Making use of information on problems arising

during Early Product Management

December 4, 2021
0 1 min read
Despite all efforts made to build in quality and factory-friendliness at the design stage, problems
may well arise, inside or outside the company, from any point from prototyping through volume
production. When this happens, it is important to establish the facts, investigate the causes, send
prompt feedback to the preceding stage, work out how to stop the same thing from happening again,
and take corrective action. Figure “A Typical Troubleshooting System” shows a typical
troubleshooting (TS) system that makes use of information about problems arising during the Early
Product Management process.

A Typical Troubleshooting System

Early Equipment Management – Attaining

business objectives by using equipment efficiently
December 4, 2021
0 10 min read
“Equipment management” encompasses all of the activities undertaken to ensure that equipment is
used as efficiently as possible in accordance with the business plan, in order to raise the company’s
 productivity and improve its profitability. More specifically, these activities consist of the following
two things:

1. Attaining business objectives by using equipment efficiently

2. Shortening production lead times (the time spent getting ready for production)
Looking at these activities in terms of the service life of the equipment, we can divide them into two
stages: one covering the period up to the “birth” of the equipment, and a second covering the period
after the equipment is born. The stage up until the birth of the equipment is called the construction
process, while the stage from the birth of the equipment onwards is called the maintenance process.
In its broad sense, “equipment management” covers both stages, while in its narrow sense, it is
taken to refer to the maintenance process only. The technical side of equipment management in the
broad sense is called “plant engineering”, while the construction process is known as “project
engineering”, or in other words, Early Equipment Management.
Using equipment efficiently means:
(1) Clarifying the core functions the equipment is supposed to fulfil throughout its life cycle in
order to attain the company’s business objectives, and building these functions into the design;
(2) Ensuring that the core functions are sustained throughout the life of the equipment.
We shall call (1) the “core functions of the equipment”, and (2) its “MP (maintenance prevention)
functions”. Table “Business Objectives and Equipment Functions Conducive to Attaining Them”
shows how these factors relate to one another, while Table “Outline of Core Functions in Relation
to Design Concepts” shows how various design concepts fit in.

Bu
siness Objectives and Equipment Functions Conducive to Attaining Them

Outline of Core Functions in Relation to Design Concepts

(1) Assuring target quality

Target quality is assured by QA-by-equipment in concert with equipment QA. Designing-in ‘”QA-
by-equipment” means designing the equipment to have a high process capability, while designing-
in “equipment QA” means designing the equipment in such a way that its core functions, and
consequently its high process capability, are easy to sustain.
The function that makes the equipment’s core functions easy to sustain is called the “MP function”.
The performance of any kind of equipment inevitably tends to deteriorate over time, and this
deterioration needs to be predicted and periodically reversed by the equipment’s operators. The
burden of maintenance can be lightened, but it can never be entirely eliminated, no matter how
highly-automated and sophisticated the equipment, because the amount of investment required to
automate the maintenance task itself would make it prohibitively expensive. The equipment
designer’s mission is to find out what can be done to make this maintenance task easier, and design
the equipment accordingly.
To achieve high levels of reliability, autonomous-maintenance-friendliness, operability, safety and
so on, it is essential for the equipment designer to think about what the operator needs to do with the
equipment, and design the equipment to make this as easy as possible. To this end, it is important to
strike the right balance between designing-in QA-by-equipment and designing-in equipment QA.
The design philosophy aimed at doing just this is called QM (quality maintainable) design (see
Figure “QM (Quality Maintainable) Design”). Table “The Five Conditions for QA-Friendliness”
shows the five conditions for achieving QA-friendliness.

QM (Quality Maintainable) Design

Th
e Five Conditions for QA-Friendliness
(2) Meeting production targets and delivery schedules on budget
The core functions required for meeting production targets and delivery schedules are the three
elements of low-cost automation, i.e. simplification, standardization and specialization.

(3) LCC (life-cycle-cost) design

This is design aimed at minimizing the total cost of the equipment (see Figure “Relationship
Between Total Equipment Cost and Number of Units Produced”). The total cost of the equipment
(TC) is the sum of the initial cost (IC) and the running cost (RC). There is often a trade-off between
IC and RC.

When the IC is at a maximum, the RC is at a minimum;

When the IC is at a minimum, the RC is at a maximum.
This relationship can be used to run a cost simulation aimed at finding the optimal total cost.

(4) LCP (life-cycle profit) design

Fluctuations can occur in production volume, number of product types handled, quality level,
product specifications and so on. At the design stage, production volume is strictly hypothetical. In
real life, fluctuations in production volume can reduce profits: if the equipment is over-specified,
for example, a cut in production can raise the unit cost of the product, while if it is under-specified,
an increase in production can lead to lost opportunities. The design philosophy that aims to create
equipment able to accommodate fluctuations in indeterminate factors like production volume, is
called LCP design. LCP design and LCC design are closely interrelated.
 Relat
ionship Between Total Equipment Cost and Number of Units Produced
Figure “Cost-Reduction Strategies” shows the basic cost items used in LCC and LCP analysis and
strategies for reducing them.
Cost-Reduction Strategies
This idea, whereby the equipment’s cost structure can be switched according to production
requirements, offers the best of both worlds. However, if this approach is to be used, it is vital that
the switch can be made stage by stage, and that the equipment is rapidly adaptable to a wide range
of purposes. The ability to respond nimbly to fluctuations in production requirements – in other
words, high flexibility – is the key to maximizing LCP.
 What is “MP Design”?
December 7, 2021
0 9 min read

(1) Defining MP
Defining MP and MP design

MP is an abbreviation of “Maintenance Prevention”. It is defined as follows:

Activities carried out at the stage of planning and

designing new equipment, to promote reliability,
maintainability, economy, operability, safety etc.
and minimize maintenance costs and
deterioration losses, by incorporating
maintenance information and new technology.
The ultimate aim of these activities is to create maintenance-free equipment. The activities can be
divided into two categories: providing MP information and incorporating it into the equipment’s
design.
Providing MP information means collecting and organizing knowledge about problems identified in
the course of operating or maintaining existing equipment, and how they were resolved. In other
words, it means finding out about improvements made to existing equipment, and feeding this
knowledge back to the design department in a readily-usable format, so that it can be used to
improve the design of new equipment.
This is important, because, as everyone knows, most advances in equipment technology have
resulted from improvements made to correct problems or shortcomings in existing technology.

Today’s production machinery and process plant have become so large that a single operational
error can have a major negative impact on the local and even the global environment. They have
also evolved into systems that operate round the clock to produce high-precision products. This
means that bad equipment design decisions can jeopardize a company’s future, so equipment
designers need to stay closely in touch with reality and be careful not to get carried away by their
own ideas. MP information provided by the operating and maintenance departments should be fully
incorporated into the designs, and the design process should be aimed at ensuring trouble-free
operation right from the outset.

Defining MP design

Equipment design aimed at minimizing LCC is called “MP design”. It was originally defined as
follows:
 The goal of MP design is to minimize the
equipment’s life-cycle cost, or LCC (the total cost
of the equipment over its entire life-cycle, i.e. the
sum of its acquisition costs and running costs).
The design approach in which the equipment’s
LCC is included in the design specification along
with its functionality, reliability, maintainability
and so forth, is known as ‘LCC design’. MP
design is the technical manifestation of LCC
design.
In TPM, this approach to MP design is expanded, and the term “MP design” is used to mean a
design philosophy pursuing efficiency to the extreme, by focusing not just on reliability and
maintainability, but also on preventing all other losses that tend to drag down the efficiency of the
production system.

(2) The importance of MP

To create equipment that itself can assure product quality, the causal relationship between product
quality and equipment precision needs to be made explicit. The design philosophy that aims to do
this is called the ‘design of core equipment functions’. However, the precision of the equipment will
deteriorate over time, so it needs to be quantified and periodically restored to its original level.
Reversing deterioration is principally the role of the operator. The aim of MP design is to make this
role as easy as possible.
The temptation for the equipment designer is to focus on the equipment and its intrinsic reliability
and thereby lose sight of the operator’s role in operating the equipment. Consequently, the
operator’s role ends up being dictated by the equipment. In other words, the operators have to
modify their behavior to suit the needs of the equipment. This might be acceptable in theory; but in
practice, it tends to make life very difficult. And if it becomes difficult, or even impossible, to
uphold maintenance standards, it will also be impossible to sustain the equipment’s core functions.
As Figure “The Concept of MP Design” illustrates, there is a trade-off between maintenance skills
and the MP function.
 The
Concept of MP Design
Pattern A results in a design highly dependent on maintenance skills, while Pattern C aims to
lighten the maintenance burden by strengthening and enhancing the equipment’s MP functions.
Ideally, MP design should be pitched correctly for the actual level of equipment maintenance skills
possessed by your company.

(3) MP requirements
1. Minimize the amount of breakdown maintenance generated by the equipment. In other words, design
for higher reliability (i.e. a long MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)).
2. Design the equipment so that any breakdown maintenance generated by the equipment can be handled
more efficiently. In other words, design for high breakdown maintainability (i.e. a short MTTR (Mean
Time To Repair)).
3. Design the equipment so that any preventive maintenance it requires can be handled more efficiently. In
other words design for high preventive and autonomous maintainability.
4. Design the equipment to facilitate CBM (condition-based monitoring). In other words, design for high
diagnosability.
5. Design the equipment to be safe and easy to operate.
Table “MP Design Attributes” shows the basic attributes that should be covered by MP design.
Table “Main Contents of MP Design Checksheets” shows the principal items that should appear on
MP design checksheets, while Figure “Typical Checksheet” shows a typical checksheet. Figure
“Table of Equipment Design Issues” enumerates the equipment design issues covered so far.
MP Design Attributes

Main Contents of MP Design Checksheets

Typical Checksheet

Table of Equipment Design Issues

 The 7 steps for rolling out an Early Equipment
Management system
December 9, 2021
0 7 min read
As Figure “A Typical Early Equipment Management System” in next chapter shows, in a typical
Early Equipment Management system, the process from planning until commissioning is split into
seven steps. A comprehensive design review (DR) should be performed at each step.

The first three steps, which constitute the planning stage, are especially important.

Step 1: Concept planning

Step 2: Action planning
Step 3: Design
To accomplish these steps, start by drawing up a Quality Assurance (QA) matrix. Next, carry out a
4-M analysis. Finally, perform a process FMEA. If you have the people with the relevant
knowledge go through the design with a fine-tooth comb at various stages beforehand, fewer minor
equipment defects will emerge during and after the witnessed test-run, and the commissioning
period can be shortened.

The length of the startup period, from when the equipment is installed until it is in stable operation,
is one of the elements that increase or reduce the LCC. Technology today is moving so fast that
falling behind production schedules can have a major impact on business. This is why MP design
explicitly addresses the challenge of reducing equipment efficiency shortfalls and commissioning
control costs arising during startup. Commissioning control is regarded not as a separate entity, but
as part of the equipment’s LCC.

The purpose of design reviews is to catch any problems that have slipped through the MP design
net, so that they are not carried over to the commissioning stage. This ensures that once the
equipment has been installed, an immediate, ‘vertical’ startup can be achieved. In other words,
instead of leaving the identification of problems to the commissioning stage after installation and
adjustment, thorough design reviews are carried out before installation.

As Figure “Design Review and Startup Period” in next chapter shows, the design reviews at each
stage can be ranked in descending order of importance as follows: (1) design, (2) fabrication, (3)
witnessed test-run, (4) installation. This underlines the crucial importance of the review carried out
at the design stage.

Step 1 is the crucial stage at which the equipment plan is formulated and finalised, based on the
company’s annual and mid-term business plans. In general, companies tend to put the cart before
the horse, and give too much weight to the budget framework. Estimates are made without
examining the proposals thoroughly enough, and it often proves necessary to correct the details, the
amount budgeted, the time-frame and other parameters after the budget has been decided. To avoid
this scenario, MP design aims to achieve higher planning precision by focusing on the following:

(1) Equipment engineers should get involved early in the product development or improvement
process (from the conceptual design stage on) and already make a start on designing the equipment.
(2) To this end, the purpose and necessity of the investment should be made explicit, as should the
economic requirements the equipment must satisfy (in terms of LCC and LCP), and more than one
proposal should be considered.

A Typical Early Equipment Management System

Design Review and Startup Period
(3) Estimate the cost benefit of each proposal

(4) A design review should be carried out by knowledgeable staff from the relevant departments.
This design review should include a thorough investigation of the appropriateness of each proposed
investment, its future potential, the degree of technical difficulty it presents, its necessity, how
economical it is, the order and schedule in which it should be carried out, and so forth. Only after all
this information has been carefully clarified should the most appropriate proposal be selected.
Prototypes fabricated on experimental equipment should then be assessed, and technical
information from internal and external sources regarding this and similar equipment should be
carefully studied in order to flesh out the proposal to be implemented. Figure “A Typical
Investment Proposal Comparison Table” shows an example of a proposal comparison table
prepared at this stage.
A Typical Investment Proposal Comparison Table

A typical action planning stage of Early

Equipment Management
December 12, 2021
0 3 min read
Once the equipment investment plan has been approved, it is time to decide on the equipment
design and fabrication specifications, based on the investment proposal comparison table drawn up
in Step 1. When this has been done, the second design review should be used to check that none of
the items in the equipment design and fabrication specifications has been overlooked. The design
and fabrication specifications should then be incorporated into the equipment concept, improving
the precision of the design (see Figure “Detailed Flow Diagram of Action Plan”).
 Detailed Flow Diagram of Action Plan
The analyses used in the action plan can be described as follows:

1. Process Diagram This clarifies the sequence and limits of each process.
2. Process QA matrix This clarifies the relationships between product quality and process. Figure “Process
QA Matrix” shows a typical QA Matrix.
3. 4-M Analysis The Process QA Matrix may show that certain processes are heavily implicated in the
generation of defectives. In this case, the 4-M Analysis will show how these defects relate to the 4 Ms,
and will clarify the equipment conditions needed to stop them from being produced. Figure “4-M
Analysis” shows a typical 4-M Analysis.
4. Process FMEA The Process FMEA further quantifies the degree of risk posed by the problems
identified in the 4-M Analysis. This information is very useful in evaluating the equipment concept. If
any item fails to meet the assessment criteria, the issue should be addressed, and a re-evaluation carried
out. Figure “Process FMEA” shows a typical Process FMEA.
5. Record of Corrections Made to the Equipment Design, and Action Taken Problems thrown up by
assessing the equipment specification concept and carrying out the second design review should be
carefully addressed in the equipment design specifications, using a form of the type shown in Figure
“Record of Corrections Made to Equipment Design, and Action Taken”.

Process QA Matrix
4-M Analysis

Process FMEA
 Record of Corrections Made to Equipment Design, and Action Taken

What happens at the design stage

December 14, 2021
0 4 min read
The design stage covers the period from receiving budget approval to just before embarking on
fabrication.

1. Formulate the basic design, based on the equipment specification, and draw up the implementation
budget. At this point, an equipment FMEA (see Figure “The Anatomy of an MP Information Utilization
System” in lesson 3.5) should be carried out to find out how the system operation, safety, product
quality and other parameters would be affected if a failure were to occur in an equipment system,
subsystem, or section. Any problems identified should be addressed in the design. Equipment layout
considerations should also be thought through in depth at this stage. Typical considerations include the
format in which raw materials will arrive; where they are to be stored and by what route they should be
conveyed to the production line; how the power and other utilities are to be supplied; and how the
finished products are to be packaged, stored and shipped out.
2. In the design review carried out after formulating the basic design, check that nothing has been
overlooked regarding the equipment’s reliability, maintainability, operability, safety, economy,
flexibility and conceptual design requirements. The next step will be to flesh out the basic design.
3. Building on the basic design, formulate the detailed design. At this point, an FMEA (see Figure
“Typical FMEA (for Components)”) should be carried out on the equipment’s components. Besides
improving the reliability of the parts, this process includes examining their factory- friendliness, and
making any necessary changes to the detailed design. To ensure that MP information is not overlooked,
make full use of available design standards, collections of design expertise, and common specifications.
This will help to make the design as precise as possible, and eliminate the individual differences that
tend to creep in when many designers are working on a project. This is the stage of the design process
at which you will need most outside help from construction companies and other specialist firms. It is
 important to conduct the design review very thoroughly, based on a relationship of trust between all
concerned, and underpinned by the knowledge and experience of all parties.
4. In the fourth design review, after the detailed design has been formulated, have the members of staff
directly involved – in the maintenance, manufacturing, safety, environment and technology departments
– get together and work up the design, making sure that nothing has been overlooked with regard to the
basic design requirements concerning reliability, maintainability, operability, safety and other
attributes.

An overview of MP design at Steps 2 and 3

December 15, 2021
0 5 min read

(1) Defining MP design

Maintenance Prevention (MP) design is the set of activities carried out to ensure that when new
equipment is introduced, it will be highly functional, easy to use (adaptable and easily operable),
resistant to failure, and maintenance-friendly and that its life-cycle profit (LCP) will be maximal,
based on a forecast of the future of the products it is to produce. The weaknesses of existing
equipment are studied, and the resultant knowledge is fed forward into the design of new equipment
with the aim of making it more reliable and maintainable, and ultimately maintenance-free.

(2) The aims of MP design

MP design aims to break free of the constraints of equipment-centered design and focus instead on
optimizing the operator-machine relationship. It seeks to do this by creating maintenance-free
equipment whose high quality, high productivity, and safety are assured, and whose LCP is
maximized, enabling the equipment to accommodate future needs.
In the MP design carried out during Steps 2 and 3 of the overall design process, activities aimed at
building-in quality are of the utmost importance.

(3) The basic equipment prerequisites

When carrying out MP design, the basic attributes required of the equipment (such as reliability,
maintainability, autonomous maintainability, operability, resource economy, safety, and flexibility)
must be defined in concrete terms. However, these terms tend to be used rather loosely; reliability,
for example, can mean different things to different people. Table “Equipment Prerequisites and
Their Definitions” gives their definitions.
Equipment Prerequisites and Their Definitions

(4) Collecting and using information

MP design requires a system enabling information about daily operating and maintenance activities
to be collected and compiled in a standard format, as shown in Figure ” Flow Diagram for
Collecting and Using MP Information”. Many design standards are a good example of how
information tends to mount up to such proportions that it becomes hard to understand, difficult to
search, and easily outdated, and consequently not exploited effectively. Once design standards have
been formulated, that is not the end of the matter: it is essential to keep revising them in the light of
new information and keep trying to make them more user-friendly, even as you make use of them in
the current design project. It is also vital that items common to all equipment should be
standardized on a common specifications sheet, and incorporated rigorously into the standards used
for designing and purchasing new equipment. It goes without saying that checksheets should also be
drawn up, and checks should be carried out at every stage. Tables “Equipment Safety” to
“Specification Checklist (Mechanical Design)” show examples of the principal checksheets.
Flow Diagram for Collecting and Using MP Information
Equipment Safety – Machinery in general
A Typical MP Checklist
Specifications Checklist (Measurement and Control)
 Specification Checklist (Mechanical Design)

Steps 4 to 7: fabrication, manufacturer’s test-run,

installation, and commissioning
December 16, 2021
0 6 min read
 Step 4: Fabrication In this step, the equipment is fabricated in accordance with the detailed design. The
principal dimensions and progress against schedule should be checked at intermediate stages in order to
raise the reliability of the fabrication process.
 Step 5: Manufacturer’s test-run In this step, the manufacturer tests the equipment under load. Problems
identified up to and including Step 4 are solved, and fresh issues are identified and measures taken to
eliminate them before the equipment is delivered. In short, every effort is made to ensure that no
trouble will arise once the equipment has been set up at its final destination. Particular attention should
be given to making sure (using checksheets) that the MP information on the Common Specifications
Sheet has all been incorporated into the equipment. It is very helpful to have operators and maintenance
technicians participate in the process at this stage.
 Step 6: Installation The managers, supervisors and other key personnel in the department that will be
using the equipment should now be consulted regarding the installation schedule, and any necessary
adjustments should be made. The reliability of installation should also be raised by checking the
equipment carefully against the design diagrams as it is being installed. The test-run is then carried out
in cooperation with the key personnel. Careful checks are made to ensure that the design requirements
have actually been met, and remaining problems are identified and corrected. Products are produced on
a test basis, and checked to see whether they come up to quality targets. The equipment is also
evaluated to see whether its parameters meet their target values. Manufacturing conditions and work
standardization will need to be given careful consideration ahead of time.
 Step 7: Commissioning At this step, the production department takes over and monitors the process
capability while manufacturing the product. If equipment problems have already been comprehensively
addressed and corrected, they are not carried over to this stage, so vertical startup can be achieved and
the equipment can attain 100% of the target values on the basic specifications sheet within a relatively
short commissioning period.
 Recording problems detected in the period from intermediate inspection to test-run, and during
commissioning Details of all the equipment problems discovered should be recorded, their causes
identified, countermeasures devised and implemented, and the results assessed. Figure “A Typical Test-
Run Record” shows a typical record of this process. Such problems arise because of failure to build one
hundred percent quality into the equipment at a previous stage of the Early Management process, so it
is important to work out how to stop the same problems from happening again, and find ways of
improving the Early Management system.
Figure “Flow Diagram for Commissioning Control” is a typical commissioning control flowchart.
Its first striking feature is that several departments work together to carry out the commissioning,
with clearly- demarcated roles allocated to the department that will be using the equipment, and to
the maintenance and planning (or design) departments. Commissioning control is the point at which
design, operation, and maintenance meet, so a system of this sort is obviously essential if the
process is to run smoothly. The second striking feature of this example is that the initiation and
termination of commissioning control are clearly defined. The parameters for deciding whether to
terminate or continue commissioning control (such as production capacity, stoppage frequency,
stoppage severity, and defect rate) are specified when commissioning control is initiated.

Finally, Figure “A Typical Commissioning Control Initiation and Termination Notice Forms 1 and
2” shows a typical Commissioning Control Notification Sheet.

A Typical Test-Run Record

Flow Diagram for Commissioning Control

Getting Ready for TPM

December 17, 2021
0 5 min read
TPM Introduction
Once an organization’s senior management has decided to introduce TPM, it is likely to want to get
going straight away. However, developing a TPM program and implementing the five main pillars
takes time and thorough planning. Although the time required for the introductory orientation will
depend on the organization’s size, three to six months are usually required to provide all employees,
including senior managers, with sufficient basic knowledge about the program to ensure its
successful implementation.

This preliminary, introductory stage of TPM is vitally essential – just as important, in fact, as the
planning and design stages are to releasing a new product. The successful launch of a new product
or a new activity depends crucially on how well the planning and design are carried out.

TPM is a never-ending journey, but even programs that go on indefinitely need targets and
deadlines, or they will lack a sense of purpose, lose momentum, and end up not being very
effective. Therefore, when running a TPM program, it is good to plan it in three-year chunks,
establish a site or company vision and goals for every three years, and cascade these down to
individual workplaces. One of the key issues in doing this is translating the site’s or company’s
business objectives into action targets. Other questions include what improvement topics to select,
how to implement the improvement program, and what deadlines to set.

Before officially kicking off its TPM program, any site or company should complete the
preparatory steps (Steps 1-5) of the 12-Step TPM Development Program shown in the table below.
The most important thing is to establish objectives that clearly show what the program aims for and
why it is being carried out; it is essential to ensure that the TPM program does not become TPM for
its own sake. When top management declares its commitment to introducing TPM (in Step 1), it
should make sure that it clearly explains the program’s purpose. Then (in Step 2), publicity
campaigns and orientation sessions are held to ensure everyone knows what the TPM campaign is
all about and get them ready to join in. The last part of the preparation phase is to plan how the
business objectives will be achieved (this is the main focus of Steps 3-5). In these steps, the
business objectives are developed into action targets, an organization is set up to drive the activities
towards achieving those targets, and timescales are established. Steps 3-5 are critical preparatory
steps that are key to the success or failure of the TPM program.

This chapter describes each of the five preparatory steps in more detail and also gives some advice
on the Kick-Off (Step 6), rolling out Focused Improvement (Step 7-1) and rolling out Autonomous
Maintenance (Step 7-2).
 12-Step TPM Development Program

How to improve the support for Autonomous

Maintenance (AM) teams
December 25, 2021
0 3 min read
 Working in team through the Autonomous Maintenance steps
 Being accountable for the F-tag process (Red F-Tags)
 Participating to AM activities on selected day of the week
 Leading small improvements (Kaizens)

How to improve the support for AM Teams?

 Working in team trough the AM steps (EM + AM)
 Training for operators (OPLs and on the Job/Line Method)
 Support for SOC, HTA, lead small improvements
 Support for planned in depth clean and inspection
 Ensure good quality of F-Tags (Teach them! Where are the problems?)
 Being accountable for the F-tag process (Red F-Tags)
 Participating to AM activities on Fridays Leading Small Improvements

AM – Step 1 Deliveries

OBJECTIVES

People:
develop skills to find and to be aware of problems

Machine:
start the restoration cycle

 Training for TPM, Step 1, Team Building, big cleaning

 Activity board and KPI implemented and routinely updated
 Activities well defined and divided among the team members
 Strong concepts around restoration cycle
 Strong control over F-tag process
 Good examples of complete restoration on the machine
 All abnormalities identified, 85% solved
 Good understanding about AM concepts Step 1 and SHE policy
 Set and Sort are frequently used
 Meetings were established; OPL are used to teach and learn about problems
 Map of SOCs and HTA
 At the end, a basic check list for cleaning and inspection with OPLs for the main points

AM – Step 2 Deliveries

OBJECTIVES

People:
develop skills to solve the problem (SOC, HTA)

Machine:
eliminate SOCs and HTA

 Training for Step 2

 Activity board well understood by all team members
 The tools are well understood and SOCs / HTA are led by the team (AM and EM)
 Solution for 85% of SOCs (# of SOCs and % of waste reduced)
 Solution for 40% of HTA (or for the most important points)
 Abnormality w/o F-tag are unacceptable by the team: all identified, 85% of completion
 Strong control over F-tag process
 Many examples of complete restoration on the machine
 Good understanding about AM concepts Step 1,2 and SHE policy
 Set, Sort and Shine are frequently used
 Meetings and OPLs are used to improve the team performance
 Analysis and solution for the most often recurrence of abnormalities
 Positive trend for OEE and Spillage
 At the end, map of lubrication points

What is Quality Maintenance?

January 1, 2022
0 5 min read

We can only achieve our goal of zero quality defects is to discard the reactive, “shutting the stable
door after the horse has bolted” approach, where we only examine quality after it has already been
built into the product.

Instead, we must set our production processes up to not produce any quality defects and then ensure
that the processes always operate under those conditions.

In Quality Maintenance, this is called “establishing and maintaining zero-defect conditions.” In

other words, to build quality into the product utilizing the process, as quality experts have been
urging us to do for decades, we must switch from controlling the outputs of our operations (the
quality of our products) to managing the causes of quality (the process and equipment conditions
themselves).

If we really want to create a system that ensures perfect quality, we must prevent defects from
happening at all, rather than just screening them out after they have happened. To do this, we must
build a system for controlling the causes of quality – in other words, and we must establish and
maintain the “zero-defect conditions” mentioned earlier. “Controlling quality through its causes” is
the essence of Quality Maintenance.
Quality Maintenance is based on maintaining perfect equipment to maintain ideal quality (i.e.,
100% good products). Essentially, it involves:

 Establishing zero-defect conditions in order to create equipment that does not produce any quality
defects, and checking and measuring those conditions periodically,
 Preventing quality defects by keeping those conditions within a standard range of values,
 Predicting the possibility of quality defects by monitoring trends in the measured values, and taking
preventive action.
The Definition of Quality Maintenance

An Illustration of the Definition of Quality Maintenance

To consistently produce a 100% good product, we must specify which conditions relating to the 4
Ms (machinery, materials, men/women, methods) have to be controlled, together with the range of
values they must be restricted to.

Check and Measure Conditions Periodically

Suppose we want to identify potential causes of equipment under-performance and rectify them
before an unwanted result occurs. In that case, we must check the specified conditions routinely
(either daily or at longer intervals) to confirm that they remain within their permitted ranges.

Prevent Quality Defects by Keeping Conditions within Standard

Ranges
 We need to take preventive action to avoid defects, such as restoring primary operating conditions
to prevent the accelerated decline of equipment functions.

Monitor Trends and Predict Possible Occurrence of Quality Defects

A “zero-defect condition” is defined as a condition that will not cause quality defects if kept within
its standard range. We, therefore, need to understand the mechanisms of equipment deterioration,
and estimate the rate at which our equipment deteriorates, so that we can predict when a condition is
likely to exceed its standard range.

Take Preventive Action

Losses arising from equipment malfunction must be prevented before they occur. This requires us
to halt the equipment and take corrective action whenever the occurrence of a defect has been
predicted or restore functions systematically during periodic servicing.

