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194 TPM-A Route to World-Class Pevfovmance

The application of TPM in Administration, or TPA, has parallels with the
approach used in manufacturing. Many administration problems are
unmeasured and therefore hidden, just as they are in manufacturing. This
chapter looks at the application of TPA. The issues are just as relevant to non-
manufacturing industries such as construction, where the workplace is not
fixed and logistics/planning has to deal with this added dimension. It can
also be applied to computer-based and financial services work environments,
where CAN DO is as important as ever.
The wide variety of tasks carried out by administration makes it appear
complex and difficult to standardize. Therefore, when there are peaks in
workload it can be difficult to know how to smooth out the bottleneck.
As a result, there are often minimal standard practices, formal training,
few, if any, single-point lessons, fool-proofing or systematic loss elimination
activities. Individually, good administrators are excellent organizers, but this
is usually limited to their immediate work rather than the system as a whole.
Typically, administration systems are characterized by the weaknesses shown
in Table 10.1.

Table 10.1 Administration issues and weaknesses

Issue Weakness

Dependent on individual initiative Difficult for others to fill in
Much manual and discretionary work Difficult to learn from experience
Numerous records and ledgers to be Duplication of documents, files and
maintained information
Current job processing status is Difficult to measure progress or to
difficult to assess improve quality standards,
productivity or delivery performance

TPA uses the CAN DO workplace organization steps to address the office
infrastructure, i.e. filing systems and layout issues.
In parallel, office systems are reviewed using the improvement plan phases
as shown in Figure 10.2 of:
Measurement cycle
0 Development cycle
Problem prevention cycle

10.2 The TPA implementation process
The TPA implementation process is illustrated in Figure 10.3. It comprises the
'planning' or scoping stage, followed by the implementation phase.