Manufacturing excellence through TPM implementation: a practical analysis
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570610649899 |
| Pages | 256-280 |
| Published date | 01 February 2006 |
| Date | 01 February 2006 |
| Author | Rajiv Kumar Sharma,Dinesh Kumar,Pradeep Kumar |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Manufacturing excellence
through TPM implementation:
a practical analysis
Rajiv Kumar Sharma, Dinesh Kumar and Pradeep Kumar
IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India
Abstract
Purpose – To examine the need to develop, practice and implement such maintenance practices,
which not only reduce sudden sporadic failures in semi-automated cells but also reduce both operation
and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Design/methodology/approach – A case-based approach in conjunction with standard tools,
techniques and practices is used to discuss various issues related with TPM implementation in a
semi-automated cell.
Findings – The findings indicate that TPM not only leads to increase in efficiency and effectiveness
of manufacturing systems, measured in terms of OEE index, by reducing the wastages but also
prepares the plant to meet the challenges put forward by globally competing economies to achieve
world class manufacturing (WCM) status.
Originality/value – The paper presents an interesting investigation of TPM implementation issues
which may help the managers/practitioners to prepare their plants/units to meet the challenges of
competitive manufacturing in twenty-first century by adopting and implementing TPM.
Keywords Cellular manufacturing, Maintenance,Operations management,Maintenance programmes,
Preventive maintenance, World class manufacturing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In this age of agile manufacturing the global competition characterized by both
technology push and market pull had forced the companies to achieve world -class
performance through continuous improvement in their products and processes. Today,
various innovative techniques and management practices such as total preventive
maintenance (TPM); total quality management (TQM); business process reengineering
(BPR); materials requirement planning (MRP); enterprise resource planning (ERP) and
just in time (JIT), etc. are becoming popular among the business houses (Ljungberg,
1998; Jonsson and Lesshammar, 1999; Nikolopoulos et al., 2003; Leem and Kim, 2004;
Rodney and Galloway, 2005; Chou and Hsu, 2005). With increased competition,
demands on products with higher quality, faster delivery time had forced the managers
to convert conventional manufacturing practices to computer controlled
manufacturing practices such as flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and
computer integrated manufacturing systems. The trends are apparent from concepts
such as CIM, CAD, CAM, JIT, and FMS. Significant improvements in inventory levels,
space requirements, lead and cycle times, scrap and yield rates and other quality
measures have been reported from numerous studies (Tajiri and Gotoh, 1992; Raouf,
1994; Jostes and Helms, 1994; Ben-Daya and Duffuaa, 1995; Bateman, 1995; Ljungberg,
1998; Agbasi et al., 2004) But the troubled free operation of systems had not been
completely ruled out. For instance, in a highly integrated manufacturing system such
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IMDS
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256
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 106 No. 2, 2006
pp. 256-280
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570610649899
as an FMS, machinery is integrated with complex computer network (CNC or DNC).
Each machine in an FMS is a combination of many sub-assemblies, where each
sub-assembly is itself complex and consists of many dissimilar interdependent
components (mechanical, electronic, hydraulic, software). Owing to their complexity
the systems are vulnerable to various kinds of disturbances, the nature and number of
failures and the time required to locate them. It is quite evident that the traditional
maintenance activities based on fire-fighting approach (fix it, when breaks) called
reactive maintenance will no longer satisfy the needs of modern manufacturing
systems. Therefore, the development, adoption and practice of new maintenance
strategies with a focus on how to increase the productive time by maximizing
availability and how to avoid unplanned breakdowns, had become essential. The
management of many companies (such as Procter and Gamble, Dupont, Ford and
Eastman chemicals) have looked towar ds adoption of effective and efficient
maintenance strategies such as condition-based maintenance (CBM); total preventi ve
maintenance (TPM) and reliability centered maintenance (RCM) over the traditional
firefighting reactive maintenance approaches (Tajiri and Gotoh, 1992; Coettz ee, 1999;
Swanson, 2001; Tsang, 2002; Wayenbergh and Pintelon, 2002).
In the area of mathematical modeling and optimization the literature is extensive.
Various algorithms and models related to loading and scheduling problems of FMS
have been developed (Cho and Parlar, 1991; Chaturvedi, 1993; Paulli, 1995; Liu and
McCarthy, 1997; Prickett, 1997; Lawrence, 1999; Chan, 1999; Gamila and Motavalli,
2003; Somlo, 2004; Das and Canel, 2005). But very little effort has been made on
analysis and development of maintenance strategies in this area. Bateman (1995)
discussed the impact of reactive maintenance strategy on production. He concluded
that overall maintenance cost increases because of increase in down time, scrap rate
and deterioration of quality. McKone and Wiess (1998) identify significant gaps
between industry practice and academic research and emphasize the need to abridge
these gaps. Canel (1997) discussed the need for development of information systems for
successful operation of FMS so that the problems of idle time can be taken care of.
Today as more and more factories are going to employ this new technology, the subject
of maintenance management becomes crucial because the failure of even a single
component can not only idle the machine/facility but also the failure can quickly idle an
entire production system. The failures may come from lack of maintenance, improper
or intensive operation, unstable operating environment, and so on. These failures not
only add to downtime but also additional operation and maintenance costs. Quickly
finding out the cause(s) of failure(s) and taking appropriate remedial actions is very
important. So the need to design and implement a company wide maintenance
planning system which not only investigates the causes of failures but also integrates
the resources, i.e. man, machine and materials is felt. In this respect the paper attempts
to provide an in-depth, case-based approach to implement TPM in a semi-automated
cell of a company. This will not only help in identification of the nature failures, their
documentation and analysis but also help maintenance managers/practitioners to
understand the reality of failures, their nature and to reduce their effect by adopting
suitable repair/replacement strategies.
The paper is organized as follows. Starting with introduction in Sections 1 and 2
briefs about the evolution of maintenance concept and characteristics of FMS with
description of types and nature of failures in FMS. Section 3 presents in brief the
Manufacturing
excellence
through TPM
257
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