Supervisor de manutenção ou gerente retomar

pontos de bala
1 de janeiro de 2022
0 11 min de leitura
 Projetos supervisionados de manutenção preventiva, tarefas dos funcionários e desempenho e adesão às
normas de segurança.
 Delegou tarefas diárias aos funcionários para gerenciar recursos e cumprir prazos.
 Equipe gerenciada de funcionários, relatórios diários de progresso e planejamento geral do projeto.
 Implementei o programa de manutenção preventiva por meio do planejamento e coordenação das
principais paralisações programadas de manutenção.
 Monitorou o agendamento de manutenção e reportou informações da equipe de manutenção à gerência.
 Problemas mecânicos diagnosticados e reparados de acordo com as normas do setor.
 Implementei melhores procedimentos de treinamento para desenvolver melhor novos funcionários.
 Estabeleceu e implementou novos procedimentos para o agendamento padrão de manutenção.
 Custos minimizados trabalhando e negociando com vários fornecedores.
 Trocas orquestradas de ferramentas, configurações e reparos para minimizar o tempo de inatividade e
melhorar a produtividade.
 Entrou em contato com fornecedores para obter equipamentos e ferramentas para atender às demandas
organizacionais.
 Emitidos trabalhos de treinamento de equipamentos e horários de trabalho para o pessoal [Tipo].
 Treinamento gerenciado, licenciamento e inspeções veiculares para prontidão operacional, forneceu
feedback aos funcionários e traduziu diretrizes operacionais em roteiros do programa.
 Projetos e manuais revisados para reparar e restaurar a funcionalidade ideal.
 Manteve o desempenho do equipamento por meio da limpeza e lubrificação dos componentes.
 Programas de incentivo planejados para maximizar o desempenho dos funcionários.
 Concluído [Ação] e [Ação] para manter as operações em toda a instalação.
 Especializado em sistemas de suporte, inspeções e reparos detalhados para alcançar eficiência
operacional.
 Promoveu alta satisfação do cliente, resolvendo problemas com serviços experientes e amigáveis.
 Trabalho delegado aos funcionários, definindo prioridades e metas.
 Manteve-se calmo e profissional em circunstâncias estressantes e ao lidar com clientes infelizes,
efetivamente difundindo situações.
 Tratado associa-se à equidade e respeito, proporcionando reconhecimento de realizações.
 Demonstrou excelentes habilidades de comunicação na resolução de reclamações de produtos e
consumidores.
 Processos de trabalho planejados e otimizados do armazém para melhorar a eficiência do sistema de
atendimento.
 Concluído as funções de abertura, fechamento e mudança de turno para manter os padrões operacionais
todos os dias.
 Supervisionei o recebimento eficiente e o gerenciamento de estoque para manter o estoque dentro dos
níveis ideais.
 Manteve o departamento na meta de atender aos objetivos de vendas e lucro, minimizando desperdícios
e buscando oportunidades de geração de receita.
 Coordinated maintenance on the physical condition of warehouse and equipment, routinely assessing
each for needed repairs, updates or replacements.
 Coached staff on strategies to enhance performance and improve customer relations.
 Maximized warehouse efficiency by dispatching crews and coordinating optimal daily schedules.
 Forneceu liderança, insight e mentoria para funcionários recém-contratados para fornecer conhecimento
de vários programas da empresa.
 Aprimoramentos de layout planejados e implementados para promover a eficiência e maximizar a
utilização do espaço.
 Recrutei e treinei novos funcionários para atender aos requisitos de trabalho.
 Procedimentos simplificados de pedidos e inventário para identificar os mais vendidos e reduzir o
excesso de estoque.
 Desenvolvido e orientado membros da equipe para fornecer serviços hospitaleiros e profissionais ao
mesmo tempo em que aderiu a modelos de serviço estabelecidos.
 Abordou questões internas e relacionadas ao cliente todos os dias e afetou resoluções estratégicas.
 Coordenei com a equipe para esclarecer informações e aplicar procedimentos que resultem em
resolução eficaz de problemas e operações mais suaves.
 Desenvolveu membros da equipe em supervisores e gerentes de departamento para promover a cultura
familiar e orientada ao desempenho.
 Trabalho coordenado de funcionários [Número] oferecendo direção clara e liderança motivacional.
 Coordenei horários de trabalho e distribuiu tarefas para os funcionários [Número] no departamento
[Tipo].
 Cultivou uma cultura de empoderamento para ajudar os funcionários a atender melhor as necessidades
dos clientes com supervisão mínima.
 Supervisionei os cronogramas da força de trabalho e alocou recursos em colaboração com [título de
trabalho]s, a fim de alcançar as metas do projeto.
 Coordenei planejamento extensivo e desenvolvimento de marcos de projetos e orçamentos para
contratos complexos.
 Identificar problemas de negócios, criando soluções personalizadas para problemas individuais.
 [Número] supervisionado está completando uma tarefa diária eficiente [Tarefa] e [Tarefa].
 Cronograma direcionado de projetos semanais e cronogramas antecipados para marcos e datas de
conclusão.
 Manuseado acima de $[Valor] em fundos todos os dias em um ambiente [Tipo] acelerado.
 Estabeleceu metas ambiciosas para que os colaboradores promovam o alcance e superem as metas de
negócios.
 Redução de lacunas de processos, gerenciamento e treinamento eficazes dos funcionários [Número] em
práticas recomendadas para garantir a produtividade ideal.
 Programas gerenciados para locais [número] supervisionando [título de trabalho] e servindo sobre as
famílias [Número].
 Analisei o desempenho dos funcionários e entregue feedback construtivo para melhorar o desempenho.
 Estendeu o relacionamento com os clientes existentes por meio de extensa comunicação e estratégias de
marketing testadas e verdadeiras.
 Revisou recursos e ativos para atividades departamentais, observando questões de conformidade com
normas do setor e agências reguladoras.
 Supervisionou as operações de vendas e marketing ao mesmo tempo em que desenvolveu parcerias
estratégicas.
 Tempo de inatividade do fluxo de trabalho mitigado, agendando com precisão a conclusão da instalação
do serviço corporativo.
 Supervisionado [Número] chamadas de atendimento ao cliente por semana para acompanhar problemas
de suporte e melhorar os procedimentos operacionais.
 Reuniu-se com cada associado para estabelecer metas de vendas mensais realistas.
 Gerenciou um orçamento operacional de US$ 1 milhão no desenvolvimento de programas e serviços
para atender às necessidades de diversos membros da comunidade de diversas origens raciais e
socioeconômicas.
 Operações automatizadas de escritórios, correspondência gerenciada de clientes e registros rastreados.
 Tendências previstas nos níveis de negócios esperados e trabalho e estoque ajustados para corresponder
às expectativas.
 Melhores iniciativas de produtividade, coordenação de itinerário e agendamento de consultas.
 Liderou iniciativas de treinamento para melhorar o desempenho dos funcionários e os resultados dos
negócios de linha de fundo.
 Liderei reuniões de pessoal para uma equipe de [Number] para comunicar diretivas [Tipo].
 Criei horários [de período de tempo] para [título de trabalho] para manter todos os turnos bem
equipados durante feriados e períodos movimentados.
 Interagiu com prospectos e clientes em diversos eventos, incluindo feiras, seminários e workshops.
 Fortaleceu a eficiência operacional e a rastreabilidade, desenvolvendo sistemas de arquivamento
organizacional para registros e relatórios confidenciais de clientes.
 Recrutou, contratou e treinou funcionários [Número] para o departamento de marketing e vendas.
 Avaliou os procedimentos atuais do escritório e implementou melhorias, aumentando a produtividade
[Número]%.
 Risco mitigado, garantindo a conformidade regulatória para o licenciamento necessário.
 Eliminou as discrepâncias de processos, implementando melhorias contínuas para agendamento de
procedimentos em vários calendários de clientes.
 Liderou equipe de profissionais [número] com relatórios diretos [número].
 Fortaleceu as iniciativas de branding de produtos e coordenou campanhas efetivas de marketing.
 Manteve padrões internos e metas de produtividade para cumprir as metas [Type] e [Type].
 Estudou os procedimentos e políticas existentes para oferecer uma liderança ideal aos funcionários e às
operações [Tipo] quando se candidata aos gerentes ausentes.
 Amenizou os obstáculos de aprendizagem e instruiu o pessoal [tipo] na resolução de problemas,
habilidades sociais e tomada de decisões através da implementação de auxílios e métodos de
aprendizagem [Tipo].
 Inseriu dados de clientes no sistema [Software], protegendo informações financeiras e pessoais para
evitar violações.
 Equipe liderada de profissionais [Número] [Tipo] atendendo às necessidades [área de atuação].
 Maior precisão na coleta de dados, elaborando, autorizando e atualizando memorandos de
comunicações e políticas.
 Aumento do desempenho da equipe de [Número]% para [Número]% através de [Tarefa].
 Aplicou programa de melhoria contínua nas atividades diárias para aumentar a produtividade, melhorar
a qualidade e reduzir custos.
 Empregava amplo conhecimento do sistema [Tipo] para fazer clones, instantâneos, modelos, monitorar
sistema e recursos.
 Treinado [Título de trabalho]s e [título de trabalho] em iniciativas de atendimento ao cliente e realizado
[Número]% taxa de retenção de clientes dentro [Número] [Prazo].
 Colaborou interfuncionalmente em [Ação] que levou a [Resultado].
 Expandiu a pegada global construindo planos de lançamento em locais internacionais.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

January 1, 2022
0 2 min read
What is MTBF?
Mean time between failures (MTBF) is calculated as the average time between failures for
repairable items. MTBF is used as a performance indicator (PI) of the reliability of manufacturing
equipment. The concept of “Mean time Between…” is also applicable to, e.g. entire packing lines
(mean time between touch MTBT), quality (mean time between quality defects – MTBQD), and
other areas.

When to use MTBF?

MTBF is a good indicator of the reliability of manufacturing equipment and components. As such,
it is a valuable measure of how well the plant and equipment are maintained (strategy, practices)
and of the success of, e.g. risk-based inspection programs and reliability improvement projects:
MTBF increases as reliability increases. MTBF is also directly correlated to Breakdown and Minor
Stoppage TPM losses: as the losses decrease, MTBF increases.

MTBF is used in the calculation of the Availability, which in turn is used to calculate overall
equipment effectiveness (OEE):

Example: Series system (most packing lines)

Availability of an individual plant item (series system)
Av1 = 1 – MTTR/(MTBF + MTTR)
(Where MTTR = mean time to repair = average time to return a failed component to service)

Availability of system = Av1 x Av2 x Av3…

And

Overall Equipment Effectiveness = Availability x Performance x Quality

The 4 Ms – the Determinants of Quality

January 2, 2022
0 6 min read

The key to ensuring quality (i.e. production standards) on the shop floor is achieving optimal
conditions for the 4 Ms (Men/Women, Machinery, Materials, Methods), see Table “The 4-M
Conditions – The Determinants of Quality”.
Improving quality means establishing optimal conditions for the 4 Ms, raising the quality assurance
capability (Cp) of the process until it stabilizes at a high level, and setting work standards and
inspection standards to maintain that capability. On the other hand, sustaining quality means
faithfully applying the work standards and inspection standards that support the optimum conditions
we have set. Figure “The 4-M Conditions – The Determinants of Quality” illustrates this
relationship.
The 4-M Conditions – The Determinants of Quality

Conditions to be Satisfied

Consequences of failure to sustain

The 4 Ms Conditions for machinery conditions

→If the equipment is not kept clean, dirt can

fall into it during processing and contaminate
Machinery →Perfectly clean the product, making it defective

→Insufficient lubrication degrades equipment

→Properly lubricated movement and leads to processing defects

→Nuts and bolts all correctly →Loose nuts or bolts create play in the
tightened machinery, leading to processing defects

→No loose parts →Loose parts result in processing defects

Jigs and Tools Conditions for jigs Consequences of failure to sustain conditions

→Fixings clean and →Dented jigs damage the product or cause

undamaged processing defects

→Reference surfaces for

attaching workpiece clean
and undamaged →Worn jigs cause processing defects
 →All parts are free of wear,
chipping, etc.

Conditions for cutting tools Consequences of failure to sustain conditions

→Using the wrong tools means that bolts are

not tightened properly, etc., resulting in
→Right tools used processing defects

Measuring Conditions for measuring

Instruments instruments Consequences of failure to sustain conditions

→Dirt on the components results in

→Measuring elements clean measurement errors

→Mechanisms operate →Irregular movement causes measurement

smoothly errors

→The inaccurate setup produces measurement

→Properly calibrated errors

(1) Are the materials that may affect processing quality of good quality
themselves? →Clean and undamaged
→Of standard composition and form
→Of uniform hardness, etc.
(2) Is the quality of any previous processes that may affect the processing
quality satisfactory? – Items from previous process clean and undamaged
Materials →Uniform dimensions in the previous process, etc.

Are the processing conditions suitable for building in quality?

→Rotation speeds and feed rates set correctly? →Established conditions being
Processing maintained? →Temperature and humidity set correctly and maintained?
conditions →Pressures and flow rates set correctly and maintained, etc.?

Are the correct working methods being used?

→Work securely positioned with no contamination between on reference
Working surfaces? →Setup procedure specified and followed?
methods →Work procedure specified and followed?

Are the measurement methods correct?

→Using measurement methods that prevent error?
Measurement →Using the correct measurement pressures?
techniques →Are measurement standards written for measuring devices and followed?

Men / Women Here, ‘morale’ refers to what is usually called ‘motivation.’ As well as being
(Morale) eager to improve quality continually, the operator is keenly aware of problems:
they cannot abide minor flaws that hinder good quality and has a burning
desire to find solutions.
→A natural desire to produce good quality by sticking to standards at all times.
→Keenly aware of problems. Tries to weed out any deficiencies (minor flaws)
in the 4 Ms whenever a defect occurs.
→Is very concerned if they notice something a little bit strange or slightly
 different from usual in their everyday work and report this to supervisors. Also
has a strong urge to investigate problems him (or her) self.

Prerequisites for Promoting Quality Maintenance

January 5, 2022
0 3 min read

Eliminate Forced Deterioration, to Achieve Stable Equipment Subject to Natural

Deterioration Only

Eliminating forced deterioration

Suppose equipment is in a state of forced deterioration. In that case, any attempts to control its
precision will be frustrating because the components that determine that accuracy will have
short, highly-variable lifetimes, making checking very difficult. The abovementioned makes it
essential to eliminate forced deterioration through Autonomous Maintenance, thereby
extending and stabilizing component lifetimes.

Eliminate Forced Deterioration

Ensure that All Staff, from Managers through to Operators, Are Equipment Experts

Developing an equipment-competent workforce

Both managers and the operators who work with machinery must have excellent equipment
skills and the ability to sustain the required conditions. To achieve zero defects, production must
be carried out in a situation where people and machines are in perfect balance.
For this, operators must be trained to immediately spot any abnormality in the causal system
that they think might lead to a defect and know how to deal with that abnormality promptly and
accurately.
To ensure that the people in the Operations Department have this level of competence, it is vital
to implement Autonomous Maintenance, Focused Improvements, machine diagnosis
techniques, skills training, and other related initiatives.
Promoting Quality Maintenance also involves some other important issues:

Activities for achieving zero equipment failures

The most important aspect of Quality Maintenance is eliminating sudden or gradual equipment
failures. A particularly constructive approach is identifying the exact correlations between
product quality characteristics and equipment conditions (modules and individual components)
and then developing and applying diagnostic techniques that expose any deterioration in these
conditions.

MP design of new products and new machinery

A system must be established that allows defect-free products and equipment to be created right
from the initial design stages. ‘MP design’ (maintenance prevention design) is discussed in the
chapter on Early Management.
The figure below shows the relationship between Quality Maintenance and the other TPM
pillars.
 Quality Maintenance and the other TPM pillars

Carrying Out Quality Maintenance

January 6, 2022
0 3 min read

Figure “Carrying Out Quality Maintenance” illustrates the overall process by which Quality
Maintenance is carried out. At the same time, Table “The Development of Quality
Maintenance” shows a 10-step procedure based on the process shown in Figure “Carrying Out
Quality Maintenance.”
This procedure requires us to verify the defect phenomena; investigate the processes that give
rise to defects; study and analyze the conditions relating to the 4-Ms; plan action to correct
lapses in these conditions and restore the situation; analyze and assess situations where the
conditions required to achieve good products are unclear; carry out quality improvements to fix
deficiencies in these conditions; establish zero-defect conditions for the 4 Ms; consolidate the
checking methods to make the conditions easy to maintain and monitor; establish standard
values for checks; revise the standards relating to the 4 Ms, and monitor trends.
Through these QM activities, we can achieve and sustain zero quality defects (see Figure
“Carrying Out Quality Maintenance”).
To achieve this, we must develop the abilities of our people (the first of the 4 Ms) through
Autonomous Maintenance and skills training.
In developing Quality Maintenance, a project team led by a unit manager should handle wider-
ranging and more technically demanding issues, while comparatively straightforward issues
can be dealt with principally by line team leaders, who will establish zero-defect conditions and
implement Autonomous Maintenance activities focusing on sustainment.
Each step of the development procedure is described below with reference to a real-life
example of a PVC resin drying process. Despite every effort to make improvements, quality
defects do sometimes still arise, and Quality Maintenance is a powerful approach for
eliminating them.

C
arrying Out Quality Maintenance
The Development of Quality Maintenance (a 10-step procedure)
 Developing Quality Maintenance. Step 1
January 7, 2022
0 2 min read

Verify the Existing Situation

In this step, the existing situation is analyzed to establish baseline values and targets for the Quality
Maintenance project and plan for its smooth implementation.
The specifications for the product in question are confirmed, and all quality characteristics and
defect modes that may affect these specifications are identified. A flow chart for the processes that
determine the quality of the product is then created, and the defect situation and phenomena are
studied and stratified. The financial costs of the defects themselves, together with the associated
complaints and inspections, should be calculated and made known to everyone concerned.

(1) Confirm quality standards and characteristics

Based on the product specifications, product characteristics, production standards, and inspection
standards, we identify the quality characteristics that must be maintained.

(2) Create a flow diagram of individual processes that determine

product quality
First of all, a flow chart of the individual processes that determine product quality should be created
(see the upper part of Figure “Example of Process Flow Diagram and Control Items”).
Also, the equipment systems’ mechanisms, functions, processing principles, sequences, etc. should
be identified. The control items (standards and methods) that have been established for maintaining
quality in each process should be surveyed and entered into the process control flowchart (see the
lower part of Figure “Example of Process Flow Diagram and Control Items”).

(3) Investigate defect situation and phenomena, and stratify

Here, we seek to understand the circumstances under which a defect occurred during processing.
We stratify the defect phenomena and identify the particular processes in which they occurred.
 Ex
ample of Process Flow Diagram and Control Items
A QA matrix is a table that delineates how defects are being built into
products under current conditions, in a process in which one wishes to
assure quality.
This matrix enables managers to see at a glance which processes are generating defects, which processes’
equipment and methods are faulty, and how these two are related.

This step draws up a QA matrix (see Figure “Example of QA Matrix”) that analyses the relationships
between the individual processes and defect modes identified in Step 1. This allows us to identify the
processes in which defects that impair quality occur and understand what kinds of flaws will arise if specific
equipment or method conditions are not observed. At the same time, we analyze records of defect modes
and their seriousness.

QA Matrix Item: Ordinary PVC

Example of QA Matrix
 Chapter 5. Autonomous Maintenance. Part 1
November 30, 2020
2 50 min read

1. Autonomous Maintenance: the Basic Approach

1.1 What is Autonomous Maintenance?

(1) Operators should look after their own equipment
Autonomous Maintenance aims to create a scenario where all operators look after their own
equipment, carrying out routine checks, oiling and greasing, replacing parts, doing simple repairs,
spotting problems at an early stage, checking precision, and so on.
(2) Operators need to understand their equipment
Autonomous Maintenance can only be carried out by operators who are thoroughly conversant with
their equipment. An operator’s work does not begin and end with the operation: it has to embrace
maintenance as well.
The most important skill required of an operator is the ability to identify abnormalities and notice
immediately when something is not quite right with the output quality or the equipment. This and
the three other abilities operators need are listed below:
Operators need the ability to:

Recognize abnormalities when they see them (The ability to identify abnormalities)
Respond swiftly and correctly when abnormalities occur (The ability to take corrective action)
Set clear criteria defining what is normal and what is not (The ability to set conditions)
Keep strictly to the rules governing these conditions (The ability to sustain)
More specifically, each operator needs to acquire the ability to:

Identify and correct equipment abnormalities

Understand how the equipment works, and identify the causes of any abnormality
Understand the relationship between the equipment and the quality of the product, foresee quality
problems, and find out what is causing them
Carry out repairs
Implement appropriate Focused Improvements, either independently or in cooperation with other
departments
Operators who satisfy these requirements will have a ‘feeling’ for the equipment, and be sensitive to
the subtle early-warning signs of defective output or failure. They will be able to discover the
causes of problems and take action to forestall them. Then, and only then, can they be called
‘equipment-competent’.
 1.2 The Basic Precepts of Autonomous Maintenance
As described above, the equipment has become increasingly sophisticated and complex, and the
maintenance function has gradually become separated from the production function, with the result
that production and maintenance departments have become isolated in their own camps, with one
‘making’ and the other ‘fixing’. This approach makes equipment much less efficient than it could
be, and the need to remedy this culture has led to the emergence of the discipline known as
‘Autonomous Maintenance’, the basic precepts of which are listed below.

The basic precepts of Autonomous Maintenance:

1. The problems that stop equipment from working, or make it work less effectively, can be eliminated –
in other words, zero-defect, zero-breakdown status can be attained – by changing the way everyone
who works with the equipment, including the operators, thinks and behaves.
2. When the equipment works better, the people work better, and when people work better, the whole
factory works better.
3. Autonomous Maintenance should be introduced step by step under the guidance of management, with
each step implemented thoroughly. It should involve the whole workforce and empower each individual
to fulfill his or her potential.
Figure 5.1 illustrates the steps to be followed in rolling out an Autonomous Maintenance program
based on these precepts. The individual steps are described in more detail in Section 2 (‘Step-by-
Step Development’).

Because of the situation described above, in which maintenance and production have become
separate entities and the ‘I make, you fix’ mentality has pervaded the shop floor, many operators see
themselves simply as ‘producers’, whose only contact with the equipment consists of keeping the
process supplied with materials and performing quality checks.

Anything to do with caring for the equipment, even lubricating it and keeping it clean, is seen as the
province of a specialist maintenance caste. The upshot is that operators disclaim all responsibility
for the way their equipment is running; if a breakdown occurs, they blame the maintenance
technicians for not doing their job properly, or claim that the company has chosen the wrong type of
machine – the problem never has anything to do with them. This way of thinking has to be changed.

By persuading operators to do their bit, even if this just means tightening up nuts and bolts, and
cleaning and lubricating the machinery, we can help to prevent equipment from failing. And if
operators are encouraged to get in touch with their equipment in this way, they will be able to spot
any abnormalities and rectify them promptly.

1.3 The Roles of Production and Maintenance in Autonomous

Maintenance

(1) The roles of production and maintenance

Many maintenance departments adopt a passive, ‘We’ll come when we’re called’ attitude, waiting
for a request from the production department before doing any work. But a reactive stance like this
is not conducive to achieving good equipment performance. For their part, production departments
are naturally anxious for any repairs to be done as soon as possible, as it is their duty to maintain
output, but the maintenance staff often get swamped with requests and are unable to deal with them
all. If neither department can see things from the other’s viewpoint, it can, in extreme cases, lead to
an atmosphere of hostility and distrust, making it impossible for maintenance to meet its purpose.

What is more, if the production department persists in the ‘I make, you fix’ mindset, it will be
impossible to achieve satisfactory equipment conditions, no matter how hard the maintenance
department works. Any successful manufacturing operation has to get its production and
maintenance functions working hand in hand. Only when the production department takes on some
of the basic maintenance tasks itself and works in harmony with the maintenance department can
the required maintenance functions be fulfilled and the objectives be achieved.

The production department should undertake basic maintenance routines such as cleaning,
tightening, and lubricating designed to prevent the equipment from deteriorating. Nothing less than
this is required if the maintenance department is to deploy its specialized maintenance resources to
best effect and the maintenance function is even to begin working effectively.

(2) Classifying and allocating maintenance tasks

This section sets out the different types of maintenance tasks and explains which fall within the
scope of Autonomous Maintenance (see Figure 5.2).
 The activities necessary to achieve the maintenance objective can be broadly divided into the
following two types:

1. ‘Sustainment’ activities: Preventing and correcting equipment failures.

2. ‘Improvement’ activities: Prolonging the working life of the equipment, reducing the time spent on
maintenance, and eliminating the need for maintenance.

These two types of activity need to be carried out

in parallel.
Measures for ‘sustaining’
 Correct operation
 Routine maintenance, periodic maintenance, predictive maintenance
Measures for ‘improving’
 Corrective maintenance: improving equipment reliability and maintainability
 Maintenance prevention: designing out the need for maintenance
These measures can be incorporated into operators’ duties using a three-pronged approach:

1. Preventing deterioration,
2. Measuring deterioration, and
3. Reversing deterioration. Each of the three prongs can be implemented differently, and it is not always
necessary to place equal emphasis on all three. However, if any of the three is neglected, it will be
impossible to achieve the maintenance objective.
Generally speaking, activities designed to prevent deterioration are the most likely to be
overlooked, but they are in fact the single most important strand of maintenance. If the objective is
to maintain the equipment effectively, then focusing on periodic inspections and precision checks,
without paying proper attention to prevention, is a prime example of putting the cart before the
horse.

(3) The production department’s responsibilities

The production department should focus on preventing deterioration, and is responsible for
implementing the following activities:

1 Preventing Deterioration
 Operating correctly (preventing human error)
 Sustaining basic equipment conditions (cleaning, lubricating, and tightening)
 Adjusting (mainly during operation and setup)
 Recording data on adjustments required and other abnormalities found
 Planning improvement strategies in cooperation with the maintenance department

2 Measuring Deterioration
 Performing routine checks (mainly five-senses checks)
 Some periodic inspection (mainly five-senses checks)

3 Reversing Deterioration
 Minor servicing (simple parts-replacements, and emergency measures)
 Reporting failures and problems promptly and accurately
 Helping to repair unexpected failures
Sustaining basic equipment conditions (cleaning, lubricating, and tightening) and routine checking
is the most important of these activities, and the sheer amount of work involved puts them beyond
the maintenance department’s resources. The only way to ensure that these tasks get done
effectively is to have them done by production operators, who know the condition of the equipment
best anyway.

(4) The maintenance department’s responsibilities

1 Core maintenance activities

The focus of the maintenance department’s activities is measuring and correcting deterioration.
Maintenance staff needs to concentrate on fields requiring specialist skills, such as periodic
maintenance, predictive maintenance, and corrective maintenance. They must play a wide-ranging,
 active role in raising maintenance and safety standards, going far beyond their traditional remit as
repairers of machines and replacers of parts.

2 Support for the Autonomous Maintenance program

As described above, one of the key responsibilities of the production department is to set up an
Autonomous Maintenance program aimed at preventing and correcting deterioration, but it can only
do so with effective guidance and assistance from the maintenance department. The production and
maintenance departments must cooperate and learn from one another, and the production
department should turn to the maintenance department for the following help:

Backup for Autonomous Maintenance Steps 1 to 3

 Teaching operators how the equipment works, what the parts are called, and which sections of the
equipment they should not disassemble.
 Training operators how to lubricate their machines, standardizing the types of lubricant to be used, and
helping operators formulate lubrication standards (what needs to be lubricated, which lubricant should
be used, how often, and so on).
 Providing technical help with improvement activities such as eliminating contamination sources,
making areas more accessible for cleaning, lubricating and inspecting, and boosting equipment
effectiveness.
 Responding promptly to requests for maintenance work needed to rectify things such as deterioration,
deficiencies in basic equipment conditions, and equipment problems.
Backup for Autonomous Maintenance Steps 4 and 5

 Coaching operators in techniques for tightening nuts, bolts, and other fastenings.
 Training operators in inspection skills, and helping them formulate inspection standards (what to
inspect, how often, and so on).

1.4 The Seven Autonomous Maintenance Steps

If it is going to work properly, Autonomous Maintenance must be implemented following a
management-led plan. A system for progressively upgrading production equipment and operators’
capabilities should be put in place (see Table 5.1), and the Autonomous Maintenance program
should be rolled out under this plan, with each step being reviewed by management before an
authorization is given to proceed to the next.
1.4.1 The 7 Autonomous Maintenance Steps
The 7 steps for developing Autonomous Maintenance can be grouped into the three stages described
below:

Stage 1
Steps 1 to 3 constitute Stage 1. This is where the basic equipment conditions are painstakingly
achieved (mainly through cleaning and inspecting), and a system for sustaining these conditions is
established.

Everyone should be helped to understand the process that is going to transform their equipment as
they implement Autonomous Maintenance. They need to discover truths like the following:

‘Cleaning is inspection’ (cleaning should not just be cleaning for its own sake, but ‘cleaning with
the meaning’; i.e. cleaning to find problems);
‘Inspection is detection’ (careful inspection of the equipment while cleaning it will reveal all kinds
of imperfections);
‘Detection is correction’ (discovering a problem motivates correcting it and making further
improvements).
During this process, everyone needs to get into the habit of working through difficulties, exercising
creativity and ingenuity in solving problems, and thinking hard about what they are doing and why
they are doing it. The work carried out at this stage will revolve around three activities: cleaning,
lubricating, and tightening. These activities, through which basic equipment conditions are
sustained, are the minimum prerequisites for preventing equipment deterioration and form the
foundation on which all the other activities are built.

