back-up available. Essential for production and/or health, safety, environmental requirements. Top priority, < 4 hours maximum time to restore.

B = Critical: Work-around available at a cost; does not stop the process, interruption to service is tolerable but penalizing. High priority, 4 to 6 hours maximum time to restore.

C = Necessary: Work-around and/or additional equipment available nearby but cumbersome; does not stop the process, but will have a long-term cost impact. Priority, 1 to 2 days maximum time to restore.

D = Optional: Little to no disruption to the process or the business; other qualified equipment is available and easy to implement; no short-term or long-term cost impact; an inconvenience. Emergency response not required. Routine work, restore within 1 to 2 weeks.

TPM as an asset-management system

The ISO-55000 Asset Management Standard requires that systems be established to assure consistent, accurate and reliable practices to address at-risk assets (equipment, in this case). The principles of TPM prescribe the same. The TPM Pillars outlined here provide the framework, actions, roles and responsibilities that must be defined, standardized and implemented in an interdependent fashion for both TPM and ISO-55000 Asset Management success.

The next installment in this series will expand the asset-management concepts related to the Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance and the essential, but missing, Pillars: Leadership and Work Culture.