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Techniques to deliver the TPM principles 67

forestall failure in all types of rotating machinery, and they are non-intrusive.
However, in TPM the best condition monitor is an operator who is in harmony
with his equipment and who has a sense of ownership of that equipment.
This leads on to the third principle.

4.3 Third principle: establish operator asset care

(autonomous maintenance)
All three cycles of the TPM improvement plan (see Figure 4.1) involve the
principle of autonomous maintenance, or operator asset care. In the Japanese
TPM approach, there are seven steps of autonomous maintenance (see Figure
4.7). These are given below together with the necessary linkages to the three-
cycle, nine-step TPM improvement plan.

Step I Initial cleaning
This starts with the 5 Ss mentioned in Chapter 1. The cleaning of machines
and production plant gives operators an insight, which they never had before,
into the condition of their machines. They can therefore use their eyes, ears,
nose, mouth and hands to help their maintenance colleagues as an 'early
warning system'. By working together as a team they can ensure effective
asset care and release maintenance people for tasks requiring a higher level
of training and skill. The full implications of the cleaning regime cannot be
over-emphasized because ultimately it leads to the reform of the whole
production process. To understand this clearly it pays us to look again at the
Japanese 5 Ss and the 'localized' CAN DO approach, and the way in which
their application leads to fundamental changes in the workplace.
The Japanese 5 Ss emphasize the concept of keeping things in the work-
place under control.
Seiri (organization)
This is the practice of dividing needed and unneeded items at the job site and
quickly removing the unneeded ones. It also means integrating material flow
with the best known operational methods.
To better understand the meaning of unneeded items, these can be divided
into three different categories:
Defective products
Not useful items
0 Not urgent objects, right now

There are six recommended categories in seiri with their own targets for
improvement:
0 Stock, inventory
0 Tools, jigs
Dies