Stage 2
Steps 4 and 5 constitute Stage 2. At this stage, operators receive training in general equipment
inspection skills and start performing these inspections for themselves. This enables them to move
on from preventing deterioration to measuring deterioration, and learn that:

‘Correction is perfection’ (reversing deterioration and making improvements brings good results);
‘Perfection is satisfaction’ (getting good results gives a feeling of accomplishment);
‘Satisfaction is further action’ (a feeling of accomplishment makes people want to achieve even
more).
Through this, the operators become truly equipment-competent, capable of performing routine
checks using their five senses backed up by logic, and able and willing to make improvements on
their own initiative. This is the stage at which the results really start to appear, and people’s
attitudes change. These new attitudes produce a new atmosphere, as operators start to take pride in
the smooth running of their equipment, while defects and breakdowns are seen as letting the side
down. This is a crucial part of creating a true system of self-management.

Stage 3
Stage 3 consists of Steps 6 and 7. This is the stage at which the finishing touches are put to the
Autonomous Maintenance program by completing the process of standardization and self-
management begun in the previous steps, and operators work towards perfecting their maintenance
skills. The key processes here are as follows:

Improving workplace management techniques, expanding the scope of self-management,

heightening goal-consciousness, instilling an awareness of maintenance and other costs, and
training operators to handle minor equipment repairs.
These processes transform the operators and the workplace, and self-management kicks in as a
result.
2. Step-by-Step Development
To reach the desired scenario of highly-productive equipment, and operators who know their
equipment well and are capable of managing their own work, Autonomous Maintenance is
implemented progressively, starting with preparation (Step 0) and proceeding through a further
seven steps.

2.1 Step 0: Preparation

2.1.1 Aims

This is an important step, where operators find

out for themselves that bad things happen as a
result of forced deterioration of equipment. This
is how they come to realise why TPM is
necessary. Note that action comes first, and
motivation grows out of the action process. To
 become motivated, the operators first have to
carry out the prescribed actions. This
preparatory step is designed to make the
operators think about the causes of forced
deterioration, and understand why they are now
embarking on Autonomous Maintenance.

1. Injuries and other mishaps that could occur while implementing Step 0 should be thought through, and
thorough safety training given. The unsafe actions and situations that could occur as a result of carrying
out the initial cleaning will need to be listed, and a preventive strategy formulated for each.
2. Have each team discuss the implications of forced deterioration, think about why their equipment has
got into the state it is in, and work out what losses result from breakdowns and quality defects caused
by forced deterioration.
3. Have operators draw simple diagrams illustrating the mechanisms used by their equipment. Help them
understand how their equipment works and what kinds of problems happen when it gets dirty, learn the
names of the parts, and so forth.
2.2 Step 1: Initial Cleaning (Checking through Cleaning)

2.2.1 Aims

This is a crucial step, at which the ‘cleaning is

inspection’ concept is put into practice. It is not a
matter of just making the equipment look clean
on the surface; the process of cleaning exposes
abnormalities, such as leaks, loose fastenings, or
damaged parts. The aim of this step is to get to
grips with the equipment, getting our hands dirty
and removing every last bit of dust or grime and
keeping our eyes open as we do so, because this
is by far the best way of discovering problems.
Since initial cleaning is a key step in which the equipment is cleaned thoroughly to make any
abnormalities visible, it is also called ‘Checking through Cleaning’. By carrying out this step,
operators not only get their equipment clean and find out what is wrong with it; they also
experience for themselves, in a very practical way, that cleaning and inspection are actually the
same things.

When embarking on an Autonomous Maintenance program, it is important to ensure that everyone

taking part understands exactly just what cleaning really means, so this topic will now be discussed
in a little more detail.

(1) What is cleaning?

Basically, ‘cleaning the equipment’ means exactly what it says: removing all foreign matter, such as
dirt, dust, oil stains, swarf, sludge, and so on, from the machinery, molds, tools, jigs, and other
equipment used to make the product. Getting every last corner of the equipment thoroughly clean is
the best way of revealing hidden defects, as emphasized by the slogan ‘cleaning is inspection’. It is
not a cosmetic exercise; only a real ‘deep clean’ will do the job. Less-than-thorough cleaning leads
to a host of harmful effects, some of which are noted in Table 5.2.
 (2) Cleaning is Inspection
We describe this approach as ‘Cleaning is Inspection’ because it aims to discover as many
equipment abnormalities as possible. Painstakingly cleaning the equipment like this, touching every
nook and cranny, often reveals hundreds and hundreds of minor defects.

Key Points
 Always check safety conditions carefully before starting to clean.
 Operators should really get involved and see cleaning as an integral part of their job.
 Remove every last bit of built-up grime.
 Eliminate dust and dirt from every corner of the equipment. To do this, operators should open up covers
and flaps that they have never looked under before.
 Cleaning should not be confined to the main body of the equipment. The exteriors and interiors of
peripheral devices such as conveyors, fuse boxes, and hydraulic fluid reservoirs need to be cleaned as
well.
 Operators should not give up if their equipment gets dirty again as soon as it has been cleaned. They
should observe it to see where, when, and how much dirt starts to appear again.

2.2.2 Implementation
Key Points

(1) Give the basic instruction required for carrying out Step 1
Operators must be trained so that they properly understand the safety requirements, how their
equipment is constructed and how it works, and how to perform tasks such as checking, lubricating,
and tightening. This training must be kept practical, through the use of one-point lessons (see Figure
5.6), or shop-floor practice sessions using the actual equipment.

(2) Create a cleaning plan

By drawing up a cleaning map and using some kind of ranking scheme to decide what order the
equipment should be cleaned in, a cleaning plan can be prepared showing the cleaning procedure to
be followed. The plan should cover 5-S activities, and list the tools and materials that will be
required.
(3) Remove all unnecessary objects
Begin by scouring the entire work area (not just the equipment and its immediate surroundings) for
unnecessary objects, and removing them. Freeing up space in this way is an essential preliminary
step in initial cleaning.

(4) Do initial cleaning

To detect abnormalities and defects, operators need to scrutinize their equipment, touch it, feeling it,
and moving the working parts. They should use all of their senses to detect problems, such as play,
looseness, wear, misalignment, vibration, irregular noise, overheating, oil leaks, and so on. They
should pay particular attention to the parts that give them concern on a day-to-day basis.

(5) Find sources of contamination

Any sources of contamination that cause the equipment to become dirty again after cleaning must
be clearly identified, and everyone should be impressed with the need to deal with these so that the
equipment stays clean.

Figure 5.5 illustrates the overall workflow for this step, and Figure 5.7 shows further details.
2.3 Step 2: Tackling Contamination Sources and Hard-to-Access
Areas

2.3.1 Aims

In Step 2, ways are found to combat sources of

dirt, leaks, and so on, and improve accessibility
to areas that are hard to clean, lubricate, tighten,
or inspect. This is a crucial process that nurtures
the seeds of improvement, as operators find ways
to improve the situation on their own initiative. It
allows them to derive real pleasure from the
 process of improvement and the results attained,
and to share a sense of achievement with their
supervisors and fellow team members.
The aim is to enable operators to improve their equipment themselves and give them the confidence
to take on more and more advanced improvements.

(1) Eradicating contamination sources

Eradicating contamination sources means identifying sources of dirt or leaks (of air, oil, raw
materials, etc.) and then getting rid of them. To do this, a map of sources must be drawn up showing
each point where contamination or leakage is occurring, so that they can be addressed
systematically, starting with those that have the greatest effect on quality, equipment performance,
and the general work environment (see Figure 5.9).

Contamination sources are identified in Step 1, but in Step 2 they must be painstakingly rooted out.
For instance, all sources of oil stain must be eradicated by measures such as preventing leaks in
hydraulic pipe joints, or adjusting drip rates if too much lubricating oil is being applied.

Some contamination sources cannot be eliminated. For example, the use of cutting fluid, or the
generation of swarf or scale, may be unavoidable, and in these cases, practical improvements must
be made to minimize the dispersion of these contaminants. Here, the basic approach is to prevent
scattering.

(2) Tackling hard-to-access areas

Areas that take great time and effort to clean and inspect must be improved to make them more
accessible. For example, it is difficult to drain and check FRLs (compressed-air
filter/regulator/lubricator sets) located near floor level, so these units should be raised to make the
tasks easier to carry out. Similarly, providing an observation window makes it possible to check the
state of a V-belt from the outside, without having to remove the cover. Likewise, complex, tangled
cable layouts should be eliminated, and cables laid directly on the floor should be raised, make
cleaning easier.

Implementation

Figure 5.8 shows the rollout procedure for Step 2.

 Tackling contamination sources is a key part of Step 2. It is worth looking a little further at this
subject and how to approach it.

2.3.2 Tackling contamination sources

Tackling contamination sources involves two key approaches.

(1) Nurture the seeds of improvement

The harder operators work on initial cleaning in Step 1, the less willing they will be to let their
lovingly-cleaned equipment become dirty again. They will naturally be much more aware of
contamination sources and keen to find ways to eradicate them. It is essential to make the most of
this opportunity.

 Rather than spending a lot of money on a few grandiose schemes, it is much better to accumulate larger
numbers of smaller, ‘homespun’ improvements. Figure 5.10 shows a typical approach to making this
kind of improvement.
 Establish an effective support system and training facilities. Explain the principles of the processes
involved, and teach operators how to spot where the equipment functions can be improved. Show them
crafts and techniques they can use to come up with effective improvements. All training should be
carefully geared to the operators’ capabilities.
 It is most important for supervisors and managers to boost morale by taking a real interest in these
improvements, visiting the workplace regularly to see them for themselves.
(2) Create provisional standards for cleaning and lubrication, based on improvement case studies

Figure 5.8 shows the general approach for this, and Figure 5.11-(1) and (2) gives further details.
2.4 Step 3: Provisional Autonomous Maintenance Standards

2.4.1 Aims
Based on the experience gained from Steps 1 and 2, the purpose of Step 3 is to

• Sustain the level of cleanliness achieved on passing Step 1; and

• Sustain the equipment improvements made in Step 2 to deal with contamination sources and hard-
to-access areas
To do this, provisional standards for cleaning, checking, and lubricating must be formulated.
Lubrication standards are drawn up by checking current lubrication practice and the state of
lubrication of the equipment; identifying any problems, or areas that are hard to lubricate or check
properly, and taking action to rectify these. The aim is to improve equipment reliability and
maintainability by creating easy-to-follow standards.

2.4.2. Implementation

Step 3 is an important step in which operators

use the experience they have acquired in Steps 1
and 2 to clarify what the ideal conditions for
 their equipment should be, and devise standards
for the actions necessary to sustain those
conditions (standards specifying the 5 Ws and 1
H, i.e. who is to do what, where, when, why and
how). Figure 5.13 shows a typical template for
creating a provisional standard, and Figure 5.14
shows a detailed example. The key points for this
step are discussed below.
Key points
(1) Why are standards not usually followed?

Companies often have a huge number of work standards and inspection standards, thought up by
technical staff sitting in an office somewhere, that is not very relevant to the situation on the shop
floor. The operators do not understand why they are necessary and are simply obliged by their
managers to observe them. Before creating the provisional Autonomous Maintenance standards, a
full inventory of existing standards must be taken to get a clear idea of the current situation.

(2) Establish standards that can be followed

The following points must be observed if standards are to be properly applied:
 The conditions to be sustained, and the methods to be followed, must be made explicit.
 The reasons why these conditions need to be sustained, and the negative consequences of not sustaining
them, must be fully understood.
 The operators concerned must be given the capabilities needed to sustain the conditions.
 The prerequisites (such as sufficient time, etc.) for sustaining the conditions must be made available to
the operators.
(3) Standards must be defined by those who have to observe them

To ensure that basic equipment conditions are reliably sustained, it is important to let those
responsible for sustaining them define the necessary standards. This is in fact the first step towards
self-management. To this end, the following requirements must be met

 The operators must be taught why they need to set and follow standards.
 They must be helped to acquire the ability to formulate the standards themselves.
 They must actually be allowed to formulate the standards themselves.
If this is done, the standards prepared by the operators will be sustained. See Figure 5.12 for details.
2.4.3 The difference between visual indicators and visual controls
The diagrams below show the basic difference between visual indicators (Figure 5.15) and visual
controls (Figure 5.16). This example relates to an FRL (filter, regulator, lubricator set) for a
pneumatic device, and in particular, to its lubricator. The purpose of the lubricator is to hold the
prescribed type of oil and supply it at the right time and in the right quantity to the downstream
pneumatic device (e.g. a pneumatic cylinder or solenoid) where it is needed. The key function of the
lubricator is not so much that of holding the oil, as making sure that it is supplied where and when
required, in the right amounts.

In the example in Figure 5.15, the maximum and minimum levels are marked on the lubricator
bowl, and the oil level is periodically checked to see if it still lies between these marks. It is easy to
see whether or not the lubricator is holding the correct amount of oil, but this in itself will not
prevent equipment failures or minor stops. This is because the level indicators cannot tell us
whether or not the lubricator is fulfilling its real function, which is to supply the right amount of oil
where and when needed.
To summarise:
• Visual indicators provide a guide for monitoring the item under observation.
• Visual controls make abnormalities in the actual function performed by the item under observation
visible.
Figure 5.16 shows an example of how this problem can be solved, by placing a rubber band around
the bowl in line with the oil level. If the level has dropped far enough below the rubber band the
next time the level is checked, this demonstrates that the lubricator has been working properly.
CHAPTER 5. AUTONOMOUS MAINTENANCE. PART 2

Chapter 5. Autonomous Maintenance. Part 2

September 30, 2020

0 56 min read

2.5 Step 4: General Inspection

2.5.1 Aims

In Autonomous Maintenance Steps 1 to 3, the

emphasis is on eliminating forced deterioration
and sustaining basic conditions. Operators
search out and eliminate equipment
abnormalities, institute countermeasures against
contamination sources and hard-to-access areas,
and develop provisional cleaning, checking and
lubricating standards. Thanks to these activities,
they become increasingly able to recognise
abnormalities and stop forced deterioration, as
well as acquiring an improvement-oriented
mindset and learning how to actually make
improvements.

While Steps 1 to 3 focus on detecting

abnormalities using the five senses, Step 4
(General Inspection) takes this further. It aims to
give operators a thorough understanding of the
functions and structure of their equipment, and
develop their ability to perform routine
maintenance backed up by relevant logic and
knowledge.

When checking equipment, it is very important to

pay close attention to minor abnormalities that
could lead to breakdowns, quality problems and
other chronic losses, identifying them precisely
and taking effective action to eliminate them. To
be able to do this, operators need to use the
 process of Step 4 to learn how to measure
deterioration and predict when breakdowns and
quality defects are likely to happen.
The equipment aspect

The first step in General Inspection is to establish the appropriate categories (fasteners, lubrication,
pneumatics, hydraulics, drives, electrics, and so on). The next is to use the relay teaching method,
one category at a time, to teach operators the structure and functions of their equipment, how to
check it, and what criteria to use to assess how far it has deteriorated.

Having learned about a category, the operators use their knowledge to check their equipment,
restore it, and make improvements. At the same time, they introduce visual controls and improve
hard-to-check areas to make checking easier and more efficient. They then incorporate their
findings into standards for that category that will enable them to keep the equipment in its restored
condition through a simple daily maintenance routine. They repeat this process until they have
completed all the categories.

The human aspect

General Inspection training aims to develop operators who can check their equipment effectively,
recognize when parts have deteriorated or something is going wrong, and perform easy maintenance
tasks.

Through training and hands-on experience, General Inspection lays the groundwork for developing
operators who are thoroughly conversant with their equipment. Their self-management skills
progressively improve as they proceed through the categories one by one, spending two to three
months on each.

Guidance and support

The support staff will need to prepare General Inspection manuals and training materials, use these
to carry out General Inspection training, teach the operators about visual controls and how to
improve inaccessible areas, and teach them how to collect, collate, analyze and utilize the data they
obtain from checking their machines.
2.5.2 Implementation

If operators are to know and understand their equipment properly, they must learn all about its
common elements and understand the basic functions of the units it is composed of. In Step 4,
operators receive basic training in areas such as mechanical elements, lubrication systems,
pneumatics, hydraulics, electrics, drive systems, equipment safety, and process conditions, and by
applying this knowledge when inspecting the equipment, they become able to spot even the smallest
defects. The key points in this process are as follows:

 Team leaders learn about the equipment’s basic mechanisms and functions.
 They pass on this knowledge to their teams.
 The operators use what they have learned to discover problems in the workplace.
 Visual controls are introduced wherever they can be.
Figure 5.19 shows the basic workflow for this step.
2.5.3 Step 4 sub-steps

(1) The requirements of the Step 4 training program will depend on the following:

1 What the operators need to know about running their equipment correctly – setting conditions,
operating, doing changeovers, etc.

2 What checks the operators need to do.

The above issues must be studied in light of the equipment’s specification and the situation
regarding problems such as breakdowns and quality defects. However, operators should at the very
least learn about the basic elements that their machines are composed of (e.g. fasteners, lubrication,
pneumatics, hydraulics, drives, electrics, and controls).

Note:
There is no point in getting operators to dismantle equipment they do not need to
check or adjust, or teaching them about the structure and principles of such equipment. The training
curriculum must be carefully selected to enable operators to obtain a deep understanding of the
checking and adjustment tasks they need to do, and the training materials should be broken down
into simple, easily-grasped units. Factories sometimes put together over-complicated materials
containing lots of difficult formulae to impress visitors, but materials like these should not be used
for operators’ practical training. These points should be borne in mind when choosing the materials
for General inspection training.

(2) Preparing Know-Why sheets

The most important materials that must be prepared when getting ready for General Inspection
training are:

1 General Inspection Checksheets 2 General Inspection manuals

To get these ready and ensure that everyone understands their machines, simple Know-Why sheets
must be prepared that summarise the principles of operation and abnormal conditions of the
machines that are to be taught, and that explains what is wrong with these abnormal conditions and
what kinds of checks and inspections must be carried out to keep the machines in good condition
(see Figure 5.21).

Figure 5.21 Typical Checklist and Know-Why Explanation for Filter

A one-point lesson like this should only be used if operators actually have to check and adjust air
filters. There is no need to teach it if they do not.
(3) Preparation of General Inspection Training Materials 1 Inspection checksheets
 Start by surveying existing maintenance records on quality defects, breakdowns, minor stops, and
other problems to identify in detail all the five-senses checks that it is considered necessary for the
operators to do. Compile the results in the form of checksheets.

Procedure for preparing Inspection Checksheets

 Copy out the checkpoints from the Know-Why sheet.

 Based on the Know-Why sheet, consider what standards are required to keep the equipment in good
condition.
 Try writing in the checking procedure and standards.
 Think what would need to be done if the device being checked were found to fall short of the standard.
 Try describing what would need to be done, but remember there is no point in giving an instruction that the
operators could not follow with their current level of knowledge and skill. They should also not be required
to take precise measurements if they do not have the necessary instruments or skills.
 It is a good idea to include photographs or cartoons if these will help the operators. Key points to remember
when preparing checksheets:
The ‘level of variability’ must be determined when setting the frequency with which the checks must be
performed. There are three ‘levels of variability’, as explained below.
o Variable (to be checked daily). An item termed ‘variable’ is likely to vary daily and therefore must be
checked daily. Operators should check and adjust such items without fail every time they start work or at
another suitable time.
o Semi-fixed (to be checked monthly or as specified in the maintenance calendar). An item termed ‘semi-
fixed’ is not likely to vary during normal operation but must still be checked and adjusted monthly or at
every changeover.
o Fixed (permanent improvement completed). An item termed ‘fixed’ does not vary at all during normal
operation.
The level of variability of the items to be checked and adjusted will change as the operators’ skills
improve, Effective Maintenance makes progress, and deeper Focused Improvements are carried out.
In the early stages of Step 4, almost all of the items will be ‘variable’, but they will gradually
progress towards ‘semi-fixed’ or ‘fixed’ as the operators and maintenance engineers become more
and more skilled.

General Inspection check sheets are created by combining all the individual check sheets into a
single sheet for each machine (see Figure 5.22).
 2 Inspection manuals

Think about what the operators need to learn to be able to check their machines effectively, and
compile the information into manuals designed for the team leaders to use. These manuals must
clearly explain the equipment’s basic structure and functions, the names and functions of its
components, the criteria against which it should be checked, how it should be checked, what
happens when its functions deteriorate, what the causes of any such deterioration are, and what
should be done about those causes.

Furthermore, manuals alone are not enough to teach these details sufficiently; it is also important to
devise effective training aids such as cutaway models, easy-to-understand wall charts, and
photographs showing actual examples of how the equipment can deteriorate.

Procedure for creating inspection manuals:

 Copy out the checkpoints from the Know-Why sheet.

 Copy out the checking procedure, and the standards for deciding whether what is being checked is in
acceptable condition or not, from the Know-Why sheet.
 Based on the Know-Why sheet, write out the proper steps to be taken if a problem is discovered.
 Try describing the inspection methods required and any tips and tricks for performing the inspection (the
Know-How), but remember there is no point in giving an instruction that the operators could not follow with
their current level of knowledge and skill. They should also not be required to take precise measurements if
they do not have the necessary instruments or skills.
 It is a good idea to include photographs or cartoons if these will help the operators.
 Have the operators see whether they can actually perform the necessary checks and adjustments by using the
manuals.
Key points to remember when preparing manuals:

The manuals do not have to be works of art. It is better to have one simple manual per machine.
Bulky, textbook-type manuals are not suitable for training operators. They should be easy to
understand by the people on the shop floor, capable of being corrected on the spot if found to be
ambiguous in any way, and gone over thoroughly to ensure that every operator can use them to
perform the necessary checks and adjustments (see Figure 5-23).

2.5.4 Planning the Schedule for General Inspection training

(1) Time required for General Inspection

Step 4 requires quite a long time (normally 12 to 15 months) and many labor-hours to complete.
Team leaders will need 8 to 16 hours of training for each category, while operators will need 4 to 8.
Checking the equipment will take 20 to 30 hours depending on how big or complicated it is. Figure
5.24 shows an example of a General Inspection curriculum and timetable.

(2) Proposing the schedule for General Inspection training

The General Inspection training schedule must be decided together with the production
department’s managers. The maintenance department cannot determine the schedule on its own,
because it necessitates finding time for the operators to receive their training, deciding how
overtime is to be used, acquiring training facilities, coordinating team leaders’ work schedules, and
estimating and budgeting for the cost of the training.
(3) Pattern for carrying out General Inspection training

The training for General Inspection should not be carried out all at once. Each category is taught,
then the checks about that category are performed, and then the training for the next category is
modified in the light of the results. The training should be basically practical and carried out in the
workplace; trainees should not be kept cooped up in a classroom for long sessions until they get
bored.

(4) The importance of relay teaching

Relay teaching is the most effective way of conducting Step 4 training. In this method, the team
leaders are trained by the maintenance staff and then become trainers themselves, passing on what
they have learned to their team members:
a The maintenance department begins by explaining things to the team leaders
b Teach the key points of horizontal replication
c Review each machine and revise the manuals
d Team leaders collect drawings, information on past problems, etc., and use these for the training
e These are then applied to the actual machines by the team leaders and operators
f Each team’s experiences are passed on to other teams by having meetings
g The operators perform General Inspection
h Efforts are made to monitor and raise the levels of operators’ knowledge and skill
Making learning more fun
To maximize the training’s effectiveness, it is important to try and make it as interesting and
enjoyable as possible. Good ways of doing this include disassembling simple units, building the
training materials around actual workplace problems, and introducing some friendly competition to
make the training feel more like a game (for example, splitting the team up and seeing who can find
the most defects within a given time).

2.5.5 Performing General Inspection training

The General Inspection training planned within the preparation phase described above is now
carried out.

2.5.6 Performing General Inspection

Before carrying out General Inspection at Step 4, the provisional standards prepared during Steps 1-
3 should be revised, removing every unnecessary item (and every item that could be made
unnecessary through improvement), and including any items that are necessary but have been
overlooked. If this is not done thoroughly, and the number of items to be checked and the time is
taken to perform the checks is not reduced, the operators may not have enough time to do all the
checks and meet their production targets. Likewise, if omissions are not corrected, breakdowns will
occur and the same situation will arise.

(1) Revising the cleaning, lubricating, and checking standards from Steps 1-3 Zero failures and
quality defects

Any necessary checks omitted from the cleaning, checking, and lubricating standards must be
identified. This means studying historical records of equipment failures, defects, and inspection
errors, and looking at what has been done to prevent them from recurring, to see if anything has
been overlooked.

Efficient cleaning, checking, and lubricating

Ways should be found to reduce the number of checks specified in the cleaning, checking, and
lubricating standards. Duplicated tasks should be eliminated, and checks should be combined with
other work (enabling operators to check the equipment at the same time as cleaning or lubricating it,
for example).

Balanced cleaning, checking, and lubricating

The cleaning, checking, and lubricating tasks are often concentrated at the start of the week. The
workload should be balanced by reviewing the frequency of the checks, the time they require, and
the order they are done in.
 Visual management
The visual management aspect of the checks should also be reviewed, along the following lines:

 Is it easy to see where the check needs to be done?

 Is the check itself easy to perform?
 Is it immediately apparent if something is wrong?
(2) Procedure for performing General Inspection

1. When performing General Inspection, ensure that responsibilities are clearly specified

The ultimate aim of Step 4 is to improve the reliability and maintainability of every item of
equipment the teams are in charge of by having them check it comprehensively in all of the General
Inspection categories and reverse any deterioration they find.

Using the knowledge they have acquired through the General Inspection training program, the
teams inspect all their equipment thoroughly, hold regular meetings, deal with any problems they
detect, and keep on improving their equipment’s maintainability. The maintenance department’s
support in all of this is crucial. It must work even harder than it did in Steps 1 to 3, doing everything
in its power to complete any work the teams request promptly, as well as continuing to run its own
planned maintenance program.

2. After performing a General Inspection of each category, draw up an Autonomous Maintenance

Step 4 problem list and formulate proposals for corrective action

3. Restore and improve

As they carry out General Inspection, the teams identify deterioration and come up with ideas for
improving hard-to-check areas, dividing the work up among themselves to get it done. They must
keep on improving both the equipment and the checking methods until all the necessary checks can
be completed within the specified time.

2.5.7 Standardising after each General Inspection category

Provisional daily checking standards should be prepared promptly, either during or immediately
after the completion of each General Inspection category. They are still called ‘provisional’ at this
stage because the definitive standards are not finalized until Step 5. Standards are usually more
difficult to revise once they have been finalized, so it is very important to prepare and check the
provisional daily checking standards in Step 4.

Procedure for drawing up provisional daily checking standards

(1) Reduce checking times

The optimal checking times and intervals must be decided by trial and error. Begin by setting a
target time for each check as a guideline, and try doing it within the target time. If the target is not
met, improve the equipment or the method of doing the check until it is. Likewise, adjust the
checking intervals until the most appropriate ones are found, and juggle the responsibilities of the
maintenance and the operating departments until the best combination is achieved.
(2) Consolidate checks

The ECRS method used for improving changeovers is also useful for consolidating checks (that is,
grouping checks together to reduce their number).

ECRS stands for:

E: eliminate

C: combine

R: replace

S: simplify

(3) Reduce numbers of checks

The number of items to be checked can be reduced by making variable factors semi-fixed or fixed,
as shown on the checksheet given in Figure 5.26).
Figure 5.26 Making Variable Factors Semi-Fixed or Fixed
(4) Standards

An action standard should be drawn up for each General Inspection category, specifying the checks
to be performed, the methods and tools to be used, whether to perform the checks with the
equipment stationary or in motion, the assessment criteria, what to do if problems are found, how
long each check should take, and how often each check should be done. These standards should be
kept up to date by amending them every time an improvement is effected. They should do the
following:

(a) Allow all the necessary checks to be done properly within the allocated time
(b) Permit the equipment to be kept in its restored state through daily checking and maintenance by
operators, thereby boosting its reliability
(5) Delivering Results

Remember that the aim of Step 4 is to train the operators to discover and eliminate potential
problems by actually carrying out General inspections on their machines. They must develop the
theoretical knowledge they acquire into real practical skills through repeated practice, and use these
skills to deliver tangible results for the business. To accomplish this, they must conscientiously
record all the problems and daily maintenance difficulties they encounter and take effective action
to banish them from the workplace.

(6) Checking Inspection Skills

 The purpose of conducting a skill check is not to test theoretical knowledge – it is to find out
whether people know what parts of their equipment they are supposed to check, how they are
supposed to check it, and what they are supposed to be looking for.

1 Team Leader Training and Skill Checks

Team leaders usually receive their training during normal working hours or overtime. The
knowledge that they will be tested at the end of their course helps to focus their minds on the
training, and achieving a good score in the test is an excellent source of motivation.

