Page 77 - TPM A Route to World-Class Performance

58 TPM-A Route to World-Class Performance

them. The only concern in their mind is whether or not their Supervisor will
put these changes into practice and how he sells it to them. If he is autocratic,
then the opinion the operator and maintainer have of the company will reflect
that; if he is an open-minded person who people respect and he takes their
ideas on board, then they will have a different view of how the company
operates.
My name is Fred Whitlock and, as a Team Leader, it is my job to implement
the changes which management see fit to promote within our organization.
I also feel, however, that with the experience I have, I should ensure that I
interpret changes in a way that will be of benefit to our company and also
make it easy for me to sell to the workforce.
I have worked for this company, man and boy, for thirty-five years. At
fifty-two, I am at the point of knowing this place inside out and have the
respect of my peers as someone who can sort out the problems that occur on
my shift and within the department as a whole.
In the time that I have been working here I have seen all sorts of so-called
’initiatives’. I call them ’flavour of the month because that’s about as long as
they last, and here they are again with another one. Yes, it’s TPM, Total
Productive Manufacturing - the best thing since sliced bread!!

The denial phase

I only have eight years left before I retire, and all I want to do is to have an
easy life until then. I do not see why I need to take on extra responsibilities
when I do not get enough time to do what I should be doing at present.
‘Taking time to save time’ - that’s a load of cobblers. I do not have time to spit
on occasions and neither do my guys, and this so-called TPM Pilot Team are
now going to take a day per week to sit down and sort out the troubles of the
world. How do they expect me to release people and run my shift?
The consultants that the company has brought in are costing us a fortune,
but because they are from outside the management will listen to what they
have to say. Us old timers have been telling them the same things for years,
and they won’t take any notice of us.
Well, I have just come back from a so-called coaching session on a one-to-
one basis with a consultant and I honestly cannot see what we are paying for.
This must be the biggest rip-off I have ever seen. They talk about teamwork
but we do that already, otherwise we could not solve all the problems we
come across. My shift have always worked together to problem solve, but the
other shifts have a few strong personalities on them and they will never
change.
This so-called Pilot Team have been meeting one day a week for the last six
weeks and all I have seen is some form of fancy calculation called OEE -
Overall Equipment Effectiveness. This is split up into Availability, Performance
and Quality. They say this gives a more in-depth look at how your equipment
is performing, but I cannot see anything wrong with the efficiency and quality
defects that we report on each month at the moment. All this TPM is doing
is creating more and more paperwork!