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

This conclusion of a three-part, special-focus “Uptime” series weaves the five basic TPM Pillars together in ways that can open the eyes and minds of those who are interested in the Asset Management journey—and help you achieve sustainable results along the way. Sadly, as discussed in Parts 1 and 2, many plants have boiled TPM down to nothing more than a standalone work process of “involving operators in the maintenance of their equipment.” Consequently, the benefits of the interdependent relationships among TPM’s basic Pillars are lost, leading to marginally sustainable results. To recap, these five 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

This month’s column expands the Asset Management concepts related to the Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance and the essential, but missing, Pillars of TPM: Leadership and Work Culture.

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 the at-risk assets (equipment, in this case). The principles of TPM prescribe the same thing. TPM’s five pillars provide the basic framework, actions and roles and responsibilities that must be defined, standardized, and put into action in an interdependent fashion for both TPM and ISO 55000 Asset Management success. But Asset Management—like Total Productive Maintenance—needs more than systems, frameworks, actions, roles and responsibilities to succeed.

It’s about people

Asset Management is more about people than machines and technologies. This was always true with TPM: When analyzed, there was very little new in it. What made TPM work was the ability of the entire organization to shift its paradigm and deploy people differently throughout the equipment life-cycle to focus on eliminating major equipment-related losses.

In July 2014, the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) published Asset Management—An Anatomy, (version 2) as a guide to the internal workings of Asset Management as described in ISO 55000. This PDF document is downloadable free of charge at theIAM.org/AMA. In it, the IAM is quick to point out that “People ‘do’ Asset Management.” For those of us who have seen technological solutions come and go over time, that’s an essential point to remember. How people are motivated, led and deployed on new tasks along with their willingness and competency will make or break any Asset Management effort.

Identifying ‘missing’ pillars

The American market started to become aware of TPM in 1986 through a story about a company (Nippondenso) introducing a system that spread across a country (Japan.) In this story, the company described the early use of “American-style PM” (preventive maintenance) and later “quality circles” in which “all employees participated. As a Toyota supplier, quality and reliable manufacturing processes were crucial to Nippondenso. Teamwork and leadership were implied.

Ultimately, when the Japan Institute of plant Maintenance (JIPM) introduced TPM to the rest of the world, it began with five Pillars, which later grew to eight. I have referred to the first set as the Basic Pillars of TPM as they convey the fundamentals. However, something was left out when we began exploring TPM in the plants and facilities outside of Japan. What about the “people?” How would we get buy-in, ownership, and accountabilities established?

In essence, “Leadership” and “Work Culture” seemed to be “missing pillars” as American plants began deploying the revolutionary maintenance practices reflected in TPM. While they may have been a given in Japan’s TPM plants, anyone in this country who has tried to implement a paradigm-shifting work process in a traditional manufacturing enterprise or utility knows first-hand that there will be pushback—sometimes to the detriment of the improvement process.

It’s often been said, “People don’t mind change. They resent being changed.” In many situations, a proposed radical change will upset tradition, old habits and “the way we’ve always done things around here.” It takes focused, decisive and motivational leadership from the top and throughout the organization to lead the TPM change process. The more a compelling the business case for this change, the easier it is for people to “get on board.” That said, success calls for more than just generating interest in the TPM bandwagon.

In addition to establishing Leadership, to realize sustainable benefits from TPM, there’s a need to establish a new Work Culture (i.e., how people behave on the job). The fact that people may be “on board” doesn’t necessarily equate to changed minds and hearts or a newly instilled sense of purpose. (Among plant employees, “getting on board” can range from full immersion in TPM to just tolerating things until it goes away.)

Disconnected Leadership has been the biggest barrier to TPM success in America. When top management sends the message that “TPM is our new organization-wide process for eliminating equipment-related losses and improve our overall business performance”—and then provides the resources to make it happen—a strong message is sent.

Old habits and old metrics, however, rule the plant floor until leaders at all levels of the enterprise align their words and actions with those of top management. Unfortunately, Leadership and Work Culture will most likely be the biggest challenges associated with the deployment of Asset Management processes consistent with ISO 55000.

Asset Management leadership

While the ISO 55000 Standard doesn’t specifically address “people” issues, IAM points to the importance of “Organization & People” enablers in its previously referenced Anatomy document. Of the six subject-matter groups and 39 subjects, the five subjects that specifically address “Organization & People.” are:

• Procurement & Supply Chain Management (Outsourcing collaboration with capable suppliers & contractors; Long-term AM [asset management] goals [cost, risk, quality, performance management])
• Asset Management Leadership (Leadership consistency & professionalism at all levels; clearly focused on organizational objectives & priorities)
• Organizational Structure (Aligned with AM Strategy; Information sharing, cross-functional work; multi-disciplinary teamwork)
• Organizational Culture (Proactively shaped by senior management; aligned with AM goals)
• Competence Management (Competence matches roles & responsibilities; systematically defining competency and behavioral requirements; selecting & developing the right people; deploying the right people, the right place & time)

Of these five subjects, I believe “Asset Management Leadership” is the single most important to master for organizations that are making the Asset Management journey. In the ISO 55000 model, Leadership (top management) sets the overall direction for Asset Management. Then, leadership cascading throughout the entire organization sends a consistent message, clear expectations, accountabilities, etc. Leadership is also required to bring the remaining four Organization and People subjects to fruition. (The IAM Anatomy adds more details in each of these subject areas.)

Most of the TPM post-mortem analyses will highlight the failure of Leadership as one of the top reasons for a lack of sustainable TPM-related results. Why would we expect anything different when it comes to leading an Asset Management revolution?

Interestingly, the IAM characterizes “Organizational Culture” (i.e., Work Culture) as one of the five enabling subjects. To quote the IAM Anatomy:

“The culture of an organization affects everything it does and all aspects of its performance. Asset management is no exception to this, any more than are safety, security, financial management, customer service or corporate reputation. This is why a proactive approach to culture management is important to organizations which seek to benefit from asset management.”

In this discussion of “Organization Culture,” the IAM Anatomy includes the following strong message for Leadership:

“The first step towards creating a culture which is conducive to asset management is for the senior management team to produce a clear idea of what it is they are trying to achieve and why the approach they are adopting is likely to be effective.”

Having a work culture that focuses on results using defined structures and work processes will be one of the biggest enablers of Asset Management. After all, Asset Management is designed to achieve sustainable results for the at-risk assets that add value to the business goals. Merely implementing Asset Management work processes and job titles will not yield the intended results. The traditional or legacy work culture must conform to a new mindset that is instilled by company leadership.

Lessons learned

Leading the transformation from a traditional work culture, no matter how minor or how complex, is as foundational to ISO 55000-based Asset Management now as is was to TPM. Readers who have been on the TPM journey will recognize, from personal experience, the value of Leadership.

Those who have not been on this journey should look around at the major change processes that have taken place in their businesses. They should then assess the role Leadership has played (or may be playing) in their success or failures.