2 Relay Teaching and Skill Checks

The purpose of relay teaching is to train the operators to carry out the necessary checks on their
machines, and skill tests should be limited to this. Most operators have not had to take an exam for
a very long time, and being made to take a test can put them under considerable psychological
pressure. Everything should be done to ensure that they pass, and trainers should think very
carefully before failing anyone. It is a good idea to let them know beforehand what the test
involves, and make sure they are well prepared for it.

3 Skills Management

Test results and completed course units should be displayed on team activity boards in the form of
matrices, radar charts, etc., to identify areas where further training is required. The team leader or
training facilitator should then provide opportunities for operators to receive this training. Operators
may need to acquire skills that are more specialized than those normally taught through the
Autonomous Maintenance program or are unique to a particular machine or process, so it is
important to take stock of the teams’ skills and manage them in the way described.

Step 4 does not require operators to check things precisely using sophisticated measuring
instruments; it requires them to perform simple checks and maintenance tasks which they must
practice until they have embedded them in their ‘muscle memories’ and can do them rapidly and
effectively. They need to perform the checks using their five senses, assisted by visual controls, as
in the following examples:
 Sight: look for rusty or dirty equipment, disconnected or cut wiring, dirty gauges, etc.
 Touch: feel for loose bolts, overheating, wrong torque, vibration, etc.
 Hearing: listen for strange noises, air leaks, fluid leaks, etc.
 Smell: sniff out strange smells due to dirtiness, overheating, fluid leaks, gas leaks, etc.
 Taste: lick something to detect odd tastes (rarely used in TPM).
(7) Assessing the benefits of General Inspection

General Inspection aims to train the operators to take a logical approach to the identification of
potential problems, based on a sound knowledge of their equipment, to give them a good set of
checking skills, and to increase their restoration and improvement ability. This will result in more
and more potential problems being identified and solved, which is one measurable benefit of
General Inspection. However, as the number of checks to be performed increases with each new
category covered, it will become impossible to complete them all within the required time unless
something is simultaneously being done about parts of the equipment that are difficult or time-
consuming to check. Visual controls need to be introduced to cope with this, and the results can be
measured in terms of the increasing efficiency of the inspection routines. If possible, benefits should
 be expressed in monetary terms so that everyone can understand the impact of the improvements on
the profitability of their business. Some suggestions for assessing the benefits of General Inspection
are given below.

1 Tangible Benefits

(a) Process results

 Number of potential problems uncovered in each category

 The number of remaining contamination sources and hard-to-access areas improved
 Number of tags attached and removed
 Number of visual controls introduced (time and motion savings, number of misidentifications prevented and
mistakes averted)
 The proportion of improvements carried out by their own team
 Number of major defects discovered
 Number of improvement-related one-point lessons created
 Number of improvements to hard-to-check locations
 Number of problems that everyone is particularly pleased to have found and solved
(b) Output benefits


o Reduction in cleaning time
o Reduction in checking time in each category
o Reduction in shortstops and breakdowns
2 Intangible Benefits


o Operators can perform the necessary checks simply and quickly, and manage their equipment easily
o Visual management enhances maintainability and ensures that no checks are overlooked
o Operators can affect their own improvements
o Operators can draft their own standards
o Operators can check intelligently, understanding why they are doing it
2.6 Step 5: Autonomous Checking

2.6.1 Aims

In the previous four steps, operators have reversed deterioration and restored equipment to its
original condition. The aim of Step 5 is to sustain and further raise the levels of reliability,
maintainability, and quality thus achieved. This entails reviewing the provisional standards for
cleaning, checking, and lubricating developed so far, to work them up into a definitive set of
efficient and comprehensive standards.

2.6.2 Implementation

(1) Review the cleaning, checking, and lubricating standards

We can ensure zero equipment failures and quality defects by identifying and monitoring the state
of the equipment and the processing conditions, and keeping these as they should be. To apply the
finishing touches to what we have done so far, and ensure that the conditions for zero failures and
quality defects are sustained, we need to review our provisional standards for cleaning, checking,
 and lubricating from the four standpoints detailed below. Figure 5.28 shows the procedure for Step
5, and Table 5.3 illustrates an example of a standard developed in this step.

Zero failures and quality defects

Any necessary checks omitted from the cleaning, checking, and lubricating standards must be
identified. This means studying historical records of equipment failures, defects, and inspection
errors, and looking at what has been done to prevent them from recurring, to see if anything has
been overlooked.

Efficient cleaning, checking, and lubricating

Ways should be found to reduce the number of checks specified in the cleaning, checking, and
lubricating standards. Duplicated tasks should be eliminated, and checks should be combined with
other work (enabling operators to check the equipment at the same time as cleaning or lubricating it,
for example).

Balanced cleaning, checking, and lubricating

The cleaning, checking, and lubricating tasks are often concentrated at the start of the week. The
workload should be balanced by reviewing the frequency of the checks, the time they require, and
the order they are done in.

Visual management

The visual management aspect of the checks should also be reviewed, along the following lines:

 Is it easy to see where the check needs to be done?

 Is the check itself easy to perform?
 Is it immediately apparent if something is wrong?
(2) Take concrete steps to enhance visual management

Visual management aims to prevent human error by making it immediately obvious if anything is
wrong. The following list gives some examples of visual controls that could be introduced into
various equipment systems to flag up irregularities:

Lubrication systems

 Color-coding of lubrication ports

 Labels indicating the type of oil to be used and frequency of lubrication
 Maximum and minimum oil level indicators
 Indicators showing oil consumption per unit time
 Color-coding of oil cans to show the type of lubricant they should contain
Mechanical elements

 ‘Inspected’ stickers and match marks

 Color-coding of bolts to be checked by maintenance technicians
 Color-coding of holes where bolts are not used (e.g. in yellow)
 Signs indicating inspection route
 Displays indicating when a device is operating
Pneumatic systems

 Displays indicating specified pressures

 Oil drip-rate indicators on lubricators
 Maximum and minimum oil level indicators on lubricators
 Plates on solenoids indicating their function
 Pipe joint indicators showing the direction of flow
Hydraulic systems

 Displays indicating specified pressures

 Labels on level gauges
 Labels indicating the type of fluid to be used
 Thermosensitive labels on hydraulic pumps
 Plates on solenoids indicating their function
 Match marks on relief-valve locknuts
Drive systems

 Labels indicating types of V-belt and chain to be used

 Labels indicating the direction of rotation of V-belts and chains
 Observation windows for inspecting V-belts, chains, etc.
(3) Example of revised checking standards

As the Autonomous Maintenance program unfolds, teams often find that the number of items to be
checked, and the time required to do so, increase to the point where they cannot all be covered in
the time allowed for daily checking. In the example detailed below, the checks were taking just 10
minutes per day at Step 3, but by the end of Step 4, this had ballooned to 137 minutes per day. This
meant that operators started to fall behind with their checks, as they were too busy operating the
machines and producing the product to do them all. They, therefore, used Step 5 as an opportunity
to revise and improve the standards.

a. Current situation
b. Creating a more efficient checking system

• To begin with, different frequency intervals were established for each check, depending on the
importance assigned to it (see Table 5.5-(1)).
• Next, the checking workload was evened out, so that the same number of checks were performed
on each day of the week (see Table 5.5-(2)).

• Finally, the team made other improvements such as installing visual controls on the valves,
standardizing the inspection routes, cutting out unnecessary checks, and introducing more efficient
lubrication methods.

c. Results

(4) Clarify the roles of the production and maintenance departments

The maintenance department will have its own comprehensive maintenance calendar with servicing
standards specifying exactly what needs to be checked, inspected, replaced, stripped down, and
serviced, and some of the checks contained in these (ones that do not require the equipment to be
stripped down) will have the same objective and be carried out in the same way as equivalent
checks that the operators intend to include in their definitive Autonomous Maintenance standards.
Some of these checks will be unique to a particular piece of equipment and would be better done by
the operators who look after it. The maintenance department may also notice gaps in the operators’
standards. The maintenance and operating departments should therefore compare each other’s
standards for each item of equipment in turn to eliminate omissions and duplication (some checks
will of course need to be duplicated), decide exactly who is to be responsible for what, and ensure
that the two sets of standards together cover everything that needs to be covered, no more and no
less.

(5) Checking intervals

Some of the checks included in the operators’ Autonomous Maintenance standards will be
performed daily, while others will be carried out weekly, fortnightly, monthly, and so on up to an
interval of about three months. Daily checks should cover just the minimum points that must be
monitored to prevent any serious and unexpected safety or quality problems or major equipment
failures. Teams should avoid setting more daily checks than they can reasonably accomplish.
Checking intervals are usually decided based on experience, and the operating and maintenance
departments need to get together to pool their knowledge and agree on suitable intervals that reflect
the actual history of problems in the equipment while seeking to limit the time spent on doing the
checks.
2.7 Development of standards during Steps 4-54
Many basic standards and other documents are created during the activities carried out at Steps 4
and 5, the most important steps in Autonomous Maintenance. This section describes the process by
which these documents are put together.

a. Provisional cleaning, lubrication, and inspection standards prepared during steps 1-3

Figure 5.31
b. Prepare Know-Why sheets for devices that operators will be checking and adjusting
A one-point lesson like this should only be used if operators actually have to check and adjust air
filters.
There is no need to teach it if they do not.
c. Prepare General Inspection check sheets and manuals based on these Know-Why sheets
Figure 5.33 A General Inspection Check sheet

d. Prepare Step 4 daily inspection provisional standards

The Step 4 standards will usually contain more items than the Step 1-3 provisional standards, even
if these are reduced to the minimum.

e. Reduce the number of checks, group them, and streamline them to reduce the checking time (fix
variable factors)
f. Convert the Step 4 provisional standards into Step 5 definitive standards (AM Standards)
CHAPTER 5. AUTONOMOUS MAINTENANCE. PART 3

Chapter 5. Autonomous Maintenance. Part 3

September 27, 2017
0 49 min read

2.8 Step 6: Standardisation

2.8.1 Aims

Up to this stage, the Autonomous Maintenance

activities have focused on the
equipment, and in particular, the basic
equipment conditions and the daily checks
required
to maintain them. The aim of Step 6, in addition
 to consolidating what has been done so far,
is to expand the operator’s role to cover the
equipment’s surroundings as well as the
equipment itself, continue to drive down the
losses closer and closer to zero, and put the
finishing touches to the teams’ ability to manage
their own work.
2.8.2 Implementation
In Step 6, while sustaining optimal conditions through Autonomous Checking, operators keep on
making improvements and record any defects, equipment failures, or minor stops that occur. They
rectify the problems that arise and lock improvements into place by upgrading the standards.
In Step 6, they also focus on their own movement and actions. By getting together and examining
how they perform each task, the operators can figure out how to make their work easier and more
pleasant to carry out, and then go about creating the appropriate conditions for this to happen.
Figure 5.38 gives an overview of how these
activities are developed.
Looking at the development of Steps 1 to 6, it can be seen that the focus is initially directed at the
equipment, then shifts to quality, and finally moves to the actions of the operators themselves. This
focus on the human role and the search for ‘worker-friendly processes’ provides the vital finishing
touches to self-management. We want our line teams to be fully competent to get on with the job by
themselves, because only then can we think about allowing them to take total charge of their own
workplaces. Step 6 addresses the issue of standardization from this standpoint.

2.8.3 What the standards should cover

• Standards for the movement of materials around the shop floor
• Standard operating procedures
• Basic work standards
• Standards for data recording, etc.
• Standards for managing molds, tools, jigs, and measuring equipment
• Standards for managing spare parts
• Standards for process quality assurance, etc.

2.8.4 Key points

(1) At Step 6, the role of the operator is broadened to cover the work done in and around the
equipment. Operators must look at why they do each task, separating the routine work from the
non-routine work, checking whether standards have been defined for each repetitive routine task,
and establishing them if necessary. Non-routine
work, on the other hand, may give rise to quality defects, meaning that all products have to been
screened or may result in over-production, with the upshot that the plant runs out of storage space
and products or components have to be shifted around. Problems of this kind should be handled
separately, and specific improvements made to rectify them.
(2) Some of the routine tasks will involve WUS (waste, unevenness, and strain) or other
imperfections when viewed from the objective of maximizing the efficiency of the operators and the
equipment. Suitable improvements must be made, and the revised tasks must then be standardized.
This requires each operator to observe his or her own work closely, and then discuss with the rest of
the team how to perform it in an ideal way.

(3) Combine small improvements to make big ones

Each small improvement focusing on an individual operator will produce a small labor
saving of, say, 0.5 or 0.3 person-hours. These savings must be combined and translated
into actual reductions in the number of people required to operate particular processes,
thus linking directly to the business goals.
(4) Promote ways of sustaining Autonomous Checking
To ensure that the regime of cleaning, checking, and lubricating is sustained, and optimal
conditions are always in place, it is essential to have a clear follow-up plan. One good
way of doing this is to have a system of ongoing factory reviews, based around the
Autonomous Maintenance standards. For example, after each factory review, a pass
certificate is issued and the date of the next review is decided. It is best not to leave too
large a gap between one review and the next – an interval of three months is about right.

2.9 Step 7: Full Self-Management

2.9.1 Aims

The aim of Step 7 is to consolidate all of the

activities undertaken in Steps 1 through 6. By this
stage, the operators should have gained real
confidence about the changes they have made in
the equipment and the workplace, and in their
own self-development, and understand the
positive results that these changes have
produced. The aim of Step 7 is to keep on
encouraging them to see improvement as an
endless process in which they can and
 must take the initiative. It should be used as an
opportunity to reinforce the sense of
participation and solidarity that their team
activities will have developed, and allow them to
go on exercising their creativity and ingenuity
and build up even stronger emotional bonds with
their colleagues and a solid sense of commitment
to their workplace and the work they do there.
They should no longer rely on external inputs but
be totally autonomous and independent, drawing
on their own resources to drive their actions, and
fully capable of making the required contribution
to the company’s policy and objectives on their
own.
2.9.2 Basic approach
‘Self-management’ encompasses daily routine management and policy management; in other
words, continuing to develop and expand the disciplines of Autonomous Maintenance and Focused
Improvement. To do this, operators must evaluate their own work area against the optimal scenario
set for each assessment item on a company-wide (or
site-wide) basis. They must gauge the level of sustainment, the level of improvement, and the level
of results that have been achieved in their area, identify anything that is not good enough, and work
on these by building them into an annual or termly improvement plan. They should continually
repeat this process to keep on raising the standards (see Figures 5.39 and 5.40)

2.9.3 Implementation
Broadly speaking, Step 7 should be rolled out following the two basic approaches illustrated in
Figure 5.38, namely:

 Establish a system of workplace management that will not break down

 Improve operators’ abilities to fulfill their production role
 (1) Establish a system of workplace management that will not break down

Quite a few companies have won a TPM Excellence Award, but then, two or three years down the
road, have allowed their Autonomous Maintenance program to collapse. Of course, in these cases,
the responsibility really lies at the door of senior and middle management. Operators naturally tend
to follow the lead set by those above them, so managers must demonstrate firm commitment and
maintain a constant and active input if the system of workplace self-management developed through
Autonomous Maintenance is to continue.

(2) Develop operators’ ability to act on their own initiative

This ability is learned through ongoing, practical teaching sessions, primarily in the form of on-the-
job training by managers and supervisors. Managers can help operators build up their self-
management capabilities by picking suitable topics from the policies set down by senior
management and then supporting activities relating to those topics.

(3) Adopt the right approach to work

If full use is to be made of the available labor resources, it is essential to understand the following
basic principles defining the right approach to work:
 Everyone must participate fully.
 They must know how their work is progressing and what results it is producing.
 They must be helped to feel a sense of achievement about what they have accomplished.
 They must be helped to develop into individuals worthy of recognition, and actually be given that
recognition.
(4) Set challenging targets

To ensure that everyone keeps on striving for perfection and does not rest on their laurels,
challenging targets should be set and continually revised in the light of what has been achieved so
far. Targets should suit the position and responsibilities of the team that is supposed to achieve
them, and be designed to contribute to the company’s business goals.

2.10 Specific schemes for developing Autonomous Maintenance

Tables 5.7 and 5.8 give details of two schemes for developing an Autonomous Maintenance
program.
2.11 Different approaches for different equipment configurations
2.11.1 Setting up a step-by-step rollout pattern for each machine
A company will need to establish basic equipment conditions quickly and have its operators become
competent in sustaining them as soon as possible. It will also need to do it economically, and allow
its workforce to enjoy the satisfaction of Autonomous Maintenance sooner rather than later. The
best way to do this is to implement Steps 1 to 3 on one machine, then the next, and so on for each
equipment unit.

The advantages of this approach are that:

Problems discovered and solutions implemented while tackling the first machine or zone can be
taken into account from the start when going through the same steps on other machines or zones;

Each time Steps 1 to 3 have been completed for a given unit or zone, a review meeting can be held,
so that lessons learned can be put to good use on the next unit or zone.

2.11.2 Rollout by equipment type

Besides basic forming and machining equipment such as presses and cutters, factories usually
operate many other types of equipment, including process-type equipment such as plating tanks and
large-scale painting units, or equipment that requires working at heights. This makes it impossible
to adopt a single Autonomous Maintenance rollout scheme for the whole plant, so a different
approach is required for each category.

With large electroplating or electrodeposition installation, for example, an Autonomous

Maintenance plan of the whole unit is drawn up, the different sections are numbered off, and the
basic equipment conditions are established successively in the section- number order.

If working at a height is required, safety must be strictly observed. Such equipment can only be
serviced by certified operators trained to work in these conditions, or by external specialists called
in as needed. If contracting people in from the outside, the company must drive home the message
that ‘Cleaning is Inspection’, so that they adopt the right attitude to inspecting, cleaning, and
servicing the equipment.
3. Rollout Plans

3.1 Autonomous Maintenance rollout plans

If the Autonomous Maintenance program is to be developed in a planned and structured way, then
suitable approaches tailored to each equipment unit and line setup must be devised when designing
the overall plan, and these individual plans must then be put into action. Figure 5.42 shows a typical
Autonomous Maintenance Rollout Plan.

3.1.1 Basic schedule

Although the planning horizon for the basic schedule depends on the nature of the operation, about
3 years from kick-off is a good rule of thumb. Some firms look to shorten the timeframe to 2 – 2.5
years, but if the activities are rushed, they are unlikely to become properly embedded. On the other
hand, if the schedule is too long (say 5 – 6 years), this can prevent the company from achieving real
improvements in its organization and culture. A period of 3 – 4 years should be taken as the
standard timeframe for the overall plan, including the preparatory phase (preliminary training).

3.1.2 Selecting a management pilot model machine

The emphasis should be on hands-on practice rather than on form or theory, and everyone should
focus on practical learning. Running a management pilot model ensures that managers learn what is
involved by actually experiencing it. They themselves must lead the Autonomous Maintenance
program, by doing it themselves on a pilot machine and creating manuals based on what they have
learned to make them better able to lead the Autonomous Maintenance program and pass their skills
 and knowledge on to the operators through relay teaching. A team of department and area managers
should start work on one pilot model machine, and teams of area managers and shop-floor
supervisors should then work on others.

While working on the pilot machines, the managers will find that some tasks need to be done every
day just to keep everything clean, and they will have to ask the operators to do this for them. One or
more of the operators responsible for that piece of equipment should therefore be included in the
team and asked to make sure the work done is sustained in the intervals between sessions.

Once the area managers have learned the basic routines required on the management pilot machine,
they must then lead the way, coaching the supervisors in their area thoroughly on the pilot machine
for that area. This should be seen as the key to rolling out the Autonomous Maintenance program
successfully. While this is happening, the management team should implement Focused
Improvements on their pilot model, to demonstrate what results they can produce. When doing this,
is it important to pick out particularly notable systemic losses or individual losses due to minor
stops, quality defects, equipment failures, inefficient work behaviors, and so on, and complete the
improvements within a period of about three months.

3.2 Setting targets

The targets to be set will, naturally, depend on the expected output (i.e., what it is hoped to achieve,
and to what degree). The approach used in implementing Autonomous Maintenance is to set two
classes of targets. The first consists of progress targets, specifying how many steps are to be carried
out, on how many machines, to what standard, by when. The second consists of output targets
expressed in terms of increasing the effectiveness of each item of equipment and the system as a
whole.

3.2.1 Typical parameters for progress targets

 Deadlines for implementing specific steps
 Number of machines on which steps are to be completed

3.2.2 Typical parameters for output targets

 Number of breakdowns
 Number of minor stops
 Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
 Number of quality defects
4. The Keys to a Successful Rollout
When implementing a 7-Step Autonomous Maintenance program, success depends on observing
certain key points. These are described briefly below.

4.1 Ensure that everyone is fully trained in TPM implementation

and that the different departments are pulling together
Before embarking on the 7 Steps, everyone at every level, including managers from the top echelon
right down to front-line supervisors, in all departments concerned, should be given comprehensive
training in how the TPM program will be rolled out, and the activities involved. Departmental and
area managers from the production department and all other departments concerned (Maintenance,
Design, Production Engineering, Personnel, General Affairs, Finance, etc.) should hold a series of
meetings and arrive at a full consensus about the help and cooperation the production department
needs from the other departments.

4.2 Organise teams at every level

It is also crucial to managing the Autonomous Maintenance program utilizing what in TPM is
called an ‘overlapping small-group organization’, in which everyone belongs to a team, and each
team leader is, in turn, a member of a team or committee at the next higher organizational level. It is
important to ensure that team leaders are people who are also in leadership positions in the
company’s regular organizational structure. The overlapping small-group organization supplements
the line-based organization. Besides allowing the people on the lines to exercise their initiative, it
also ensures that the Autonomous Maintenance activities are carried out and managed in an
unconstrained, open-minded atmosphere, with teams playing appropriate roles at each hierarchical
level.

Line TPM teams should be led by line team leaders. If a team feels unmanageably large, it should
be split into sub-teams or mini-teams, each with about half-a-dozen members. The team leaders at
each level form a crucial link to the groups above and below them. The whole system is
interconnected and includes everyone in the organization. To make it run properly, a special TPM
Office attached to the organization’s TPM Promotion Committee is established, specialist sub-
committees are set up as necessary, and TPM champions may be assigned to teams at each level of
the organization, to help lead the program effectively.

4.3 Autonomous Maintenance needs hands-on management

It is essential to make everyone aware that all Autonomous Maintenance activities are ‘real work’,
part of the job itself, and not some extra imposition. Managers are sometimes reluctant to intervene
in team activities, reasoning that because Autonomous Maintenance is supposed to be self-
managed, it is not part of the job proper, and should be left to the discretion of the operators. This is
not the case.

Autonomous Maintenance is an integral part of the work performed within the existing management
structure, and its control should not be handed over to the teams in the name of autonomy. It is the
managers’ responsibility to roll up their sleeves and show everyone what can be done. They need to
get their hands dirty and lead the way since this will encourage everyone else to get fully involved
in carrying out all the daily maintenance tasks needed to keep the equipment in good order. They
must also lead from the front by actively promoting improvement activities based on the established
maintenance routines. Managers should understand that in carrying out these activities, they are
fulfilling their work responsibilities.

This requires an organizational structure that allows bottom-up as well as top-down communication
and keeps the focus on practical activity, rather than theory or methodology. The approach must
always be for managers to find out for themselves, through hands-on experience, what each step is
about, provide the right environment for the program to flourish, and set an example for others to
follow. Only by doing this will they be able to progress the Autonomous Maintenance program
according to plan.

4.4 Demonstrate everything on a pilot machine first

In any company, nothing will happen unless its departmental and area managers make it happen,
and the Autonomous Maintenance program must likewise be led from the front. In fact, the success
or failure of the program depends entirely on the leadership shown by managers. The rollout should
start with a pilot machine on which managers learn the essentials of each step by carrying it out
themselves. A successful rollout requires managers who clearly understand what Autonomous
Maintenance is about, and can provide effective guidance and training to everyone working under
them. As mentioned before, when it is the turn of the line teams to start doing Autonomous
Maintenance, it helps to use a ‘horizontal rollout’ strategy, completing an activity on one machine
before progressing to the others, rather than starting on all machines at once.

4.5 Take it one step at a time

Trying to do too many things at once is a recipe for failure – something that will be all too familiar
to many managers. Therefore, it makes sense to prioritize the tasks and focus on a few things at a
time, and Autonomous Maintenance is no exception to this rule. For a successful rollout, set
attainable targets, and don’t try to run before you can walk. The Autonomous Maintenance program
is divided up into a preparation phase and seven distinct steps for good reason. Make sure each step
is thoroughly mastered, and the required level really has been reached, before the next step is
embarked on. Each step then becomes a milestone that people can aim for. They feel a sense of
achievement when they pass, building their confidence, and giving them the energy and enthusiasm
required for taking the next step.

4.6 Review every step

Each time a step is completed, management and staff should carry out a lineside review to judge
whether the team has attained a satisfactory level. They should use the review process as an
opportunity for team coaching. At each step in the program, it is essential to remind everyone of
their objectives and give them additional guidance to upgrade their workplace management skills.
Managers have to do far more than just pointing out the problems and leaving the rest up to the
teams.

4.7 Use relay teaching

Autonomous Maintenance requires everyone to master new knowledge and skills, so training is a
crucial part of the process. Training has to be handled in a flexible, creative way because different
levels of knowledge and skill are expected of people at different levels, and the relay teaching
system (where training is cascaded down by having team leaders and members teach their
colleagues) was devised to meet this need.

Relay teaching is based on the philosophy of ‘learning through teaching’, and is suitable for various
training scenarios, not only those relating to Autonomous Maintenance. Team leaders receive basic
instruction, and then prepare one-point lessons (see Figure 5.44) and other training aids to help
them pass on what they have learned to the operators in their teams. The beauty of this system is
that to explain it to their teams, the team leaders have to understand the subject matter fully
themselves.

One-point lessons must be easy to understand, and designed to fulfill a particular objective. They
can generally be divided into the following three categories:
(1) Basic knowledge

This type of lesson is used to fill in gaps in the operators’ knowledge, by checking that they really
know what they need to know.
(2) Troubleshooting

This type of lesson is designed to prevent problems from occurring twice, by identifying the
shortcomings in knowledge and skills that have allowed a problem to arise.

(3) Improvement

This type of lesson is used for the horizontal rollout of successful improvements, looking at the
approach and practical methods used, and the benefits obtained. The focus is on tackling the root
causes of problems.

Figure 5.44 Typical One-Point Lessons

4.8 Let people experience success

To understand the satisfaction that Autonomous Maintenance brings, people need to experience
plenty of success. This can be arranged by giving the operators every possible opportunity to get
their hands dirty, find lots of equipment defects, and fix them by themselves. By correcting
problems and making improvements, operators will be able to see the positive results that this
brings, and gain a real sense of achievement.
Taking on something you have never done before can be tough, but it obliges you to develop your
knowledge and creativity to meet the challenge. This is a crucial process. As the proverb says, ‘Two
heads are better than one,’ and this certainly applies to team activities, which enable the operators to
pool their thoughts and ideas. In science, original ideas come from a questioning attitude. Likewise,
on the shop floor, the action of overcoming difficulties can trigger the development of creative and
original teamwork.

Operators also need to be given improvement projects to work on to maintain a high level of team
activity and raise individuals’ improvement skills to bring substantial benefits to the business. This
can be done by allocating selected Focused Improvement topics that allow them to rise to the
challenge, exercise their creativity, and realize more and more of their potential. Since Focused
Improvement activities increase individual operators’ enthusiasm for improvement and generate
tangible benefits in terms of reducing losses, they should be introduced from Step 2 onwards, as
shown in Figure 5.45. The topics to be addressed should be determined in the preparation phase; the
existing situation is then examined carefully during Step 1 to highlight any problems, and
improvements are made in Step 2 to rectify these. The team then continues to make improvements
throughout the remaining steps.

4.9 Include Focused Improvements in team activities

Each team needs to spend a certain proportion of its time sustaining the quality of the work it is
responsible for at its particular level in the organizational hierarchy, and a certain proportion of its
time improving that work (Figure 5.46 shows how the teams’ time might be divided up). This of
course means that the scope each team has for becoming involved in Focused Improvement is
necessarily limited. Focused Improvement topics to be addressed by front-line TPM teams should,
therefore, be selected carefully, bearing in mind the improvement requirement and the team’s level
of energy and enthusiasm. The situation must not be allowed to develop where teams are left to
tackle large-scale projects that ought to be done by managers, while the managers sit back and do
nothing, claiming that they are doing their job by delegating. On the contrary, in dividing the
responsibility for Focused Improvement activities, it is essential that topics suited to management
are assigned to them, whilst topics appropriate to teamwork are assigned to the teams (see Figure
5.47).
4.10 Let people make their own rules
In TPM team activities, operators should be allowed to set their own criteria and standards for
cleaning, lubricating, inspecting, setting up, operating, sorting, storing, and so forth, to foster their
capacity for self-management.

4.11 Handle requests for maintenance work promptly

Promptness is important when correcting irregularities exposed by Autonomous Maintenance
activities, and implementing improvements. A large part of this work will need to be done by the
maintenance department. Inevitably, Autonomous Maintenance will generate a good deal of extra
work, over and above what the department itself had planned to do, and this will become a
considerable burden. Nevertheless, this extra work cannot be allowed to pile up. Unless the
maintenance department deals promptly with all the extra requests, no progress will be made. The
Autonomous Maintenance rollout will not get anywhere, and the teams will lose heart.

