Page 66 - TPM A Route to World-Class Performance

The top-down and bottom-up realities of TPM 47

disarray. The philosophy here is that cleaning is checking, which is
discovering abnormalities, which allows us to restore or improve
abnormalities, which will give a positive effect, which will give
pride in the workplace and will give our workforce back some self-
esteem.
5. We should always lead the TPM process by asking ‘why’ five times
(see page 31).
We usually don’t know the answers to these questions because we have
not been given the time, inclination and encouragement to find them. TPM
gives us the necessary method and motivation to do so.
Most companies start their TPM journey by selecting a pilot area in a plant
which can act as the focus and proving ground from which to cascade to
other pilots and eventually across the whole plant or site.
Equipment losses often occur because the root cause of a problem is not
eliminated (see Figure 3.18). When a defect occurs, production pressures and
other constraints prevent a thorough investigation of the problem before
solutions are applied. Instead, pit-stop ’quick fixes’ are made which often
result in performance and quality losses during operation. In many cases,
defects which do not cause a breakdown are ignored and become part of the
operating cycle of the equipment. Eventually, these defects recur and magnify,
the same fixes are applied (under the same pressure) and the cycle continues.
The TPM process breaks the cycle once and for all by identifying the root
causes, eliminating them and putting in countermeasures to prevent recurrence.

3

u

1. 0 Operation
2. 0 ‘Defect’ occurs
3. 0 ‘Defect’ is fixed

Figure 3.18 Breaking the cycle