Page 255 - TPM A Route to World-Class Performance

Case sfudies 229

By Ian Barraclough, TPM Manager

1 .O Background
Founded in 1924, Ekes Biscuits began Me as a small tea and cake shop in
High Street, Uttoxeter. The company now has a turnover of f55 million,
manufactures 1000 tonnes of biscuits per week and employs 1300 people.
Owned by Northern Foods, Ekes Biscuits is primarily a private-label
supplier. Included in the product range are well-known biscuits such as Custard
Creams, Nice, Farleys Rusks, Ginger Nuts and the most famous of them all,
Malted Milk, which were first created over sixty years ago.

2.0 why TPM?
In a commodity product like biscuits, dnving down costs is a continuous
process. One way of reducing costs is to minimize downtime, which is where
TF'M excels. Following a visit to the 'TPM 4' Conference, Ekes Biscuits has
introduced a variety of sigruficant and ongoing improvements to the plant.
These centre around:
new staff structure, which has merged front-line maintenance and
production under operations and removed a reporting layer;
full-time TPM Manager, Ian Barraclough;
asset care and best practice routines for seventeen projects to date,
includmg high quality and highly visual single-point lessons;
introduction of operator technicians, allowing skdled maintenance
technicians to focus on more proactive, advanced jobs;
move towards multi-skilling, application of asset care and best practice
routines by operator technicians;
dedicated TPM Centre with training room, computers, manuals and
library;
nine-step TPM process for critical pieces of machinery;
gradual training of the whole workforce on the TPM nine steps;
hgh-profile activity boards showing in detail the nine steps for each
machine, including spare parts log, OEE performance bulletins, CAN
DO audits and TPM updates;
daily review system of he performance using OEE data;
fortnightly continuous improvement group meetings to review and plan
activities.