The maintenance department will just have to find ways to keep up with the extra demand. This
could be done by developing more efficient ways of working, reviewing staff deployment and shift
patterns, doing overtime after hours or at weekends, or resorting to subcontracting.

4.12 Use activity boards effectively

Needless to say, work is progressed by setting up a plan and then following it through; but, in doing
this, it is essential that the team can visualize the plan at a glance, and clearly identify the actions
agreed and the progress that has been made on them, as well as any problems that have arisen, the
steps are taken to correct those problems, and the results obtained. An activity board is an excellent
way to present all this information in a clear and precise manner that everyone can easily
understand.

The key point about activity boards is to use them as a communication tool. For instance, meetings
are held regularly to give vital impetus to team activities, and the team should be obliged to post a
report of each meeting on the activity board. Comments from senior management can also be
displayed on the board. In this way, the team members can see clearly what everyone is doing,
which helps to upgrade their skill levels, as well as fostering a sense of achievement. Figure 5.48
shows a typical activity board layout.

4.13 Hold regular meetings

Of all the various group activities, meetings provide the best opportunity for team leaders to display
their leadership, and for members really to play their part in the team. Meeting in front of the
activity board allows the team to work out what they need to do next and offers an opportunity for
review and study.

All of the team members must participate fully in the meetings and express their opinions.
Techniques such as bouncing questions back to the questioners should be used to get everyone to
say what they think.

4.14 Be thorough
 Thoroughness is vital at every stage. If a step is rushed, and corners are cut, people will end up just
going through the motions, and will not really master any new capabilities. If this happens, none of
the changes will stick.
CHAPTER 5. AUTONOMOUS MAINTENANCE. PART 4

Chapter 5. Autonomous Maintenance. Part 4

November 30, 2020
0 4 min read

5. Reviewing the Autonomous Maintenance Steps

5.1 Autonomous Maintenance reviews

An Autonomous Maintenance review is a coaching session carried out by a higher-level group in
the overlapping small group pyramid in order to ensure that every member of the team under review
has fully understood the purpose of the Autonomous Maintenance step they have just completed. It
should carefully examine how the team activities are being implemented and how the shop-floor is
shaping up, and clearly identify any concerns and problems the team members are experiencing, so
that the necessary guidance and help can be provided. A review is not just a matter of assessing the
team’s efforts on a pass-fail basis. If any shortcomings are found, a meeting should be held, and the
team under review and those performing the review should decide together what remedial measures
are needed.

5.2 The purpose of reviews

The idea behind a review is not simply to point out to the team members where they are going
wrong. It is also vital to show them the things they are doing well, and encourage them to make the
most of their individual talents.
By receiving a review, a team can:

 Find out whether or not it has achieved the required level.

 Breathe new energy into its activities, by discovering where its strengths and weaknesses lie.
 Do a stocktake of all the things it needs to do, and decide on a suitable direction for its future
activities.
Before applying for an official review, a team should carry out its own self-review. This will help it
to see whether it has adopted the right approach and is implementing its activities in the correct
way.

Figure 5.49 shows a typical workflow for Autonomous Maintenance reviews, while Tables 5.9 to
5.13 show actual examples of Autonomous Maintenance review sheets. Review sheets of this kind
should be drawn up by the Autonomous Maintenance Subcommittee, for instance, during the
preparatory phase for introducing TPM, and should be based on the work done on the management
pilot models. There is no single ‘perfect’ format for review sheets, so these examples should be
 used as a reference for creating your own review sheets more closely tailored to the situation in
your particular company.
When a unit has cleared the senior management review, a ‘Pass’ sticker is usually presented to be
displayed on the piece of equipment in question.

Figure 5.49 shows a typical workflow for Autonomous Maintenance reviews

Tables 5.9 to 5.13 can be reviewed here

CAP – Do Cycle
November 30, 2020
0 4 min read

The Key Tool for Executing Focused Improvement

 Check – Observe, Collect Data
 Analyze – Determine Root Cause
 Plan – Formulate Actions
 Do
o Implement Plan
o REVIEW – Monitor results and return to Check
Cap-Do form can be found here.
CAP-Do: The Check Phase
1. Identify the Problem
o “A state of difficulty that needs to be resolved”
o “A question raised for consideration or solution”
2. Understand the Ideal Situation
3. Identify the Phenomenon
o “Whatever, in matter or spirit, is comprehended by observation”
o “Any state or process is known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning”

Phenomenon Means:
 Observing the facts with our own
eyes & all senses
 The facts without presumption
CAP-Do: Check Step 1
1. Identify the Problem
o “A state of difficulty that needs to be resolved”
o “A question raised for consideration or solution”
2. Understand the Ideal Situation
3. Identify the Phenomenon

Check Step 1: Identify the Problem

 Collect Data
 Go to the “actual place”
o Observe
o Take Photographs / Videos
 o Interview
 Collect Data*
o Assemble all available related data from Loss Tree Analysis
CAP-Do: Check Step 2 Understand the Ideal Situation
Machine
 Equipment Sketches
 Operational principles & model
Material
 Material samples
Man & Method
 Flow charts of the process
 Forms and procedures
Check Step 3: Identify the Phenomenon
5W’s 1H* (Define the problem, show loss data)
 What, When, Where, Who, Which, and How.
 Requires information collected in CHECK Steps 1 & 2 to complete the 5W1H form and identify the
“phenomenon”.
 If there is not enough data from CHECK Steps 1&2, the 5W1H must be paused to get the data.
 The cause is NOT assigned/implied in the Phenomenon statement.
What:
 What thing or product did you see the problem?
When:
 When did the problem occur?
Where:
 Where did you see the problem? (Line/Machine/Location)
 Where on the work or material did you see the problem?
Who:
 Is the problem related to skill? (Skill dependant or independent)
Which:
 Which trend (pattern) did you see the problem have?
 Is the trend random or is there a pattern?
How:
 How is the state different from a normal condition?
CAP-Do: The Analyze Phase
 Determine Root Cause
o 5 Why (Why-Why)
o Principle of Operation
o SEND Analysis
 Formulate Possible Actions
 CAP-Do: The Plan Phase

 Review and Prioritize Possible Actions

 Short and Long Term Actions
 Assemble Required Materials
 Write OPL’s
 Schedule Work
 Create OPLs
CAP-Do: The Do Phase
 Safety Comes First
 Implement Actions
 Review
o Observe Results
o Hold the Gains
 Return to Check
CAP – Do Activity Board Content
 Planned Maintenance. Part 1
November 27, 2020
0 3 min read

Types of Maintenance
 Preventive Maintenance
o Time Based Maintenance (TBM)
 Advantage: Maintenance tasks such as inspection are avoided. Few failures occur
 Disadvantage: The equipment is over-maintained. Maintenance costs are high
o Predictive (PdM), or Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)
 Advantage: Over-maintenance, the disadvantage of TBM is avoided
 Disadvantage: Costs are incurred for equipment diagnostics and monitoring systems
o Overhaul – Inspection and Repair (IR)
 This is a middle point between CBM & TBM. It requires adjustment of production and
provision of spare machines
 Breakdown Maintenance
o Inspection and periodic replacement is not performed at all
 Advantage: Because the equipment is used to the end of it’s working life, it is highly
economical as long as no secondary failures occur
 Disadvantage: The more machines are in use the greater the number of failures, considerably
impeding production
 Corrective Maintenance
o To raise the maintainability and reliability of the equipment, a wide range of improvements are
included as part of maintenance, such as upgrading, prevention of recurrence of failures, an
extension of the working life of the equipment, reduction of the maintenance time, and
improvement of productivity
 Maintenance Prevention
o In this activity, maintainability and ease of Autonomous Maintenance are reflected in the
construction of a new machine. Corrective Maintenance data in particular is excellent. Improvement
of equipment as well as replacement are taken as opportunities to implement this approach

Total Productive Maintenance

The Objective of Planned Maintenance

Categories of Planned Maintenance

Zero Breakdown Approach
Why do breakdowns occur? Stress-Strength Model

Stress-Strength Model
Five Major Causes of Breakdown

Equipment Criticality
Outlook of Planned Maintenance

Data collection & Breakdown Analysis -1

Data collection & Breakdown Analysis -2

Data collection & Breakdown Analysis -3

Data collection & Breakdown Analysis -4

Data collection & Breakdown Analysis -5

Support Autonomous Maintenance-1

Support Autonomous Maintenance-2

Relationship between AM and PM

PLANNED MAINTENANCE. PART 2

Planned Maintenance. Part 2

November 27, 2020
1 3 min read

Corrective Maintenance-1
Corrective Maintenance-2
Corrective Maintenance-3

4 phases approach for Zero-Breakdown

Equipment Model & Parts Model
7 step activities for Planned Maintenance and
Autonomous Maintenance
 Predictive Maintenance
 On the actual condition of preventive maintenance, as there are problems in the decision of overhaul
and repair timing of equipment, it frequently becomes over-maintenance or sporadic accident occurs.
The way to solve these situations is preventive maintenance.
 This is to survey the mechanism of failure or deterioration of equipment thoroughly or to diagnose the
running condition, and to conduct the maintenance depending on the situation.
 As a tool to realize predictive maintenance, machine diagnosis technique is very important.
 Today, there is a tendency to orient the predictive maintenance by the research and development of
equipment diagnosis technique, but which maintenance style is adopted should be determined by the
balance of investment in maintenance and the profit generated by the production.

Examples of Predictive Maintenance

M-P Design – Vertical Start-up
Activities to reduce maintenance cost and deterioration-caused losses taking into consideration
reliability, maintenance, economical efficiency, operability, safety and other factors by
incorporating maintenance information and new technologies in the stage to correctly plan and
design equipment.
 M-P Information
M-P Information means engineering information for a manufacturing workshop, obtained by
conducting technological study, classification, and refinement of improvement records and latent
nonconformity of existing equipment, in order to better suit M-P design.
RELIABILITY (MTBF , MTTF …)
 Easy to keep the Basic conditions
o (Cleaning , Lubricating , Fastening)
 Screening weak-points of parts, unit, system
 Redundancy
 Easy to discovery and predict deterioration
 Operability
o Fool Proof / Fail Safe
o Interface
Maintainability (MTTR ,…)
 Detectability
 Easy to Disassemble
 Spare Parts Control
 Easy to assemble & Adjust
 Autonomous Maintainability
Easy To set up & adjust
Safety
Work Planning-1 (Work Order flow)
Work Planning-3 (Review)
Work Planning-4 PM Calendar
Maintenance Information System (CMMS)
Spare Parts Control (Measures)

Spare Parts Control Example-(1)

Spare Parts Control Example-(2)

Maintenance Training
 P-M Analysis Basics
November 10, 2020
0 8 min read

P dash M Analysis is a systematic Problem-

Solving Philosophy for Chronic Losses. The term
P-M Analysis comes from the following origin: P
– Phenomena(non), Physical; M – Mechanism,
Relationship (Machine, Man/Woman, Material,
Method)

When To Use P-M Analysis?

Root Cause Analysis
Two Types of Problem Solving
Techniques

Why is the 5-why Analysis effective?

Example

Problem: No.1 conveyor stopped.

What is Actually happening (Phenomenon):

Overload and the fuse blew.

Why-1 Why was there an overload?
The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.
Why-2 Why was it not lubricated sufficiently?
The lubricating pump was not pumping.
Why-3 Why was it not pumping sufficiently?
The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.
 Why-4 Why was the shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.
There was no strainer attached and metal scrap got in.
Why-5 Why was no strainer attached?
There are no checking rules.

Action is taken for Root-Cause

Why
Why was there an overload?
Why was it not lubricated
sufficiently?
Why was it not pumping
sufficiently?
Why was the shaft of the
pump was worn and
rattling?
Why was no strainer
attached?
Answer (Observation)
The bearing was not
sufficiently lubricated.
Logical linkage is required
The lubricating pump was
not pumping.
Logical linkage is required
The shaft of the pump was
worn and rattling.
There was no strainer
attached and metal scrap got
in.
There are no checking
rules.
Action
the bearing was replaced.
The lubrication pump was
checked.
The shaft of the pump was
replaced.
The strainer was attached and
cleaned up the lubrication tank.
An Autonomous Maintenance
standard has been developed.

How can we identify what is

actually happening?
Problem
Do’s
 Identify specific problems, which is the deviation between our expectations and actually happening.
Don’ts
 Before identifying specific problems, jump to action.
 Talking with just feeling.

The 5-why analysis must be used when to identify

“ Phenomenon” What is “Phenomenon”.
Phenomenon
 Is (What is actually happening)
1. The fact you observed with your eyes and numeric data.
2. The fact without presumption
Is Not
1. Your own opinion, feeling.

5-Why Analysis vs. P-M Analysis

Features in P-M Analysis
P-M Analysis
(Multiple-Path) 5-Why Analysis (Single-Path)
– The same step requires identifying the “Phenomenon”.
Phenomenon – Use 5W1H Analysis (Stratification Step)
Statement (Analysis – 5-Why Analysis requires highly to start the analysis at a specific
Start-Point) phenomenon.
– Describe All Possible factors.
Logical Linkage
(The Linkage – In order to describe all possible factors,
between Why and Recommend setting up the “P-M Gap” – Describe clearly Why
Why) Statement. & Answer (because).
Verification – Identify and describe All Possibilities first, – Before moving the next
Process and then verify which factors can contribute to why require to verify
the above possibility (“Gap from Principle of (capture) the evidence.
Operation”)
– You say “Why”,
-Identify “Gap” instead of “Why”
 capture the “evidence”.

-You can say “Because

…”
– Understand the differences between “Fish- – Show the “evidence”
Bone Analysis” and/or “Why-Why Analysis” before moving to the
Key Points for Use – 4M Analysis is Not a “Fish-Bone” next why.
– The higher Team Leaders’ Level.
– All Employee
– Operators (Since AM
Who should use – Since AM Step-4 Step-2)

P-M Analysis

What % of Problems can be solved

by P-M Analysis
Steps of P-M Analysis
P-M Analysis
Step Activity Key Learning
Step-1 Clarify the Phenomenon Phenomenon Statement
Examine-in terms of Physical
Step-2 Principle Involved P-M Gap
Step-3 Analyze Contributing Conditions Principle of Operation
Study the relationship between 4M’s
(Man (Skill), Machine, Material & Machine Structure & Function
Step-4 Methods) Diagram
Step-5 Study of what the conditions must be Optimal Conditions
Machine Diagnosis Technique &
Step-6 Study of investigation methods Measurements
Step-7 Find out All Potential Abnormalities
Step-8 Implement & Plan Countermeasures
P-M Analysis Story Board Layout

Problem-Solving Story by P-M

Analysis
CAP-Do Cycle & P-M Analysis
CAP-Do Cycle Process P-M Analysis Step
1-1 Analyze the “Gap” between Target and Step-
Actual situation. 1 Clarify the Phenomenon

1-2 Prioritize No.1 Contributor as FI Theme

(Topics)
Examine-in terms of the
Step- Physical Principle involved.
Check 1-3 Stratify Problem into Phenomenon 2 (P-M Gap)
Analyze 2-1 Principle of Movement (Processing) - Step-
Identify the “Gap” between the Principle of 3 Contribute Conditions
Processing and Actual Conditions.
2-2 Develop P-M Analysis Step- Study the relationship
-Step-1 to Step-7 4 between 4M’s
* Develop Investigation Plan Step- Study of what the condition
5 must be (Optimal Condition)
Step- Study of investigation
6 method
 Step- Point out Abnormal
7 Conditions
3-1 Develop an Action Plan
Plan 3-2 Follow up on the progress of actions
4-1 Take action for each cause and Root-
Cause
4-2 Evaluate the effectiveness of each action
by OPL
4-3 Verify the result in 3 months (90 days) 4-4
Feedback the points of sustaining
(maintaining)
Do Step- Implementation and plan of
Review * Review the Results (Benefit) 8 improvement

12 Step Kaizen Story

November 8, 2020
0 11 min read

The Key Tool for Executing Continuous Improvement

12 Step Kaizen is a Better Defined CAP-Do
 Check
1. Identify where the losses are
2. Justify the subject selection by stratifying the data
3. Understand the process and equipment
4. Grasp the actual situation (Identify the Phenomenon)
5. Establish the objective
6. Establish a Work Plan
 Analyze
7. Determine Root Cause
 Plan
8. Propose Countermeasures
 Do
9. Carry out countermeasures
10. Verify results
11. Standardize improvement
12. Make future plans
12-step Kaizen process

Step 1. Identify the losses

Selection & Justification of the subject

The reason why you chose the subject:
 Analyze the loss and make clear why you chose this loss
 Classify and quantify the loss
 Make clear what exactly you want to do with that loss, i.e. Improve the packing process task

How exactly do you want to improve?

Reduce the number of tasks involved?

Improve productivity?

Revise and improve ergonomics?

Step 2. Justification of the subject

Step 3: Understand the Process & Equipment

 Collect Data
 Go to the “Gemba” (actual place)
o Observe
o Take Photographs / Videos
o Interview
 Understand the Ideal Situation
 Collect the Available Data
o Assemble all available related data from Loss Tree Analysis

Go to the “Gemba” (or “actual place”)

 Take Photographs / Videos
 Observe
 Interview
Understand the Ideal Situation
 Summary of the process in question
 Overview of equipment in question
 Structure and mechanism of essential points (Structure diagram, layout)
Understand the basic rules and principles

Confirm and review basic knowledge for cause analysis

Step 4: Grasp the Actual Situation
 (1) Clearly define the control characteristics
 For example, what is the defect?
 How can you quantify it?
 What time unit do you use to control this data? Monthly? Daily?

(2) Establish a Benchmark (initial reference point)

 If you do not know the level where you originally were before making the improvement, you will not
be able to measure the improvement after applying the countermeasures.
 The benchmark should be the average of several months.
 If you are dealing with a breakdown, you need the data of at least three months. If this breakdown does
not happen often, you will need the data of more than three months.
Turn the “problem” into a “Phenomenon.”

Phenomenon Means:
 Observing the facts with our own
eyes & all senses
 The facts without presumption
5 Why 1 How (5W 1H) Define the problem, use loss data
What:
What thing or product did you see the problem?

When:
When did the problem occur?

Where:
1. Where did you see the problem? (Line/Machine/Location)
2. Where on the work or material did you see the problem?
Who:
Is the problem related to skill? (Skill dependent or independent)

Which:
Which trend (pattern) did you see the problem have?

Is the trend random, or is there a pattern?

How:
How is the state different from a normal condition?

The cause is NOT assigned or implied in the Phenomenon statement.

CHECK: 5W1H Graphically

 Step 5: Establish the Objective

 What?: Control characteristics that were defined in Step 4?

 For when?: Due date to solve the problem
 What to do?: Numeric objective (Value)
Establish an ambitious but feasible target
Step 6: Make a Plan
 Step 7: Perform Cause Analysis
 Get to the root cause that makes the problem occur and have a clear picture of what is wrong.
1. 5 Why – Approach the 5 Why from the 4M standpoint.
2. Why-Why – Think of all thinkable causes based on the principles and basic rules.
The 5 Why
 Root Cause Analysis – 5 Why

Causes to Consider
Equipment Branch
 Improper Equipment Ordered
 Poorly Designed Equipment
 Inadequate Maintenance
 Wear & Tear
 Abuse or Misuse
Procedural Branch
 Lack of Procedures
 Inadequate Procedures
 Misunderstood Procedures
 Failure to Warn or Respond
Note: Large losses often occur because of failure to take timely action
Behavioural Branch
 Lack of Knowledge
 Lack of Skill
 Physically Incapable
 Lack of Motivation
 Step 7: Perform Cause Analysis – Types of Losses
Sporadic vs Chronic Losses
 Sporadic
o The problem has not always been there
o The relationship between cause & effect is clear
o Causes are traced easily
o Easy to establish remedial measures
o Remedial measures are commonly known
 Chronic
o The problem seems to have always been there
o The problem returns even when countermeasures are in place
o Causes cannot be clearly identified
o The relationship between cause and effect is not clear
o Remedial measures are inventive, not traditionally used

Step 8: Propose Countermeasures

 Study and evaluate countermeasures that are permanent and don’t allow the recurrence.
 Select the improvement measure considering the following points;
o the cost,
o the restricting conditions,
o impact on other processes and problems
 Review and Prioritize Possible Actions
 Short and Long Term Actions
 Assemble Required Materials
 Schedule Work
Detailed Action Plans for Short Term, Intermediate, and Long Term:

Short Term Action – within one week

Intermediate Action – within one month
Long Term Action – greater than one month
Step 9: Carry Out Countermeasures
 Even if the countermeasure is excellent, if the execution is not correct, the problem will not be solved
 You will need a mechanism to follow up on:
o If actions are completed by the due date
o Who is accountable if actions are not completed
 You will need a mechanism to measure and report results:
o What is reported, to whom, how often?
o What is the period of sustainable results required to achieve verification (Step 10)?
 Step 10: Verification of Results

Decision Point: Were Objectives Obtained?

 Review data for the agreed period (typically 90 days)
 Was the objective stated in Step 5 achieved?
o If YES, progress to Step 11
o If NO, return to Step 7 and re-Analyze

Step 11: Standardize

 In order to prevent recurrences, clarify what items really have to do with the cause and need to be
maintained & controlled.
 The results should be classified as follows so that you can
sustain and control them:

o Equipment related
 “Cleaning, inspection and lubrication standards”
 “Annual Maintenance Program”
 “OPLs”
 “QM Matrix” (Quality)
o Labor-related
 “Manual for procedures and labors”

Use the standards and verify that the results are

being sustained.
Create OPLs
 Develop / Revise Standards to Hold the Gains
o Training Standards (i.e. One Point Lessons)
o Cleaning, Inspection and Lubrication Standards *
o Standard Operating Procedures *
o Processing Standards *
o Maintenance Standards *
o Engineering Standards *
 * Do not forget to revise all SOPs and Standards to include information from OPL’s
Step 12: Define Future Plans
Ask yourself:
 What can you do to obtain greater results?
 What do you have to do to sustain and control the results?
 What other related subjects are there?

Japanese terminology for 5S is seiri, seiton, seiso,

seiketsu, and shitsuke
November 3, 2020
0 7 min read

A program to reduce operational steps and

improve the overall cleanliness of a work area
making it safer and more productive.
 Step 1. Sort
Removing from the workplace all items that are not needed for current production operations.
Leaving only the bare essentials:

When in doubt, throw it out.

 Sort out what is really necessary and eliminate waste.
 Broken, useless, and/or redundant kits need to be discarded.
 The remaining needed kits must be sorted and arranged by frequency of use.
 Parts need to be put back in the parts room.
 Empty cabinets of non-essentials.
To do this you may need to develop a policy or fix some rules, i.e

Low priority items may be stored in a distant place.

High priority items may be kept in a designated area.
Tag questionable items and allow everyone to make a final decision.
The team should agree to the rules and stick to them.

Step 2. Set Locations

 Arranging tools, equipment, and materials with clear and defined marking so they will be easy to
find and readily available when needed.

Useful checkpoints for an organized workplace:

1. Are tools divided into “specialized use” and “regular use” items?
2. Is the number of tools required kept to a minimum?
3. Are pallets, waste bins, hoses always placed in the correct location?
4. Is anything stored around safety or fire fighting equipment?
5. Are positions of main corridors and aisles clearly marked?

6. Can you immediately and safely find the items you need?
Quick List:

 Layout of equipment
 Shadow boards
 Changeover cabinets
 Supply staging
 Workflow
 Floor layout markings

Step 3. Shine & Sweep

Keeping the area clean and keeping equipment in top condition. Maintaining the first two 5S Steps.
Inspecting and improving the overall area and equipment.

Shine & Sweep – How to do it?

 Dividing zones/dividing roles
o Indicate the role each person is to play (area of responsibility)
o Responsibility maps and checklists are effective
 Implement Shine & Sweep by area/equipment
o Careful and systematic Shine & Sweep of particular areas and equipment will help spot potential
problems
o Not simply wipe off dust – Shine & Sweep is Inspection.
 Implementing improvements
 o Speed up the Shine & Sweep process
o Make difficult/dirty places easier to reach and access.
o Eliminate sources of contamination.
 Defining rules for the team

Step 4. Standardization
The state that exists when the first three 5S Steps – Sort, Set Locations, and Shine & Sweep – are
properly maintained.
 People should have clear job assignments based on their own workplaces.
 A useful tool is a 5S Map:
o it shows how the workplace is divided into sections and lists names of the people responsible for
maintaining 5S conditions in those areas;
o it makes 5S job assignments visible at a glance.
Shine & Sweep schedules -> Self Assessment

Shine & Sweep standards -> Self Assessment

Shine & Sweep check sheets -> Self Assessment

Shine & Sweep assessments -> Self Assessment

Step 5. Sustain
Making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures.

Sustain – Important Hints

1. Total team involvement and focus on the challenge is vital
2. Develop complete visual control to make maintaining the standards as easy as possible Remember it’s
about working smarter not harder!
3. Use Fixed position photographs of before, during, and after to display your efforts.
4. Use specific audits to evaluate your 5S effectiveness
 SELF!!! Sustain
 Working together
 Pride in your accomplishment
 Taking ownership and maintaining what you have started.

5S – Hints to start up
 Select a Pilot area for “5’sing” (five-asing)
 Document the current situation. Photograph
 Conduct a Risk Assessment
 Define what can be achieved. Set the Vision
 Establish resources required
 Plan the approach and communicate
 Share equally the responsibilities
 Monitor via auditing
 Measure the benefits
 And of course…Continuously Improve!!

5S – Syndicate Exercise
 Team Presentations;
 Prepare an Activity Board;
 Identify (3) and write/draw (1) OPL for each “S”;
 Syndicate “1”: Production Office;
 Syndicate “2”: Main Conference room;
 Syndicate “3″: Training Rooms;
 The 5 “S’s” are – Sort, Set Locations, Shine & Sweep;
 Standardize and Sustain.

Chapter 10. TPM in Administrative and Support

Departments. Part 1
October 14, 2020
0 31 min read

1. The Need for TPM in Administrative and Support

Departments

1.1 Why TPM is Needed – the Background

Modern advances in computer and communications technology have created a world in which all
kinds of information can be exchanged in real-time all over the globe. This has given added impetus
to the diversification of consumer requirements and rapid lifestyle changes taking place in today’s
society. An increasing variety of unique products, each with a very short life-cycle, has emerged to
meet these demands, making the job of running a business more complicated than ever. In these
changing circumstances, the top priority for many companies is to build systems that will allow
them to survive and prosper in the face of fierce domestic and overseas competition. All
organizations need their own clearly defined business strategy for responding to market trends.
Apart from the obvious need to develop new products and bring them to market as quickly as
possible, another vital issue for managers is to mark their company out from its rivals in terms of
both quality and cost.

It is reckoned that eighty percent of a product’s quality and the cost is built into it during its
development, design, and manufacture. This means that the development, design, and other relevant
departments must work closely with the production department, providing comprehensive backup to
eliminate any waste during production. The production department, meanwhile, needs a system that
allows it to make the products ordered by the sales department, on time, and at the levels of quality
and cost expected by the development and technology departments. This requires a TPM program
that embraces not just the production department but the entire company, including administrative
and support departments.

But if administrative and support staff do not work directly with production equipment, how can
they practice TPM? To do this properly, they must do more than just increase the productivity of
their own work by reducing waste and errors and creating procedural manuals for their
administrative systems. They must also achieve tangible results that make a real contribution to the
business, helping to raise the efficiency of the production system through every facet of the
organization’s activities.
1.2 The Role of Administrative and Support Departments

2. Developing Autonomous Maintenance for

Administrative Functions
Wide variations in the time it takes to do a job, tasks that have to be redone and documents that
have to be rewritten, missed deadlines, jobs that are neglected if the person directly responsible is
out of the office, frequent data entry errors, uneven workloads owing to tasks piling up at the end of
the day, week or month … such problems are an everyday occurrence in administrative work, but
even though they crop up so frequently, they tend to remain unacknowledged.

In production departments, work is controlled down to the last minute or second. Operators are fully
aware that any stoppage, however small, creates a loss, and hence they make every effort to
eliminate downtime. But in office departments, by contrast, work can be delivered an hour, or even
a whole day late, and no-one particularly seems to mind.

In many offices, the work is not standardized, and each individual is allowed to do the task in the
way he or she sees fit. Businesses really must become aware of the losses and waste inherent in
such ingrained practices, and revamp their administrative setups from top to bottom to increase the
value of their administrative work. Companies can sharpen their competitive edge considerably by
improving employees’ administrative skills to create a workforce of excellent administrators, and
then making full use of those skills.

Because of these requirements, Autonomous Maintenance is just as important in administrative and

support departments as it is in the production department (see Table 10.1 and Figure 10.4).

2.1 How Should Autonomous Maintenance be Applied to

Administration?

Establish basic conditions for administrative

tasks currently performed within the department,
and create standards for these tasks after
eradicating all losses and irregularities through
restoration and improvement.
(1) Basic approach

1 Establish basic conditions for administrative tasks

2 Create a system for processing administrative information efficiently, without any losses or
irregularities.
(2) Establishing basic conditions for administrative tasks means:
 1 Establishing the right administrative environment (the physical surroundings)
 Eliminate mental and physical stress by creating the best surroundings in which to perform the
administrative tasks;
2 Establishing the right administrative functions (the intangible aspects)

 Eradicate all administrative waste, correct any functional deficiencies, and standardize the
administrative tasks;
3 Establishing the right administrative skills

 Create a workforce of excellent, multi-skilled administrators capable of acquiring and utilizing

expertise in particular fields.
(3) Aims

1) Standardise administrative tasks and maximize their effectiveness (eradicate losses)

2) Raise administrative productivity (specialize, simplify, standardize)

3) Improve customer service (minimize errors, increase the usefulness, improve the speed of
response)

4) Respect individuality (eliminate stress and allow specialization, so employees develop a real
enthusiasm for their work)
Table 10.1 New Step-by-Step Development of Autonomous Maintenance in Administrative and
Support Departments
Figure 10.4 Characteristics and Potential Problems of Administrative Work

(4) How Autonomous Maintenance differs from Focused Improvement in administrative and
support departments

In administrative departments, Autonomous Maintenance and Focused Improvement are

fundamentally different. They might appear similar when viewed simply in terms of their results,
but the processes and objectives involved are not the same at all (see Figure 10.5).
Administrative Focused Improvement begins with an analysis of the status quo, based on which
specific projects and issues are identified and relevant targets are established. Once a target has
been reached, that particular activity comes to an end. In administrative Autonomous Maintenance,
on the other hand, we do not set out in a particular direction or specific priorities in mind. Rather,
our activities are aimed at rooting out all irregularities (including both those that have actually been
 found to cause problems and those that are theoretically a problem because they represent a
divergence from the optimal), using the checking-through-cleaning approach. These irregularities
are reversed or corrected, and the resulting procedures are then standardized.

Administrative Autonomous Maintenance, therefore, does not focus simply on finding particular
problems and solving them to achieve defined targets, but rather its purpose is to identify and deal
with every irregularity or imperfection that can be envisaged. Regardless of whether or not these
irregularities can actually be rectified, the process of rooting them all out helps to change the way
employees see things and greatly improves their administrative skills. In non-production
departments, therefore, the objectives of Autonomous Maintenance are to eradicate all irregularities
and losses, standardized administrative procedures, and ultimately create a corps of first-rate
administrators.

Figure 10.5 How Autonomous Maintenance differs from Focused Improvement in Administrative
and Support Departments

*Focused Improvement: Helps to achieve

administrative efficiency targets
*Autonomous Maintenance: Aims to create
workforce of excellent administrators, through
standardisation of administrative tasks
The difference between ‘Administration’ and ‘Core Work’ in administrative and support
departments

‘Administration’

 means job inputs – information processing functions, such as reading, writing, and calculating
 is expected to generate efficient inputs
 relates to third-level or fourth-level work units (WU)‘Core Work’
o means job outputs – business functions (e.g. achieving target purchasing costs, and always
purchasing exactly what is needed)
o is expected to generate profitable outputs
o relates to fifth-level or sixth-level work units (WU)
Figure 10.6 Typical Structure of Work Units

(5) Tackling the administrative environment (physical surroundings)

You cannot get on with your work because the photocopier has jammed. Or your computer has
brought up an error message and crashed, and you do not know how to fix it. Right in the middle of
an administrative task, your feet feel cold and you cannot concentrate on the job at hand. Perhaps
the lighting is badly positioned or dim, so you do not get the right light on your work and end up
with tired eyes and stiff shoulders. The stationery cupboard is chock-full, but out of the item you
actually want. No-one knows where the fire extinguishers are because they are hidden behind desks
and cabinets. What is more, the pool cars are mistreated, no-one ever checks them or changes the
oil, and they are always breaking down. People even leave cans, bottles, and other rubbish lying
around in them – embarrassing if you have to give a ride to a customer! And the emergency power
supply for the computers does not work when needed, so you lose all your data.

Administrative departments often have all sorts of latent ‘hardware-related’ problems like these,
which are obvious to everyone, but they carry on without trying to rectify the situation in any way.
Solving problems of this kind requires Autonomous Maintenance activities aimed at hardware
aspects of the administrative department, such as office equipment, furniture, and fittings,
(including filing systems), and so on. Teams should be set up to work towards a stress-free office
environment in which employees can concentrate fully on their jobs in relaxed and comfortable
surroundings. The company must promote improvements in its organization and a working culture
that encourages the development of staff with top-rate administrative skills – people who can spot
abnormalities when they see them and resolve problems on their own initiative.

If activities like these, aimed at improving the ‘hard’, or tangible, side of things, engender the right
organization and culture, in which people can spot abnormalities or problems and deal with them
promptly and effectively, then this will also give a great impetus to activities on the ‘soft’, or
intangible, side, aimed at resolving work-related problems and achieving skill-related goals. This
means that no corners can be cut – the activities should be implemented thoroughly and precisely,
down to the last detail.

( Ideally, filing should be tackled along with other hardware issues in Step 1)

Figure 10.8 Hints for Creating a Paperless Office

 (6) Tackling the administrative functions (the intangible aspects)

Losses may arise in the administrative functions or procedures employed to get the core work done,
or the way that administrative tools are used. All of these must therefore be carefully reviewed, the
losses must be eradicated, and the basic conditions must be sustained. The ‘7 Big Administrative
Losses’ impairing administrative efficiency can be divided broadly into time losses, quality losses,
and distribution losses, and it is important to achieve a level of standardization that excludes the
possibility of any such losses occurring.
1 Time losses (losses in processing information)
 Various administrative tasks are required at the end of each month, and if these are not done on time,
and the relevant reports are handed in late, then this will hold up the important managerial and business
decisions that have to be made. These losses can arise in many places – in the time taken to find,
process, and check the required information, or in the actual process itself.
 In an office that does not have a proper filing system, a lot of time will be wasted in filing and
archiving, or in finding documents and data and extracting the necessary information. In a situation like
this, it is very difficult to process information quickly and efficiently.
2 Quality losses (losses due to inaccurate information)

 Memoranda and reports may contain mistakes or omissions or be worded vaguely and confusingly.
This means that they have to be rewritten, or the reader has to make inquiries, which creates time
losses.
 If the method of compiling reports and data, and the content required (e.g. level of detail, the scope of
information) is inappropriate, or if the information is not accurate or up-to-date, then a simple rewrite
may not be enough to fix the problem.
3 Distribution losses (losses inflow or timing of information)

 When documents are left in heaps on desks and other surfaces, the workspace becomes cramped and
the documents have to be shifted around continually, not only wasting time and effort but also causing
stress.
 If we leave unnecessary documents lying around, we cannot make effective use of our space and costs
will increase. Also, work-in-progress will tend to pile up, causing delays and blockages in the flow of
information and preventing the core work and administrative functions from advancing smoothly.
By eradicating all losses of this kind, we can not only improve individual efficiency and internal
departmental efficiency in administrative work but also ensure that cross-departmental tasks are
carried out seamlessly and at a high level of productivity. Based on these solid foundations, we can
then build a system that allows the information needed for our business activities to be supplied to
the right place at the right time every time.
To achieve this, we must promote the optimization and standardization of administrative tasks
through Autonomous Maintenance activities aimed at administrative functions. In the process of
eradicating administrative losses, we should also be looking to achieve a multi-skilled workforce
trained to have excellent administrative capabilities. This will help to create an office system which
is easy and pleasant to work in, and which allows people to take time off when it is due to them.

(7) Tips for tackling the administrative functions (the intangible aspect)

Here, the aims are to standardize administrative tasks after eradicating all losses, to correct
deficiencies and improve the quality of the administrative functions, and to build a workforce with
first-rate office skills (i.e. highly motivated staff who are creative and have the capacity to acquire
special skills and get the job done). Activities focused on administrative work and filing are a very
important part of this. Ideally, filing should be tackled in Step 1.
(Tips)

1. Clarify the administrative structure and carry out an analysis of the manpower required at the
administrative level (third and fourth-level work units).
2. Identify the worst administrative tasks (the ones that take up the most labor hours), pinpoint the
problems with these, and find countermeasures.
3. Detecting (tagging) problems make administrative tasks visible. Do a Makigami (paper roll) Analysis
using all the slips, chits, vouchers, memos, and other documents currently in use, so that everyone can
visualize the workflow. Enlist the help of people not directly involved in the process to compare the
current situation with how things really ought to be, to reveal any problems, doubts, or other issues.
4. When administrative problems arise, their causes are not isolated to the processing methods used in a
particular department. They may also occur because rules in other departments, or interdepartmental
rules, are not being followed, and therefore action must be taken straight away to deal with the causes
of these problems.
5. Although we must standardize administrative tasks once we have eliminated the imperfections, we
cannot stop there. We have to instill routine good practice, so that staff automatically do their jobs the
right way.
Figure 10.10 Tackling the Administrative Functions

2.2 Improving Administrative Efficiency through Makigami (Paper Roll)

Analysis
(1) What is the Makigami Analysis?

1. Administrative tasks are usually hard to identify. The Makigami method makes these tasks clearly
visible by taking the actual forms, slips, and other documents used in administration work and sticking
them on a long roll of paper, to illustrate the flow of work.
2. Using the paper roll, anyone, from the person directly responsible to managers and staff from other
relevant departments, can tell at a glance what is going on. This helps them to identify problems and
suggest improvements.

Makigami Analysis is an improvement tool for

raising efficiency in administrative tasks. It
embodies the down-to-earth, nuts-and-bolts
approach that is the central philosophy of TPM,
and its basic premise is to make administrative
work seen and understood.
Translator’s Note: ‘Makigami’, which means ‘rolled-up paper’, is compounded from the Japanese
words ‘maki’ (rolling up) and ‘kami’ (paper).
(2) Advantages of Makigami Analysis

The actual objects (i.e. forms) used in the administrative work processes are stuck to a roll of paper,
in sequence with the workflow. This makes it a highly graphic improvement tool with the following
advantages:

1. Even outsiders can understand it easily, so it is highly suitable for general display.
2. Issues can be examined based on a common understanding of the situation, with relevant departments
and staff members fully involved.
3. The opinions of disinterested parties can also be incorporated, to help generate really original
improvement ideas.
(3) Definition of Makigami Analysis

Makigami Analysis involves a series of improvement activities carried out by internal department
staff and members of other relevant departments. They all meet together to:

1. Understand the workflow using the paper roll as a tool, to raise administrative efficiency and strengthen
administrative functions (both internal and interdepartmental);
2. Expose problems and discuss possible improvements and solutions;
3. Implement improvements. The results of these improvements serve to increase administrative
efficiency and strengthen administrative functions both within each department and across different
departments.
(4) Key points of Makigami Analysis

1. ‘Reproduce’ the administrative work by using the actual forms, memos, and data used.
2. Spot where to make improvements and come up with concrete improvement proposals, always keeping
your eyes peeled for WUS (waste, unevenness, and strain) and the 7 Big Administrative Losses.
3. Bear in mind at all times that the aim is to improve both intra- and inter-departmental efficiency, and
strengthen administrative functions. Implement improvements that are based on the facts.
4. Do not stick just to intra-departmental improvements. Rather, look to raise efficiency in a way that
contributes to ‘raising overall effectiveness’ as defined in TPM.
Chapter 10. TPM in Administrative and Support
Departments. Part 2
October 15, 2017
0 27 min read
3. Implementing Administrative Focused
Improvements

3.1 What are Focused Improvements?

Whereas Autonomous Maintenance in administrative and support departments is aimed at remedial
action (i.e. restoring the situation to what it was before it deteriorated), Focused Improvements are
all about innovation. What is more, Autonomous Maintenance is weighted towards current
administrative tasks (third and fourth-level work units) and establishing basic conditions for those
tasks, while Focused Improvements are directed at core work tasks (fifth and sixth-level work
units). Focused Improvements are not just about correcting deficiencies in the current work setup.
They embrace the wider objectives of restructuring work functions and work processes, improving
cost ratios (e.g. the ratio of purchasing costs to sales revenue), and building the capacity to respond
to market changes through a structure that favors differentiation and competitive advantage. A
Focused Improvement is a ‘surgical operation’, designed to produce immediate results that
contribute directly to the business.

If Focused Improvements are to produce a direct positive output to the business, then they must
encompass two different perspectives – the departmental perspective and the company or factory
perspective (these perspectives are also required in Autonomous Maintenance but to a lesser
extent.) The optimal work situation is drawn up based on these two perspectives (the optimal
situation for internal departmental work – eliminate individual losses; the optimal situation for
interdepartmental work – eliminate system losses), and the disparities between the current and
optimal situation are identified as losses and taken up as improvement topics. For each
improvement topic, a project team is put together and improvements are implemented. This is how
Focused Improvements work.
Figure 10.12 Administrative Focused Improvements
 3.2 Implementing Focused Improvements
Once the desired range of departmental functions (the departmental vision or mission) has been
established, and the optimal conditions for the first and second-level work functions have been
identified, Autonomous Maintenance and Focused Improvements follow different paths, as
described earlier.

Administrative Focused Improvements can be broadly divided into four categories:

1. improving cost ratios;

2. expanding and enhancing departmental functions;
3. building a structure for differentiation and competitive advantage;
4. reducing management costs.
(1) Improving cost ratios:
Through improvements aimed at eliminating losses, each expense element in the total costs will
become smaller in ratio to the sales revenue. This reduction in costs helps to give better business
results.
(2) Expanding and enhancing departmental functions:
Restructure the departmental work functions in line with future business strategy. Take the
viewpoints of other departments into account when considering the optimal conditions for the work
functions in your own department.
(3) Building a structure for differentiation and competitive advantage
Construct innovative work processes that negate departmental boundaries, based on the quick-
response strategy essential for differentiating the company from its competitors.
(4) Reducing management costs
Apply restructuring, outsourcing, etc, to eliminate losses due to imbalance in fixed costs (staff costs,
departmental operating costs, etc.) versus sales revenue.
It follows that there are four types of approach to Focused Improvement, each completely different
in terms of the objectives of the related activities. Each approach must be applied at the right time
(in the first or second year of the TPM program, or when there is a particular business-related need),
to yield a steady succession of positive results that translate directly into business success.
Figure 10.13 Improving Value by Increasing Functionality and Reducing Cost
 Typical Topics for Focused Improvements
(1) Planning
 Adopt ‘rolling’ system to improve mid-term planning
 Revise procedure for drafting annual plans to enable plans to be drawn up more quickly
 Enhance work monitoring systems, and operate them more efficiently
 Rationalize procedures for creating policy and checking performance
(2) Personnel and General Affairs
 Achieve greater labor stability by improving work environment and conditions for part-timers
 Set up an internal system for cleaning work clothes (e.g. establish a separate laundry firm)
 Systematize long-term personnel plans and training plans
 Establish management competencies and limits of decision-making powers for each post, and apply
them
(3) Finance
 Create a decision-making system based on shorter accounting deadlines (monthly, half-yearly, annual,
etc.)
 Create a standardized universal budgeting system
 Create a daily performance monitoring system
 Create a system for rapid assessment of estimated and actual costs
 Reduce insurance premiums for products in stock
(4) Production Management
 Shorten production plan lead times through computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
 Create manual detailing the responsibilities and authority of each department with CIM, and apply it
 Create and apply daily staffing plans incorporating cost control functions
 Create and apply a production plan that reduces unexpected fluctuations and changeovers
(5) Materials / Purchasing
 Rationalize material supply system and reduce unit costs
 Cut stock levels of outsourced parts and materials
 Achieve maximum economy in spare-parts control
 Develop suppliers who can meet target costs
(6) Research and Development
 Develop technical information search system to help shorten design time
 Achieve totally unattended operation of testing and analysis equipment
 Evaluate assembly characteristics to design products that are easier to make and give greater scope for
cost reduction
 Perfect MP design, so that the same problems can never recur
 Improve the speed and accuracy of investment feasibility studies
 Systematize functional evaluation to reduce design lead times
 Prioritize design of outsourced parts with long supply lead times
 Reorganize design reviews to make them quicker and more effective
 Create design tasks that can be carried out concurrently
(7) Production Engineering
 Use mold, tool, and jig designs that are not liable to faults and that facilitate QA
 Improve accuracy of preliminary test run schedules during the commissioning period
 Improve accuracy of preliminary test run schedules in planning improvement work
 Improve design review technology for new products and new equipment, to achieve a more efficient
design review process
(8) Quality Management
 Improve efficiency in inspection, measurement, and analysis, and speed up data feedback
 Achieve totally unattended operation of measurement and analysis equipment
 Create a system capable of handling multi-item tests instantaneously
 Improve design review technology to achieve product and equipment designs that facilitate QA and
prevent the recurrence of defects
 (9) Site Administration
 Reduce staff requirements by streamlining central monitoring system
 Reduce staff requirements by introducing distributed monitoring systems
 Cut costs by bringing engineering work in-house
 Cut costs by making equipment, jigs, and tools in-house
 Cut costs through energy-saving initiatives
 Reduce staff requirements by building equipment maintenance information system
(1) How to improve cost ratios (example of Approach 1)

Program for reducing purchasing costs (example)

This program describes a basic improvement approach to purchasing costs. It
is intended as an example, and may not cover all the various elements that makeup purchasing costs
(e.g., materials, distribution, dies, etc.)
Step 1 Survey items, prices, and quantities
1. Confirm business requirements: Check business strategy, business goals, and deadlines specified in
mid-term business plans
2. Study purchasing (payment) records:
o Analyze items, prices, and quantities
o Study amounts paid to each supplier or dealer
3. Clarify where improvements are to be targeted:
o Apply ABC ranking to items
o Apply ABC ranking to suppliers

Step 2 Establish business goals

1 Establish secondary business goals: Break down the business goals based on the ABC rankings
from Step 1.
(Example)
Materials Costs Distribution Costs
 Cost of material a
 Cost of material b
 Cost of part c
 Delivery Costs
 Transport Costs
 Packaging/Shipping Costs
Step 3 Perform cost analysis and functional analysis
1 Analyse ‘value’ and ‘no value’ elements of cost: Dissect costs to see what they are being spent on.
 * How to identify ‘no-value’ elements.

1. Define ‘no-value’ elements and find them

2. Define ‘value’ elements and find them
2 Analyse ‘value’ elements and ‘no value’ elements in functions: Dissect functions to see how they
are made up
 Required functions
 Surplus functions (no value)
3 Establish activity objectives

Step 4 Select and register items for improvement

1 Identify all the factors that make up the ‘no-value’ elements (i.e. losses) discovered through the
cost analysis and function analysis performed in the previous step and register them as items for
improvement.
 2 Identify all the factors that make up the ‘value’ elements (i.e. required functions) and register
them as items for improvement.

(Example)

 Metal castings Make from sheet metal Make from plastic

 Reduce the number of components
3 Make a list of items for the price reduction, from the ABC ranking of payments to suppliers
created in Step 1.

4 Where necessary, carry out analysis to elucidate loss mechanisms, and select items to be
combated as sources of loss.

Step 5 Devise improvements

1. Come up with improvement ideas for each item. To start with, identify where an improvement can be
made (e.g. ask, “Couldn’t we eliminate/reduce/change that?”), and then develop these thoughts into
concrete improvement proposals.
2. Come up with improvement ideas by benchmarking other companies and items

(Example)

Look at best practice in other companies (particularly the way they make things)

Disassemble and compare similar products made by other companies

Compare prices with other companies’ prices and lowest industry prices
3. Create an improvement schedule (with clearly visible ‘milestones’)
Step 6 Implement improvements and evaluate
1. Implement improvements in your own department, other departments, suppliers, etc. Rigorously control
the progress of improvements utilizing intermediate targets and deadlines.
2. Compare the results with the objectives. If they fall short, repeat Steps 4 and 5.
3. Identify the proportion of improvement accounted for by cost reduction and by price reduction (is the
improvement due almost entirely to price reduction, for example?)
Step 7 Consolidate gains and introduce MP
1 Standardise:
Create rules for sustaining the one-off results that have been achieved through improvement.
2 ‘Professionalise’:
Make sure the standardized rules take root in everyone’s daily work.
3 Move to Maintenance Prevention (MP):
Ensure that the same improvements do not have to be repeated, by implementing complete and
thorough systems for preventing losses and avoiding unnecessary functions in upstream work
processes, (during design and development, when raising orders, etc.)
(2) How to enhance and expand departmental functions (example of Approach 2)
To pursue its business activities, a company is divided into various departments and sections
forming an organized structure. Each department and section exists so that the company can achieve
its business goals and is responsible for some of the organization’s business functions, which in turn
constitute the duties and work functions of the department.

However, even though the purpose of departmental work is to accomplish some of the overall
business functions of the company, departments frequently overlook this mission and transform into
self-serving bodies that focus exclusively on optimizing what they do, as opposed to doing what is
best for the company as a whole. This self-centered approach to work responsibilities often gives
rise to losses in the business functions, as it leads to conditions being optimized only in a narrow
and partial sense.

Situations of this kind must be rectified by restructuring departmental work functions from a
broader perspective of global optimization that ensures each department takes on those business
functions that it is responsible for. In doing this, the department must also look to the future, by
enhancing and expanding its work functions to increase its contribution to the business. The need to
create new, unprecedented work functions can arise at any time, and the company must be prepared
for this.
A Typical Programme for Enhancing and Expanding Departmental Functions
 (3) Building a structure for differentiation and competitive advantage (example of Approach 3)

Example: Improvement of the work process

Example of the program for improving the system for responding to customer delivery
deadline inquiries
 A program for synchronizing production between different processes (inter-process ‘Drum, Buffer,
Rope’ (DBR) control) is developed using a 5-step procedure.
In this particular improvement program, decisions on delivery deadlines are made in Step 2, where the
Drum standards (inputs) are established, and Step 3, where the production sequence is decided. This
 program allows the firm to respond immediately to customers’ inquiries about when they could expect
delivery.
 This deadline response system applies to a production system that always operates as close as possible
to the actual level of demand. It is not the same as a deadline response system for a system in which
customer delivery requirements are met by an allocation from stock.

(4) How to reduce management costs (example of Approach 4)

Example of a program for promoting outsourcing

• The objective of outsourcing is to build competitiveness. To be competitive, a company must
concentrate its business resources on work within its field of expertise and work that has prospects.
Outsourcing is a business technique that helps to achieve this, by actively transferring out any work
 that would be better done outside the firm. It should be noted that this not simply a cost-cutting or
restructuring technique.
Step 1 Survey in-house resources
-> Identify strategic business areas and areas for outsourcing
• Use PPM (process portfolio management) to identify the optimal scenario and strategic directions
for current and future work

• Survey departmental productivity and identify the desired situation for the future

• Survey departmental work functions and identify the desired situation for the future
• Survey departmental staff levels and work volumes, and identify desired situation for the future
Step 2 Identify areas of possible outsourcing
-> Plan ideal personnel and cost structures

 Check work function and work contents relating to strategic operations

 Check contents, and personnel and cost structures of work to be outsourced
 Devise optimal staffing plan for work relating to strategic operations and work to be outsourced
 Study the potential effects of outsourcing on other departments
Step 3 Choose suppliers
 Decide the most suitable suppliers for outsourced services, by mutual consent Organise outsourcing
department (contact point for suppliers)
 Gather together information and data related to outsourcing (especially about problems)
 Get estimates and plans from various potential suppliers, and receive presentations Create standards for
selecting suppliers (e.g. track record of orders, costs, history of problems, etc.)
 Hold selection meeting to decide which suppliers to use
Step 4 Build an outsourcing system and draw up contracts
-> Identify company’s outsourcing organizations, and relevant regulations and systems, and sign
contracts
 Build an organized system for implementing outsourcing
 Create work regulations relating to outsourcing
Note 1: In particular, clarify core competencies and stipulate that continuous improvement is a work
responsibility.
Note 2: Use Autonomous Maintenance to develop and standardize loss-free, problem-free work
processes in advance.
 Reach in-house consensus on outsourcing and how it is implemented Note: It is not a cost-cutting or
restructuring technique.
 Systematize details of actual work involved in outsourcing, e.g: length of the contract, the duty of
confidentiality, cancellation conditions, compensation rules, consultation setup, etc.
 Sign outsourcing contracts
Step 5 Follow up
-> Ensure effective and efficient outsourcing

 Arrange regular meetings with suppliers (e.g. every week or fortnight) to prevent potential problems
 Find out the level of staff awareness of outsourcing and identify areas for improvement
 Measure the benefits of outsourcing Evaluate the extent to which initial goals have been achieved and
identify points for improvement
 Draw up items for improvement in future contracts, and discuss with suppliers
Practice session
Using this value tree for the sales department as a model, draw up value trees for the purchasing
department and the production management department (creating tree: 20 min; presentation: 5
min.).

CHAPTER 11. SAFETY, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT. PART 1

Human Error or Lack of Knowledge

October 14, 2017
0 1 min read
 After completing Breakdown Analysis, one of the outcomes will be Human Error or Lack of
Knowledge, meaning breakdown occurred due to:
 no Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or Training Process Guide (TPG) in place
 equipment setup instructions were missing or poorly expained
 OEM training wasn’t completed for all maintenance technicians (mechanics, millwrights, electricians
etc.)
 new assemblies or equipment were added to existing production line without updating current SOPs,
TPGs or any other training materials
 process change was implemented but no proper training updates provided
To avoid or reduce breakdowns due to lack of knowledge, Recurrence Matrix (RM) can be
implemented and should be updated on annual basis. Also updates to the matrix should occur if
process or piece of equipment was modified.

RM example can be found here: future link to RM

Another tool should be implemented – Annual Training Plan (ATP). Even though ATP usually
owned by Education and Training Pillar, it must be linked with Recurrence Matrix to make
necessary adjustments based on breakdowns occurred.
Annual Training Plan example can be found here: future link to ATP
 Chapter 11. Safety, Health and Environment.
Part 1
October 19, 2017
0 37 min read

1. The Importance of Safety, Health and the

Environment

1.1 An Overview of SHE

The particular activities undertaken within a SHE programme will depend to a great extent on the
prevailing attitudes toward safety, health and the environment in the company and the local
community. Because of this, TPM does not specify any particular policy stipulating how to proceed.
The SHE activities described in this chapter and elsewhere in this manual are only examples, and
the decision as to whether or not to adopt a particular activity is left entirely up to the facility or
company where the activity is to be performed. Attempts have been made to unify safety activities
under the ISO standards, but it is difficult to unify safety concerns, and the ISO safety standards
remain voluntary initiatives.

There are currently two distinct approaches to implementing SHE activities:

(1) A ‘top-down’ management system that includes both risk analysis and workplace activities.

(2) A shop-floor programme that includes risk analysis and focuses on developing the activities in
‘bottom-up’ fashion.

1.1.1 Top-down management system

The items covered in OSHAS 18001, the de facto standard for this type of system, are:
-1 Scope
-2 Reference Publications
-3 Definitions
-4 OH&S management system elements
-4.1 General requirements
-4.2 OH&S Policy
-4.3 Planning
-4.3.1 Planning for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control
-4.3.2 Legal and other requirements
-4.3.3 Objectives
-4.3.4 OH&S management program(s)
-4.4 Implementation and operation
-4.4.1 Structure and responsibility
-4.4.2 Training, awareness and competence
 -4.4.3 Consultation and communication
-4.4.4 Documentation
-4.4.5 Document and data control
-4.4.6 Operational control
-4.4.7 Emergency preparedness and response
-4.5 Checking and corrective action
-4.5.1 Performance measurement and monitoring
-4.5.2 Accidents, incidents, non-conformance and corrective and preventive action
-4.5.3 Records and records management
-4.5.4 Audit
-4.6 Management review
SHE activities are never complete; they must be continued indefinitely. To ensure that this happens,
the items listed above are distributed to the relevant parts of the PDCA cycle, which is then
continuously rotated. One flaw in this process is that the activities tend to end up focusing on the
acquisition and analysis of data, leaving operators with the impression that the programme has been
imposed on them from above and making it difficult for them to want to participate proactively. If
managers fail to take a proactive stance by leaving the supervision of the activities to someone else
and not staying in constant contact with the workplace, this system is likely to collapse. It can also
happen that the system becomes a mere formality after one round of the PDCA cycle. Standards for
this type of top-down management system include:

1. OSHMS (Japan)
2. JIPM Step Deployment Programme for Eliminating Action-Type Labour Accidents
3. DNV ISRS
4. ISO 9000, ISO14000
5. OHSAS 18001

1.1.2 Bottom-up, shop-floor program

Operators are the ones who actually have to carry out the safety activities on the shop floor. This
approach is an attempt to systematically develop the safety activities that are carried out on a daily
basis by the operators. This type of programme consists mainly of voluntary activities, and planned
activities including the use of manuals containing checklists of safety items for ensuring that the
programme is being carried out.

One problem with these activities is that achievement levels depend very much on the safety
awareness of each individual operator. Prevailing local attitudes toward both safety, and
interpersonal relationships—especially between supervisors and their subordinates—can turn safety
activities away from their true purpose. This makes it imperative for management to monitor the
status of such activities carefully. Standards for this type of bottom-up, shop-floor activity include:

1. USA: DuPont STOP programme

2. USA: Behavioural Science
3. Japan: Safety Awareness Training
4. Japan: ‘Point and Call’ routines

1.1.3 TPM and SHE activity processes

 Irrespective of which type of SHE programme a company chooses to implement, it will be closely
tied to its TPM programme. In particular, hazard identification and continuous improvement are
critical to all activities. The following are examples of programmes implemented for reducing and
eliminating identified hazards:

1. Implementation of legally-mandated measures.

2. Modifications to safety devices on machinery and equipment (ISO12000).
3. Use of alternative chemical substances that are almost or entirely harmless.
4. Installation of localized ventilation equipment.
5. Continuous improvement of standard operating procedures and methods.
6. Implementation of safety and health training.

1.1.4 The relationship between OHSAS 18001 and the JIPM Step
Deployment Program
JIPM’s Step Deployment programme bears a strong resemblance to the implementation of OHSAS
18001. However, the procedure used in the Step Deployment Programme for identifying and
eliminating hazards from the shop floor is much more down-to-earth and practical. The activities
help to define the ideal situation, which can then be used as a standard for evaluating the actual
situation on site. Targets are established, inspection standards created, and training completed, after
which improvement activities can be carried out. Further activities for maintaining and enhancing
safety levels include review of safety standards and criteria, implementation of safety assessment,
and safety diagnoses by top management, all of which contribute to an upward spiral in safety.
JIPM’s Step Deployment programme can thus be regarded as a practical implementation of OHSAS
18001.

2. Safety Programs
It is of the utmost importance to prevent any of the large numbers of people engaged in
manufacturing from falling sick or getting injured. All companies must operate a health and safety
programme designed to avert illnesses, injuries and accidents, and minimize the effect on
individuals and the business if something untoward does happen. Companies must also identify the
costs associated with accidents, and seek to prevent the business losses consequent upon them.
Health and safety activities of this kind are indispensable for all firms, whatever their size, and the
management of health and safety in the workplace means managing the basic measures required in
order to ensure that employees can always work under safe and hygienic conditions. Company
health and safety management has to conform to the requirements of the applicable labour laws, and
laws on health and safety at work.

2.1 Health and Safety and their Relationship with Productivity and
Economy
A company’s greatest asset is the people it employs, and respect for humanity should form the basis
of all activities in the health and safety field. The idea that safety is paramount must be explicitly
stated as a key part of the corporate philosophy and actively promoted both inside and outside the
company. An effective safety management plan can be built on the basis of the following key safety
policies:
 Safety is the foundation of all business operations
 Safety and higher productivity go hand in hand
 Safety improvements lead to more efficient production
 Safety improves communication
 Safety prevents equipment-related losses
Companies that demonstrate a high standard of health and safety management usually have well-
defined systems of working and are rigorously managed and highly productive, as well as being
extremely cost-effective.Any production operation is in a constant state of flux, and some of the
changes that occur from day to day may sow the seeds of potential health problems or accidents.
We ourselves are the only ones in a position to spot such problems and nip them in the bud, and it is
up to us to do so. However, the only way we can ensure that everything involved is properly
controlled is to develop an effective health and safety management system.

2.2 Workplace Incidents and Problems to Be Solved in Creating a

Safe Workplace
For every accident that actually occurs at a facility, there are any number of near misses, and true
safety cannot be achieved unless these near misses are also eliminated. To put it another way, the
difference between an accident and a near miss is nothing more than luck. Near misses reveal
hidden risks, and it is crucial to focus on eliminating each and every risk once it has been exposed
by a near miss. The following is an explanation of this principle, originally defined by the American
engineer H.W. Heinrich.

Workplace problems and the Heinrich principle

The Heinrich principle is a well-known theory relating to accidents. As Figure 11.2 illustrates, it
states that for every serious (lost-time) accident that occurs in a workplace, approximately 29 minor
injuries such as pinches, cuts or bruises occur, together with a further 300 or so harmless incidents
or ‘near-misses’. For example, let us imagine a rolling mill, where an operator wipes the rollers
clean with a cloth while they are running. If this is done around once an hour, it means that the
operator will touch the rollers eight times a day, or 160 times a month, or around 2,000 times during
the course of a complete year. Hence, there is a distinct possibility that the cloth might get caught
between the rollers at some point or that the operator may get his hands pinched. If two or three
serious accidents have occurred at a site, then the Heinrich principle implies that a large number of
minor accidents and harmless incidents will also have occurred. Yet, at many sites like this, first-aid
cases and near-misses are not considered to be a major safety concern, and management has no
clear idea of the hazardous situation that actually exists on the shop floor. To put it another way, if
there have already been 300 near-misses in a workplace, then it should be no surprise if a serious
accident happens.

More often than one would expect, upon close examination, our workplace and working practices
give plenty of cause for concern (Figure 11.3 shows some typical examples of safety issues for
readers to check through and see if any apply to their own situation). This happens because we tend
to ignore near misses and minor accidents. Yet, like more serious accidents, these can arise from the
smallest of problems – workers slipping on a patch of wet floor, catching and injuring themselves
on a protruding object, bruising their knuckles when a spanner slips, tripping over through being in
too much of a hurry, and so on. It is extremely rare for the same incident to occur twice in the same
place for the same reason, as conditions are always changing. What is more, the same type of
accident may be produced by a different combination of causes each time, making it essential to
eliminate every conceivable hazard from the shop floor.
 Unsafe workplaces generally have poorly defined rules and procedures, if they have any at all, and
such standards as may exist are usually ignored. Perhaps your workplace has also lapsed into
behaviour that is not truly safe. Does any of the following apply to you?

 Laudable goals, such as ‘Safety First’ and ‘Zero Accidents’, have been declared, but no specific
practical action is being taken to achieve them.
 Safety patrols do the rounds, but they do not really know what they are looking for; any remedial action
suggested is left up to the shop floor and is not followed up.
 Action is only taken after an accident has actually happened.
 Action is only aimed at visible problems, leaving the underlying causes of accidents untouched.
The next section takes a closer look at why this type of situation may arise.

2.3 Why do People Fail to Observe Rules Properly?

As Figure 11.4 illustrates, if we want rules to be followed, we must:

• Create a working environment that allows the rules to be observed

• Ensure that the people who have to observe the rules understand why they have to observe them,
and let them work out their own ways of doing so.
However, as many case studies attest, knowing this is not in itself enough to build a safe and secure
workplace – the company must also know the right way to proceed.

Figure 11.2 The Heinrich principle

An unsafe, insecure working environment

The equipment and machinery cannot be used safely and securely
 Machinery breaks down unexpectedly, making it impossible to meet the day’s production targets.
 Changeovers are complex, and are done differently by each person. Adjustments are time-consuming.
 Frequent rework means that quality checks have to be carried out all the time.
 The equipment keeps stopping, and operators repeatedly have to restart it.
 The work tasks cannot be carried out safely and securely
 There are many difficult or complicated tasks, and operators sometimes make mistakes even when
concentrating hard.
 The workload is not properly balanced, and each person feels that he or she is working harder than
anyone else.
 People feel as though they spend the whole day rushing around.
 People sometimes get the impression that what they are doing is just a waste of time.
 The work environment is not worker-friendly
 There is oil all over the place, overalls get very dirty, and there are danger spots where workers may
slip and fall over.
 Tools, jigs and other implements are not properly sorted and arranged, so operators have to spend time
looking for the right ones.
 The cleaning required after the end of work is time-consuming.
 Near misses occur from time to time in the course of normal work operations.
 The workplace is too hot in summer and too cold in winter; many tasks require great physical exertion,
and noise levels are high.
Figure 11.4

2.4 The Basic Approaches to Safety

Any safety programme should be based on two main approaches. One of these aims to prevent any
incident that has occurred from happening again, and could therefore be termed a reactive approach,
while the other tries to identify the potential causes of accidents before the accidents actually
happen, and could therefore be termed a proactive approach. The two approaches must be deployed
in combination in order to build safe workplaces.

(1) The reactive approach

The starting-point for this approach is an analysis of something that has actually happened. For
example, if there has been an accident, then the conditions under which it occurred are carefully
investigated, and the causes are analysed from various angles, to ensure that the same incident does
not happen again. Steps are also taken to eliminate similar hazards, so that the same kind of
accident does not happen elsewhere. Take, for example, a case where someone has got their hand
trapped in some rotating machinery, and it has been deduced that the accident happened because the
guard rails were set too far apart. Appropriate measures are first taken at the point where the
accident occurred, but the spacing between guard rails is also reviewed at other locations in the
workplace. If any rails are deemed unsuitable, they are also corrected to prevent the possibility of a
similar accident occurring elsewhere. Another part of the reactive approach consists of taking action
to eliminate near-misses in all other workplaces, not just in the one where they actually happened.
This is still considered reactive because it addresses problems that have already been detected (that
is, known danger points). In terms of the Heinrich principle, it is a top-down approach. Because it
eradicates causes directly, it prevents the same kinds of accidents from happening twice in the same
kinds of situations.

The reactive approach also includes systematic action. A safety policy should be established and
then translated into annual and monthly safety action plans, with the results of implementing these
plans monitored by monthly consultative committees and safety patrols. A chain of activities like
this is very important in establishing safety at work.

(2) The proactive approach

This approach aims to eradicate potential causes while they are still relatively insignificant, and
before they actually cause an incident. In terms of the Heinrich principle, this is a bottom-up
approach. It is like having a ‘task force’ whose mission is to deal with potential causes before they
become actual causes (potential causes are like the suspects in murders, while actual causes are the
murderers themselves; if all potential murderers were rounded up before they had a chance to do
any mischief, then no murders would ever happen.) These potential causes are the sources of
accidents or near-misses, and must therefore be found and eliminated one by one. Standards must
then be devised to prevent the potential causes from re-emerging, and the workplace properly
managed to ensure that the standards are followed (see Figure 11.5). These two approaches must be
implemented in tandem in order to preserve safety in the workplace and eliminate accidents.

Figure 11.5
 2.5 The Need for Full Involvement of All Employees
The proactive approach aims to catch problems at the ‘suspect’ stage, and is used to identify
potential causes while they are still minor issues. With drive units, for example, this means
identifying looseness, abnormal noises, overheating, vibration, and anything else that could lead to
a failure, while any problems with fastenings, such as bolts that have worked loose or fallen off,
must also be spotted early on. To do this, the workplace must be cleaned periodically to maintain it
in a condition that allows small imperfections like these to be spotted straight away, while
equipment must be regularly lubricated, and fastenings re-tightened. This means that shop-floor
operators are the main agents in the proactive approach. By formulating their own standards,
eliminating sources of contamination, and devising ways to make checks easier to carry out, the
operators themselves gradually create a situation in which any problems are immediately obvious –
and, through this process, they acquire the ability to identify minor abnormalities before they have a
chance to become serious. Problems of this kind cannot be detected readily by managers during
occasional shop-floor visits – they can only be found reliably by the workers who operate the
equipment day in, day out. What is more, corrective action taken at an early stage rarely requires
advanced skills, and, more often than not, can be done by the same person who has discovered the
problem.

The reactive approach, on the other hand, requires various types of investigation and analysis, and
careful assessment of the results of the proactive approach is an important part of it. This process
should therefore be led by managers, who should analyse any accidents that have occurred and
periodically patrol the workplace to assess the safety situation.

2.6 Building a Companywide Safety Management Structure (see

Figure 11.6)
A companywide safety management structure must have the following functions:

 Creating statutory systems: appointing health and safety committee, health and safety officers, etc.
 Deciding and approving safety-related issues: safety decisions should not be left up to individuals –
they must be made on an official company basis and communicated to everyone.
 Assessing safety: safety conditions in the workplace must be evaluated by managers and shop-floor
operators together. One way of doing this is to carry out regular safety patrols. The plant’s track record
on safety should be compiled in a monthly safety report, so that the safety situation can be kept under
continuous review.

2.7 Safety Activities Combining Management and the

Shop Floor
As explained above, creating a safe workplace requires joint action by managers and operators. In
practice, however, this type of coordination is often lacking. There are various reasons for this. To
begin with, both parties tend to have particular strengths and weaknesses, and the company may
also have problems rooted in its culture and philosophy that hinder a cooperative approach.
Employees tend to see such problems as impossible, or at best, extremely time-consuming, to
resolve. However, the company must get each side to understand and accept the other side’s flaws,
so that it can then go about finding the best way to promote its safety program. The first point to
consider is the thinking underlying the assignment of safety responsibilities to managers and
operators. Figure 11.7 gives an overview of the key safety activities and the group they should be
assigned to. If anything, the reactive approach tends to be carried out by managers, while the
proactive approach is the domain of shop-floor workers. Both approaches contain some common
key elements, such as workplace surveys, training and development, and, of course, mutual
understanding. All the necessary safety initiatives cannot be completed at the drop of a hat –
building a safe workplace takes time. And each branch of activity is related to others, so it cannot
just be developed in isolation. Finally, if we take things to their logical conclusion, we can see that
the potential for accidents exists whenever there is work to be done, and if there were no work,
there would be no safety problems. Another key perspective is thus to look at every task to see what
makes it necessary, and try to improve safety by eliminating it.
CHAPTER 11. SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT. PART 2

Chapter 11. Safety, Health and Environment.

Part 2
October 19, 2017
0 66 min read

2.8 Using Safety Tags and Maps

(1) Safety tags

If an on-site safety inspection reveals a hazard, but nothing is done about it, the inspection will have
served no purpose. Also, if the hazard is not clearly indicated, a person doing a safety check at a
later date will not know whether they are discovering it for the first time, or if it has already been
noticed. A factory obviously needs a way of letting everyone know exactly where and when the
safety hazards were identified. It also needs to ensure that anyone can see at a glance which ones
remain to be dealt with. (see Figure 11.8)
 A system of safety tags is very useful for achieving this. The tags used are about the size of a
baggage label, are often coloured yellow, and carry a warning such as ‘UNSAFE’. When a hazard is
found, the information listed below is written on a tag, which is then attached to the location of the
hazard. Observers should go ahead and tag anything they consider unsafe – the question of how it
can be made safe is addressed later.

Typical information entered on tag:

 Location
 Date identified
 Identified by
 Description of hazard

(2) Maps and boards

In reality, it is often impractical to attach tags directly to machines, tools, locations or tasks. In such
cases, attaching the tags to a map of the area can make the situation very visible and easy to
understand. A board can also be used to arrange the tags in order.

(3) Tag lists

Once tags have been assigned, and the hazards have been organised on a map and/or board, the
information can then be compiled in the form of a list. The tagged points are then rectified one by
one, following the list. It is important to do this at each step, until it becomes a matter of routine.

2.9 Examining Past Accidents and Analysing Data

Investigating and analysing past accidents can highlight the particular characteristics of the
accidents that tend to occur at the company, allowing any ingrained features hampering safety to be
recognised. The procedure described below should be followed.

(1) Categorise accident scenarios and define their titles and contents (see
Figure 11.9).

(2) Define the perspectives from which accidents will be analysed, and sort
the data into the relevant categories:
Analyse past accidents, but only those that fit into a precise perspective and cause category. If the
analysis process throws up any items that are unclear, then do not speculate about what might be
involved. Possible analytical perspectives include: accident scenario, equipment / part where
accident occurred, relevant time band, age of operator, number of years’ experience, job category,
part-time / full-time, etc.

(3) Record the locations of past accidents and near misses on a map of the
workplace (see Figure 11.10).
The latter part of this chapter provides reference information on various topics, such as protective
equipment and how it should be used, safety devices and how they should be checked and repaired,
strategies for dealing with various accident modes and problematic areas, safety management
systems and emergency response systems, and safety awareness programmes.
Figure 11.8 Tagging / Detagging Procedure

Figure 11.9 Typical Accident Categories

Figure 11.10 Example of Incident Map
3. Creating Worker-Friendly Workplaces
TPM is designed to build a robust corporate environment that manifests high levels of production
efficiency by exposing losses such as waste, inconsistency and strain arising anywhere within the
operation, and finding ways to make suitable improvements. Making workplaces more worker-
friendly is essential for enhancing safety and is an indispensable part of the TPM initiative.

3.1 The Need for ‘Humanware Management’

According to the American psychologist Abraham Maslow, humans have a five-tier hierarchy of
needs: physiological needs, the need for safety (including needs relating to our basic work
environment), social needs (the need for affection and a sense of belonging), the need for self-
esteem and recognition, and the need for self-actualisation, which relates to human relationships
and communication (see Figure 11.11). The conditions required in order to satisfy these needs may
be equated with the basic conditions required for people to function efficiently. Companies should
try to create factories and machinery that are ‘people-friendly’ by implementing ‘humanware
management’; that is, management aimed at satisfying these basic conditions.
Figure 11.11 Developing People-Friendly Equipment and Workplaces – Definition and Objectives

3.2 Assessing the Working Environment and Making Improvements

Any aspects of the workplace that are unsatisfactory from a health or environmental standpoint
must be identified and rectified by making improvements wherever possible. The working
environment should be progressively enhanced so that it becomes more and more conducive to the
 job in hand, and improvements must drastically reduce anything harmful to workers’ health, such as
noise, high temperatures, dust, and so on. The impact of the company’s operations on the
surrounding neighbourhood must also be diminished.

In order to establish standards for the work environment and create a pleasant and hospitable
workplace, it is necessary to:

 Maintain a pleasant working environment

 Arrange things so that people’s movements and work operations are rhythmical
 Provide equipment and facilities that counter stress and fatigue. Starting by doing whatever can be done
in these three areas, standards should be set with regard to noise, heat, physical exertion, dust, lighting,
etc., and ongoing improvements should be made. Hazardous substances and control categories must
also be clearly indicated.

3.3 The Five Basic Conditions for Being ‘People-Friendly’

By establishing basic people-friendly conditions in their equipment and systems, companies can
improve employee satisfaction and the rest of the 4 Ss (customer satisfaction, social satisfaction,
and financial satisfaction, i.e. cash flow), while turning themselves into highly creative
organisations with calmly efficient working environments. This is the path to achieving high quality
and high productivity.

The five basic conditions for a people-friendly environment:

1. Work that does not cause fatigue to build up

2. Comfortable, safe, healthy working environments
3. Safe workplaces where human errors are not liable to occur
4. Workplaces that are also welcoming to older employees
5. Workplaces that allow employees to enjoy creativity, zest for life, and satisfaction in their work
When seeking to establish the basic people-friendly conditions described above, the current
situation has to be identified to see exactly what state the workplace is in at present, and expose any
deficiencies that must be corrected. This is similar to the target- based approach for raising OEE
adopted in TPM. Reference materials are provided at the end of this chapter to assist companies to
create hospitable work environments that alleviate worker fatigue.

4. Towards a Recycling-Oriented Society

A ‘recycling-oriented society’ has been defined as ‘A society in which the consumption of natural
resources is controlled, and the load on the environment minimised, by preventing industrial
products from becoming waste, promoting the appropriate recycling of recyclable products and
materials, and ensuring the appropriate disposal of non-recyclable resources’.

The basic approach required to achieve this is described in the following terms: ‘A recycling-
oriented society is to be achieved by encouraging autonomous, forward- looking action to this end
in accordance with economic and technological possibilities, with the goal of realising a society
capable of sustainable development while fostering the growth of a healthy economy that has
minimal impact on the environment.’.
Based on this concept, in TPM we do not stop at simply trying to reduce the amount of waste our
factories generate, but attempt to prevent all forms of environmental pollution, of which waste is
but a part.

4.1 Global Environmental Issues and Pollution

(1) Reflections on the consumer society

The 20th century has been one of material civilisation. Human beings have sought a purpose of
some kind in their lives by trying to satisfy their needs through the acquisition of material goods. In
this way, we have created an overwhelming trend towards a ‘mass-producing, mass-consuming,
mass-disposal’ society premised on the assumption that we have an inexhaustible supply of
resources, that contamination can be controlled by nature and its inherent capacity to clear up our
pollution, and that we can basically throw things away to our hearts’ content.

Pollution problems started to emerge from the 1950s into the 1960s and 70s. These problems arose
as a result of the lack of effective legal protection for citizens’ health and living rights, coupled with
the business world’s overriding obsession with production and profit. What is more, whenever a
case of pollution has occurred somewhere, at home or abroad, there has been an undeniable sense of
complacency, with those who are not directly involved seeming quite happy to stand by and watch
others suffer the consequences. Many problems of this kind have now been addressed by the
introduction of much tighter legislation, and the anti-pollution measures that have been adopted by
industry.

This history highlights a unique characteristic of pollution as an issue, namely, that there is an
offender (or polluter) who generates the pollution, and victims who suffer some sort of physical
harm, infringement of their basic living rights, and so on, as a consequence of this pollution. The
existence of this two-way relationship has meant that the various measures pursued have always
been based on legal standpoints and policies.

This may well have given us the idea that we have overcome the problem of pollution, but the fact
is that the effects of commercial activities have simply moved beyond the sphere of local pollution
to a stage where they now threaten the global environment as a whole.

The greatest problem facing us today is that our living environment is undergoing massive change,
and yet we can no longer establish a simple relationship between ‘offender’ and ‘victim’ in the
same way as when dealing with past problems of pollution. Put simply, each one of us is both
offender and victim. This is the defining feature of the environmental question: it has to be
addressed from a truly global standpoint that reaches all the way from individuals through
organisations to society as a whole. This is a perspective that we have never had to adopt before
(see Figure 11.13).
Figure 11.13 Reflections on the Consumer Society (from local pollution to the global environmental
issue)
 (2) The special characteristics of the environmental question
As discussed above, the issue of the environment differs from that of pollution in several key
aspects. The principal differences are:

 The effects are not readily visible, so it is difficult to appreciate the problem as real and tangible.
 No ‘offender-victim’ relationship exists.
 Our responsibility is owed more towards future generations than to the present one.
 The environmental question affects the right to survival of other species, apart from humans.
 Contamination and destruction of the natural environment is a problem that crosses national borders.
 Everyone, from individuals through to organisations of all kinds, is expected to display the highest
morals and standards.
The most important of these factors, in terms of its impact on our awareness and behaviour, is the
fact that under normal conditions, it is very difficult to gain a real sense of how serious the effects
on the environment are. We used to tell ourselves that these problems were not urgent and could be
dealt with later, and there was a certain degree of tacit connivance behind this procrastination. From
here on, however, this type of thinking will simply not be acceptable. The price for everything we
have achieved in the 20th century has been the destruction of the environment, and it is an issue that
we have a duty to resolve for the sake of future generations.

4.2 The Responsibility of Industrial Producers

Any country that wants to work towards becoming a ‘recycling-oriented society’ does of course
require the full and active involvement of producers. As producers, we should remind ourselves that
 we have a clear and unavoidable responsibility in helping to prevent environmental contamination.
Business leaders must therefore bear the following issues clearly in mind when looking to develop
their operations in the future.

(1) Preventing pollution

The key to protecting the environment lies in prevention. This requires producers to engage in ‘anti-
polluting’ activities such as:


o Designing products that do not end up as waste
o Reusing waste products as resources
o Recycling waste materials for repeated use
o Reducing the generation of environmental contaminants
o Reducing the use of harmful chemicals and handling them appropriately
o Reducing the consumption of resources and energy
Ways must be found to work these initiatives into the core ‘business process’ of making products,
so that they become routine business activities, and they must be managed from the standpoint of
prevention. Management systems must also be setup to ensure that the necessary steps are indeed
taken to protect the environment. This means that companies are faced with three key requirements:
to set up systems to prevent problems from arising; to manage these systems so that problems do
not arise; and to ensure the feedback of relevant information in the event of a problem so that the
systems can be revised if necessary. By implementing this approach painstakingly and
perseveringly, the goal of preventing pollution can be achieved and sustained.

(2) Disclosing information

In some cases, isolated incidents have undesirable effects on the environment. In others, it may
emerge that a company is having a cumulative effect over time on the people living in the
surrounding area, as a result not of isolated incidents but of normal everyday operations. In all such
cases, it is vital for the company to provide prompt and accurate information about accidents or
emergencies to those potentially affected, as well as explaining, clearly and frankly, the basic
philosophy underpinning the company’s business operations, the current situation as it stands, and
the future prognosis. The demand for such information is now becoming stronger than ever.

A firm’s attitude to the disclosure of information is likely to become an extremely important factor
when its future prospects are evaluated in the marketplace. Today, corporations are coming under
ever closer scrutiny with regard to their moral stance, and the environmental issue has become one
of the key items by which companies are judged. In the future, we can expect this ‘environmental
rating’ to have a huge impact on corporate affairs, from stock prices, finance, and recruitment,
through to the incentives a company is offered to site its plants in particular locations.

(3) Obeying the law and implementing self-regulation

In many cases, statutory regulations are determined in light of the possibility of effective response –
that is, by the prevailing technical standards. It follows that the standards stipulated in law are not
necessarily the most desirable ones for the people affected. This means that, from a logical
viewpoint, obeying the law is the minimum obligation, and properly speaking, the producer should
aim for a higher level than this. Self-regulation and self-imposed standards will become
increasingly important – in other words, companies will be expected to take positive action to
achieve standards above and beyond those required by law – in areas such as wastewater quality,
exhaust gas concentration, soot and dust density, noise, vibration, soil contamination, and so on.
These obligations are what ‘risk management’ really means for organisations. Indeed, analysis has
revealed that many of the recent business scandals have been caused in large part by companies’
failures to take their responsibilities in these areas seriously enough.

4.3 Strategies for Achieving a Recycling-Oriented Society

One of the key phrases that frequently crops up in the environmental debate, and particularly in
relation to manufacturers, is ‘zero emissions’. Literally, of course, this means just what it says –
zero release of industrial waste products – but the phrase is usually employed in a far broader sense
to indicate an economy, society, community, business activities, etc., that do not produce any waste.
The idea of zero emissions is in fact not limited to the absence of waste, but rather describes a
holistic attitude that gives priority to coexisting in harmony with the natural world, treating material
objects with care, building products that last, and recycling products when they are no longer
usable. Indeed, ‘zero emissions’ is a key phrase for building a new type of civilisation, based on the
recognition that the world’s resources are finite.

One practical development from this is the recent increase in companies aiming to create ‘rubbish-
free factories’. By eliminating waste products from the factory, these initiatives represent a first step
towards achieving ‘zero emissions’ at the company or worksite level.

A large number of companies have been able to achieve ‘zero-emission factories’ as a result of
introducing and developing TPM. However, this type of proactive approach is still relatively rare in
manufacturing circles, and in many cases, individual companies do not have sufficient drive or
momentum to achieve zero emissions on their own. For the generator of waste products, the greatest
barrier to recycling them into usable resources is the high cost of processing the waste. Another
major problem is lack of information about companies ready to accept and treat waste, and about
new environment-related technology and equipment.

Problems relating to the recycling and reuse of industrial waste products can be very hard to tackle
independently at the worksite level, and the JIPM has therefore proposed the creation of an inter-
regional, cross-industry, zero-emission network or ‘loop’ to help resolve them. The functions
provided by this ‘loop’ can be used by industry to forge cooperative links between the providers and
receivers of waste products, and drive towards achieving ‘zero rubbish’ on various fronts. In this, it
is vital to garner the participation of regional authorities, government bodies and individual experts
ready and able to share their own particular technologies and know-how. We see this as one of the
key undertakings for producers in the future.

4.4 Creating a Recycling-Oriented Society through TPM

As mentioned above, creating a recycling-oriented society requires a whole range of different
initiatives, starting with the ‘3 Rs’ of prevention (reduce, reuse, recycle). At the same time,
companies must work to restrict their use of harmful chemicals and ensure they are handled
correctly, reduce their consumption of energy and resources, develop their emergency response
capabilities, give workers environmental training, and ensure that the relevant legislation is obeyed.
The eight pillars of TPM are designed to match the business processes involved in manufacturing
products, and therefore provide an efficient and effective programme suited to the functions of
those processes. If environmentally-oriented activities are also to form ‘part of the job’, it would
seem logical to adopt a system in which these activities are incorporated into the existing eight
pillars, and developed within the TPM framework. Table 11.2 shows one example of how
environmental activities might be deployed in this way.
Table 11.2 Tackling Environmental Issues within TPM

TPM encompasses a range of different initiatives, aimed variously at preventing equipment

breakdowns and minor stops, stabilising quality, achieving right-first-time setup, starting up quickly
and stably, operating processes at their design speeds (or faster), eliminating idling, achieving right-
first-time commissioning of new equipment, compressing design and development times, raising
the yields obtained from tools, moulds and jigs, preventing air and steam leaks, and so forth. Each
of these activities also serves to improve environmental performance.
What is more, many of the equipment maintenance techniques introduced in order to do things such
as implementing routine checks and periodic inspections; extending machine and component life;
managing lubrication; isolating heat, vibration and noise; and repairing and renewing equipment,
also link directly to protection of the environment. The same applies of course to any action taken to
reduce the consumption of energy and resources and the generation of waste products.

However, the environmental question throws up a great number of new issues, and ways must be
found of introducing these into the TPM programme and developing them within it. These new
topics include, for example, the creation of an environmental management system; the training and
development required in order to carry out environment-related tasks; the development of
emergency response capabilities; preventive measures; the appropriate management of harmful
chemicals; and measures to ensure legal compliance and evaluate related performance.

4.5 The Importance of Building an Environmental Management

System

(1) Gaining ISO 14001 certification

Setting up an environmental management system has become an essential requirement for
businesses and other organisations. This means promoting systematic and consistent programmes of
activities to ensure that the organisation’s operations do not have a harmful effect on the
environment.

A company’s environmental management system will be more effective if it is designed in

accordance with the ISO 14001 specifications. Basing the system on ISO ensures third-party
recognition, and allows the company to publicize the fact that its environmental management
system complies with known international standards.

The aim here is not the ISO label for its own sake, but rather the company’s commitment to operate
in a way that respects the environment, systematically, throughout the organisation, starting with the
top management and involving all of the employees. The company pledges to outsiders that it has
constructed its system in line with ISO14001. Any organisation that has set up and implemented an
environmental management system or intends to do so, must therefore position this as a central part
of its basic work activities. Just as with TPM activities, ways must be found to incorporate
everything stipulated in the environmental management system into everyone’s everyday duties,
making it just another part of their job.

(2) ISO 14001 registration audit and self-declaration

A great deal of attention has been paid to gaining ISO 14001 certification, but for small and
medium-sized businesses in particular, the costs involved in achieving it, and the task of setting up
an effective structure to promote it, have been major barriers to the introduction and implementation
of the standards. However, a relatively unknown feature of the ISO 14001 specifications is that they
also allow for ‘self-declaration’ as well as for third-party registration.

In the self-declaration process, an organisation itself decides that its environmental management
system complies with the provisions of ISO 14001, and makes a public declaration to this effect. Of
course, any organisation, anywhere in the world, will have an innate tendency to be more lenient on
itself, and stricter on others, and the ‘self’ element of self-declaration and self-certification implies
that there is little to corroborate the objectivity and reliability of the system that has been put in
place. For this reason, self-declaration has not yet been widely adopted in many countries including
Japan.

However, if an organisation aiming to self-declare were able to receive objective evaluation from a
third party, then it could announce with full confidence that it had built and maintained a reliable
ISO-compliant environmental management system. This type of external assessment makes self-
declaration a practical option, and we can expect the system to spread in this form in coming years.

The JIPM operates a ‘self-declaration assistance scheme’ for objectively assessing and certifying
sites that have opted for self-declaration, and this scheme can be used effectively by firms to
validate and publicise the systems they have built. What is more, the assistance scheme is not
limited to the declaration phase, but can be also be used in the building, implementation or
sustainment phases, thus making it possible to construct an environmental management system in a
short space of time with minimal effort.

5. Management Indicators
All activities must produce a result of some kind, and the SHE (safety, health and environment)
field is no exception. Indicators for evaluating safety, health and environment should be published
and used to drive the PDCA cycle towards the desired goals. Table 11.3 gives an overview of some
result-based SHE indicators, as well as some cause-related indicators that translate into
improvements in the result indicators, and examples of the formulae used to calculate these. These
measures form a good starting point for identifying your own company’s shortcomings in this field.
Reference 1

Establishing a Safety Management Organisation and Safety Committees

It is essential to build a system that delivers practical results throughout the company, whilst
ensuring that relevant information is communicated properly and that those responsible for health
and safety in each department pay constant attention to their health and safety duties. This can be
achieved by setting up a safety management organisation divided up into various committees. The
entire workforce must work together towards eliminating accidents and work-related illnesses (see
Table 11.4).
Table 11.4
Reference 2

Items to Be Checked at the Preparation Stage

(The check sheet below shows the general items that should be checked, but in practice it is
advisable to create a list of specific items for your own particular workplace).
•Have all the laws and regulations that the company must comply with been identified?
•Have all the company’s internal rules and procedures been listed?
•Have safety shortcomings in the company been highlighted by analysis of past accidents?
•Have maps been created enabling accidents to be stratified in terms of mode, location, task, etc.?
•Have health and safety checklists been drawn up?
 •Have a safety body and safety committees been set up?
•Have all the tasks that must be done by a qualified operator been listed?
Investigating and analysing, reviewing hazards, and making improvements
Provision and use of protective equipment

(1) Protective equipment

Certain tasks and processes require the use of protective equipment. Operators’ health and safety
must be ensured by providing them with the right PPE (personal protective equipment) and getting
them to use it. The right type of equipment must be selected by taking account all of the possible
hazards that might occur during a task, and it must be used and looked after properly. Table 11.5
shows some typical items of protective equipment, with cautionary notes regarding their use.

Protective gear must allow the operator wearing it to carry out his or her work easily, without losing
efficiency. It should provide adequate protection against the identified hazards, and be made from
suitable materials. The equipment should also be well designed and finished, and be stored in a
clean and tidy place when not in use, so that it is in good condition and ready for operators
whenever they need it. Strict discipline is vital in the daily management of protective equipment, if
items such as uniforms, helmets, safety shoes, eye protectors, safety harnesses, gloves, dust masks,
ear protectors, and so on, are to fulfil their functions properly. There is absolutely no point in having
protective gear if it does not serve its purpose when the danger actually arises.
Table 11.5 Typical Protective Equipment
(2) Correct use
Operators should begin by trying on the protective equipment specified for a particular task. It may
feel hot, heavy or painful, or restrict their movement, and make the job hard to carry out. However,
not wearing it can be suicidal. The first requirement is to ensure safety, but it is a good idea to
improve protective equipment in various ways as long as safety is not compromised. The most
urgent improvements are those aimed at making it easier for operators to perform their tasks, as
well as enhancing the workplace itself to do away with the need for protective equipment wherever
possible. More difficult issues should be developed further in subsequent steps.

Operators must learn to check the following points in order to establish basic safety conditions:
Clothes
Am I wearing the designated work clothes?
Are all my buttons done up properly?
Are my collar and cuffs done up?
Have I got anything in my pockets that is prohibited, or anything that I don’t need for my work?
Are my clothes torn or split?
Are my clothes clean?
Safety helmet
Is the inner adjustment band set to the right size?
Are the required certification and approval marks, etc. shown on the helmet?
Am I wearing the designated helmet, or other type of headgear?
Is the chinstrap done up tightly?
Protective equipment
Am I using the designated safety glasses or goggles for the tasks and work locations they are
specified for?
Are they clean?
Am I using the designated ear protectors for the tasks they are specified for?
Am I using the designated safety gloves for the tasks they are specified for?

Am I using the designated safety shoes for the tasks they are specified for?
Am I wearing my safety shoes properly, and are they laced up securely and comfortably? Am I
wearing my leg protectors properly, if they are needed?
Working at heights
Am I wearing a designated safety harness for the tasks it is specified for?

When cleaning or doing other work at heights, has a curtain been suspended around the work to
protect the surrounding area, and have people in the vicinity been warned?
Do not throw tools or other objects up or down to anyone.
Be careful not to drop any tools or other objects.
Other danger areas, etc.
Are hazard warning signs and ‘No Entry’ signs displayed in the correct places?

Operators should not, as a rule, enter designated danger areas. Operators must not enter prohibited
areas.
Is the work floor area adequately illuminated?
Are passageways and work areas clearly marked by white lines, etc.?
Are there designated storage points for pallets and tools, and are these items stored properly
according to the established standards?
Are any items left in the passageways or projecting into them?

Work requiring qualified operators

Small-scale heavy machinery, forklifts, shop-floor cranes, etc. must only be operated by qualified
personnel.
Electrical work must only be carried out by qualified personnel.
Any other personnel without the proper qualifications authorised by the company must not do this
type of work.
Small power tools, etc. must be inspected before use, to check that they are working properly.
Carrying out work
The safety supervisor must be clearly identified, and that person’s instructions must be followed.
The safety supervisor must wear the required armband.
Before starting work, anticipate hazards, note all relevant warnings, ensure that the right protective
equipment is being worn, and check people’s mental and physical condition.
Do not smoke whilst working; only smoke in the designated smoking areas.
Do not use fire or flames, e.g. welding, using cutting torches, etc., in areas where naked flames are
prohibited.
When working as a team, appoint a team leader and follow his or her instructions.
When working as a team, decide on the signals to be used for coordinating the work and monitor
other people’s actions as well as your own.
Checking and restoring safety devices

(1) Safety devices

The need for safety devices arises because, unfortunately, people can be careless. Human error can
easily lead to an accident, or inconvenience a customer, and safety devices are used to ensure that
no harm occurs even if someone does something wrong. Examples include safety covers, error-
proofing devices, safety colour codes and markings, guard rails, fire-proofing devices, and systems
for preventing electric shocks, transport accidents, and so on.

A safety cover is a protective cover that prevents operators from getting clothing or body parts
caught in the moving parts of a machine. Safety covers can also be used to stop operators from
coming into contact with projecting machine parts or hazardous substances. All safety devices
should be regularly inspected, and any problems corrected so that the devices can fulfil their
functions and work correctly and reliably.

(2) Error-proofing and fail-safing

Error-proofing and fail-safing mean designing equipment and work procedures in such a way that
safety can be guaranteed, even if an operator is careless and makes a mistake. After all, as the
saying implies, ‘to err is human’, and it is in our nature to make mistakes occasionally, no matter
how hard we try not to. We cannot rely simply on the attentiveness of operators to ensure safety at
work – the key is to make our work processes and equipment intrinsically safe, so that they
compensate for human lapses.

Error-proof design:

This type of design automatically guarantees safety and prevents an accident or incident from
occurring even if the operator makes a mistake. Examples include an overwinding prevention
device on a crane or hoist that stops the load from being raised above a certain height, and an
optically-triggered shutdown system or two-hand start-button control mechanism incorporated into
a mechanical press.
Fail-safe design:

This type of design ensures that equipment always shuts down safely even if something goes wrong.
Two examples are an automatic fire extinguisher built into a portable oil stove (which automatically
puts out any fire, even if the stove is tipped over by an earthquake, for instance), and a cord reel
equipped with a residual current circuit breaker that automatically trips if an excessive current
flows.
Shutting down equipment
Are there clear rules on shutting down machinery in a way that guarantees safety?
Is there a clear safety procedure for starting up and shutting down equipment?
Is there a clear safety procedure for turning the power supply on and off?
Is there a clear safety procedure for releasing residual pressure from pneumatic and hydraulic devices?
Checking the operation of safety devices
Does each machine have a power shutoff switch? Is the switch located near the work position and easy to
operate?
Are established signalling methods in place, e.g. bells, etc., to indicate when machinery that forms part of
a combined operation is starting up?
If a machine is liable to spray out cuttings and other debris, does it have a suitable guard or cover to
contain them?
Have any safety devices been intentionally removed? Have the operators forgotten to put any back after
removing them?
Have the safety devices been subjected to periodic operating tests? Have the results been properly
recorded?
Are the glass windows of optical sensors kept clean?
Are temperature sensors installed at the correct positions?
Are the emergency stop buttons clearly visible and easily accessible?
Are residual current circuit breakers correctly installed?
Are limit switches placed in the correct positions, and are the switch arms free to move?
Checking safety in grinding machines
Ensure that a rigid cover is fitted to every machine with a grinding wheel of 50 mm dia. or above, and
check the following points:
a) Is there a gap of at least 3 mm between the workpiece rest and the grinding wheel?
b) Is there a gap of at least 10 mm between the cover and the grinding wheel?
The machine should be test-run for at least one minute before starting work, and at least three minutes
after changing the grinding wheel.
Only the designated grinding face of the wheel should be used for grinding.
The specified flange must be used when installing a grinding wheel.
General checks
Is everyone fully aware of statutory and company regulations?
Have the required items of protective equipment been listed, and are they being used correctly?
Are safety devices being checked and restored properly?
Do operators understand the safety colour code systems in use?
Do they understand the checkpoints listed above?
 Are passageways, piping, ducting, processes, equipment, etc., signed clearly and accurately?
Accident mode countermeasures
In this step, the accident scenarios identified so far are re-examined, so that corrections can be made
and action taken to prevent the same accident modes from reoccurring. This step is divided into
separate sub-steps for each accident mode. The best approach is to start with the most common
accident modes.

Each company must decide on the order to proceed in, on the basis of its own particular
circumstances. In each sub-step, the list of checkpoints can be used to review safety and evaluate
the situation before and after action was taken.
(1) Creating a plan

Establish an order for the sub-steps, giving priority to accident modes that have occurred most
commonly or had the most serious consequences in the past. At the same time, devise
countermeasures for those points that have not been dealt with properly in previous steps. Problems
in the use of protective equipment must be rectified, and the workplace and job content must be
improved wherever possible in order to remove the need for operators to wear protective gear. By
implementing these activities in the same way for all the sub-steps, it is possible to eliminate these
accident modes and the potential for accidents of this kind to occur.
Where radical countermeasures (i.e. hardware modifications) can be taken, they should be
implemented without delay. If this type of action is not possible, then clear warning signs and other
indicators should be used to ensure that all employees are aware of the potential hazard.

Chapter 11. Safety, Health and Environment.

Part 3
October 20, 2017
0 37 min read
Zero trapping or catching
1 Definition: A body part getting crushed, twisted, etc. by being trapped between objects
2 In broad terms, there are two types of trapping incident:
– Caused by own actions, e.g. operator gets hand trapped when trying to wipe dirt off a moving
roller.

-Caused by other factors, e.g. getting trapped unexpectedly by an automatic robot, or accidentally
trapping someone else who was standing behind the equipment without the operator knowing.
In either of these cases, a trapping accident occurs because a person comes into contact with a
danger source. So, the first thing to do is to find all the places where trapping may possibly occur in
the workplace. Typical examples include:
 Operating ranges of pneumatic and hydraulic machinery
 Exposed parts of rotary equipment
 Operating ranges of robots
The identified points are then marked on a map. Also, if a piece of equipment has a guard, but it is
not really adequate, then that point must go down on the map as well. A list of checkpoints is
indicated below.

(2) List of checkpoints (example)

(3) Finding countermeasures

Safety countermeasures can be designed from various perspectives:

1 The machinery is halted if someone accidentally (or deliberately) enters a danger zone.

 The machine stops if a barrier is opened

 The device is fitted with a safety interlock
2 People are kept away from the danger source by barriers, etc.


o Barriers should be designed not to impede inspection, cleaning, lubrication, etc., and transparent
panels should be fitted to aid inspection.
o The barrier rails should be set a suitable distance apart.
3 Warning signs are affixed, or warning devices installed, to alert personnel to
dangerous situations
Some examples of warning signs are shown below. If the process of introducing appropriate safety
measures is going to take time, then your immediate priorities should be to clearly indicate all
hazard zones, and install protective barriers, so that operators do not come into contact with danger
sources.
Zero falls (falling over, falling from a height)
1 Definition : Falling from a height: An operator falls off a machine, ladder, step, etc. Tripping: An
operator trips over on a virtually level surface

2 The following list of checkpoints relating to falls from a height can be used to check the safety
situation in your workplace:
Passageways, stairs
Are there safe passageways?
Are these passageways fitted with rails?
Do the rails comply with the standards?
Are the floors of the passageways corroded or deformed in any way?
Are there steps and stairways that allow high and low areas to be reached safely?
Are the stairway steps designed suitably?
Are the stairways fitted properly with handrails?
Do people hold the handrails and make sure their footing is secure when they go up or down stairways
 or along elevated walkways?
Are openings fitted with guards?
Are manholes, pits, etc. indicated by suitable hazard markings?
Are any fittings loose or damaged?
Ladders, stepladders, etc. (except for engineering work)
Are ladders free from corrosion and damage?
Are ladders firmly fixed, so that they do not slip or move in any way?
Do any operators carry loads up or down steps, ladders, etc., so they cannot hold onto the handrails?
Ladders must not be erected on uneven or soft floors.
Never stand on the top step of a stepladder.
Are the anti-splay restraints on stepladders working properly and undamaged? Ladders and stepladders
must only be used by one person at a time.
Inspection work at heights (except for engineering work)

Has it been made obligatory to wear a

safety harness whenever working at a
height of over 1.8 m above floor level?
Are rails or ropes provided for clipping
the safety harnesses onto?
Workplace
Is the floor even and free of changes in
level?
Are there any slippery areas or areas
where workers have slipped in the past?
When seeking to prevent operators from falling over in the
horizontal plane, it is important to learn from any near misses
Are there any areas that are not that the employees may have had, as well as checking the
sufficiently illuminated? points listed below:
3 When seeking to prevent operators from falling over in the horizontal plane, it is important to
learn from any near misses that the employees may have had, as well as checking the points listed
below:
Is the floor smooth, even and free of changes in level?
Are there any areas where oil or water has collected?
Do the operators have dirt on their shoes?
4 Mark danger points on map
The dangerous areas identified in step 3) should be drawn on a map of the workplace.
5 Create improvement plan
Determine an order of priority for the points that need to be improved, based on the seriousness of
the injury that would result if the envisaged accident actually occurred, and the frequency with
which operators visit the location. Improvements to rectify these dangers should then be carried out
in a planned and systematic way. If there are any problems that cannot be resolved straight away,
then action must be taken to mark these clearly and boldly, so that workers know where the danger
points are and understand the correct working procedures to follow.

Zero cuts and bruises

1 Definition: Colliding with a stationary or moving object

2 Checkpoints (example)
Passageways
Is there any point where someone might bump their head?
Are there any projecting parts that people could strike themselves against?
Are there any doors that could hit someone if opened suddenly?
Are there any sharp objects?
Storage of pallets, etc
Have limits been set for the number of pallets that can be stacked on each other?
Are these limits being observed?
Are the pallets being kept to their designated storage positions?
Zero burns
1 Definition: A burn caused by touching a hot or very cold object
2 Temperature and burns
There are basically three ways that a person can make contact with a hot object:

– Touching a fixed hot object, such as a hot part of a machine, etc.

– Touching a hot object while handling it, e.g. during gas welding, working with a cutting torch,
etc.
– Coming into contact with the hot contents of a pipe or other vessel if it bursts, when stripping it
down to inspect it, etc.
3 Fixed high-temperature parts of machinery are usually covered with thermal insulating material,
but the workplace must be checked to see if it contains any of the following:

Hot spots on motors and drive systems

Hot spots on hydraulic pipes
 Hot spots on reactors
If there is any possibility of an operator coming into contact with points like these, then the
following items must be checked:
Is a suitable safety barrier or safety cover fitted?
Is the safety barrier or safety cover designed so that a person will not come into contact with the heat
source, even if they handle it in the wrong way?
Is the heat source covered with thermal insulating material?
Is the insulating material broken, damaged or loose?
Are there suitable ‘Caution! HOT!’ warning signs?
If welding or cutting operations using naked flames are carried out in the workplace, then it should
be confirmed that there are proper work standards in place, and that these standards contain all the
necessary precautionary information.
4 Examples of countermeasures
Thermal insulating material is usually placed over hot parts in order to prevent their temperature
from dropping, but any uncovered parts should be protected by guard rails. Also, if there is a
possibility that an electric motor, etc., may get hot, then a thermosensitive label should be applied to
it, so that any temperature rise can be spotted straight away.

Zero electric shocks

1 Definition : When someone receives a shock by touching part of their body against a live
conductor

2 Electricity is invisible, so it is impossible to tell where and when it is flowing. Therefore,

although the following points must be inspected with the power supply turned off, they must never
be touched whilst the equipment is running, even if a problem is detected. Particular care must be
taken to avoid electric shocks caused by inadvertently touching a part through which a leakage
current is passing.

Electrical work must only be carried out by properly qualified personnel. Always contact a
specialist electrician for this kind of work.
3 Inspecting electrical equipment
Carry out the following visual checks:
Is all arc welding equipment properly fitted with an automatic shock-protection device?
Are any cables for power tools, etc. damaged in any way? Are the conductor wires exposed?
Is equipment earthed? Are the earth wires connected correctly?
Are any cables to power sockets damaged? Are the conductor wires exposed?
Are any electric motors or other electrical equipment exposed to water?
Are the lids fitted properly on the distributor boxes?
Do the switchboards have openable lids, and are they usually kept closed?
Are electric motors and other electrical devices provided with earth connections, and have any of the
earth wires come loose?
 Is there rubbing or damage to any of the wiring?
Strategies for dealing with points that are difficult to resolve

Up to now, we have been considering the points that should be checked in order to avoid different
types of accident, such as trapping or catching, falling, cuts and bruises, burns, and electric shocks.
However, the main aim should always be to build in intrinsic safety by implementing physical
countermeasures wherever possible. If no immediate countermeasure can be devised, then the
potential hazard must be clearly indicated to everyone on the shop floor, by installing signs or
indicator boards, etc. stating the work details, the established procedure, and precautionary
information. The following types of warning can be used:
 Operational indicators
This type of indicator shows the operational state of the equipment, such as ‘Operating’ or ‘Standby’, as
well as marking the position of emergency stop buttons. These indicators should be readily visible from
any angle, and may consist of lamps, etc. fitted to the equipment.
 Indicators marking danger zones, high-voltage parts, harmful substances, dangerous objects, etc.
 Warning signs
Warning signs, such as ‘Caution! Rotating Parts!’, ‘Gloves Prohibited!’, ‘Mind Your Head!’, and so
forth, alert the operator to potential dangers, and state clearly what he or she must be careful about.
This helps to raise safety awareness in the workplace.

Establishing and consolidating the safety management system

The equipment and personnel in the workplace are always changing, sometimes gradually, and
sometimes very suddenly. Great pains may be taken to implement improvement proposals and
conform to established rules and procedures, but if these are not monitored continuously, the
improvements will soon come unstuck, and before it knows it, the company will be back where it
started . If safe conditions are to be maintained over the long run, then it is vital that changes of this
kind are detected early on, so that swift action can be taken in response. For this purpose, a system
is needed to keep the safety PDCA cycle revolving at the company level.

(1) Consolidating the safety organisation

A dedicated organisation must be set up in order to ensure that safety activities are implemented
smoothly, across the board. The main objectives of such an organisation are:

 Detect problems in the workplace swiftly and accurately, and devise suitable countermeasures.
 Formulate annual policy and month-by-month plans, and ensure that the workforce knows about them.
 Collect information on the current safety situation in the workplace.
 Investigate possible countermeasures suited to the safety situation, and decide on measures to be
adopted.
To achieve these objectives, a system of regular meetings is set up, and suitable people are selected
to attend those meetings and discuss safety issues.
(Example of meetings)
 Health and Safety Committee / Section Safety Committee / Group Safety Committee / Safety Planning
Committee
(2) Formulating a safety policy and action plan
 As well as setting up a management structure, a clear safety policy and action plans should be
drawn up, and behavioural guidelines detailed for all personnel, so that everyone can pull together
towards achieving a safe workplace. At the same time, company slogans and departmental slogans
should be devised, along with other ways of ensuring that the activities have a common focus.

(3) Workplace safety assessments by safety patrols

Safety patrol teams visit the actual workplace to observe the state of the equipment and the work
environment. Their aim is to check how effectively safety measures are being implemented on the
shop floor, and how rigorously the established procedures are being followed. Patrol teams may be
made up of managers only, or a mixed group of managers and shop-floor representatives, and they
should patrol regularly, while operators carry out their own routine inspections. These patrols are
much more than a casual ‘once-over’ of the shop floor. Each patrol team must prepare a
comprehensive checklist focusing on its own particular angle, and every effort must be made to
ensure that a really effective regime of patrols and self-inspection is achieved and the actual safety
situation is identified accurately.
Creating workplace safety inspection standards and implementing and recording rules and
procedures
The procedures and minimum rules of good conduct determined in the activities described above
must be observed scrupulously by everyone. Any areas or particular tasks where these rules cannot
be strictly adhered to should be identified. If safety is to be maintained, it is important to establish
rules (safety inspection standards) stipulating how to comply with established procedures. At the
same time, a record must be kept of the safety situation. Some inspection points can be assessed on
a basic pass/fail system, whereas others will need to be measured. It is essential to record the results
of inspections carefully so that the safety situation in the workplace can be closely monitored and
controlled. This archive of information will prove invaluable in determining the causes of an
accident, if one unfortunately occurs. There are also statutory requirements to be complied with,
whereby companies must select the relevant inspection items and create a safety log, which is
updated after each inspection. The 5W1H approach should be adopted when creating this inspection
log.
Establishing emergency response systems
Although safety management focuses primarily on preventing accidents, emergency response
systems must also be established in case an accident does happen. The following points, amongst
others, must be decided and displayed in prominent positions in the workplace:

 Network of emergency contacts

 Standard procedures for calling out emergency vehicles
 Workplace preservation procedures and first aid for the injured
Preparing for and implementing safety awareness activities

Safety awareness activities should be conducted with the aim of getting shop-floor workers to spot
the ‘seeds’ of potential safety problems, so that they can be dealt with before any danger actually
arises. Near-miss reporting is also used to the same end. As the Heinrich principle tells us, accidents
happen when the small seeds of danger are overlooked. To prevent accidents from occurring, the
safety situation in the workplace must be continually assessed, by analysing near-misses and
constantly seeking to identify anything that might conceivably lead to an accident. The hazards
identified must be systematically eliminated, and similar measures applied to other relevant tasks,
equipment or locations. These activities help operators develop a much keener awareness of
potential hazards. The safety reports produced by these initiatives should be studied by managers
every six months or so, to confirm how accurately the safety shortcomings have been analysed, and
how effective the improvements have been.

Before developing these activities in the workplace, the managers themselves must first learn about
safety awareness. Based on what they have learned, they can then draw up a format for the safety
awareness initiatives, and put them into action on the shop floor, by giving appropriate instruction
to the operators. Some other important initiatives that could be introduced in order to enhance safety
awareness are: near-miss reporting systems, the ‘4 round method’ (a system developed by the Japan
Industrial Safety and Health Association), and ‘touch and call’ routines (see below).

‘Touch and call’ routines

Hand/Voice confirmation signals (‘Point and Call’ routine)

At each crucial juncture of the task in hand, the operator looks squarely at whatever needs to be
checked. Extending an arm and pointing a finger in the appropriate direction, he or she calls out the
checks (“Left OK! Right OK! Front OK!” and so on). This ensures that the operator’s eyes, arm,
finger, voice and ears are all fully mobilised in checking that his or her actions are correct and that
everything is safe.
The procedure is as follows:

Eyes: Look carefully at whatever needs to be checked.

Voice: Call out each item to be checked, one by one (“Valve open? OK!” and so forth).
Ears: Listen carefully to your own voice.
Arm and fingers: Place the left hand on the waist, and extend the right arm with the index finger
pointing towards whatever is being checked. Each time you call out the question part of a new
check, bend your elbow, raising your index finger to ear height in a salute-like motion, and
straighten your arm out again when you call out the “OK”. Extend your index finger, with the rest
of your fingers balled into a loose fist.
Points to be reviewed in creating standards and maintaining and improving safety:
 Is there a company-wide system of safety meetings? Are safety activities being monitored
properly?
Has a plan been devised for safety activities? Has it been communicated to each department and
section? Do the safety activities throughout the company have a single, common focus?
Have suitable slogans been created?
Have patrols been set up, and are they being carried out systematically?
Have safety standards been created, and are they being observed?
Are safety awareness activities and near-miss identification activities being carried out
consistently, on an ongoing basis?
Is there a proper contact system in place in the event of an emergency?
Reference 3
Reducing fatigue
(1) There are two principal types of fatigue: mental and physical (2) Reducing physical (muscular)
fatigue

-Reducing strenuous work

Handling heavy objects places significant physical stress on the operator,
whether when lifting objects and loading them onto a truck, for instance, or when

carrying them from place to place. -Improving the working posture

 Hard work – handling heavy objects + high-load working posture (no. of operations, continuous
working time)
 Bending at waist, bending at knees and waist, twisting, stretching
 Bending of joints, use of muscles, energy use, difficult positions and loads
 Working postures with high load factor – hard work – poor image
(3) Reducing mental fatigue

When people have to perform monotonous surveillance work or jobs that require them to
concentrate hard and make frequent decisions, they eventually become mentally tired and end up
making mistakes or becoming less productive. Furthermore, when people get bored, they begin to
feel tired as a reaction to the monotony. This fatigue produces a loss of mental sharpness,
accompanied by a vague feeling of sleepiness and lack of concentration.

It is important to eliminate strenuous tasks and strained working postures from the workplace. This
means devising optimal processing conditions that reduce heavy object handling, and eliminating
difficult jobs that require operators to adopt an awkward posture. This is a key issue that must be
positioned as part of the company’s basic philosophy and tackled within its Early Management
programme, so that equipment and products are designed from the start to make assembly and
manufacturing processes easier.

Achieving a hospitable work environment

(1) The following two conditions must be satisfied in order to achieve a work environment that
allows employees to enjoy their work and stay in high spirits.
 
o The workplace environment itself must be hospitable
o The work must not cause fatigue to build up
(2) Concepts for creating a hospitable work environment

The first step towards creating a pleasant and agreeable working environment is to try to minimise
the harmful negative factors and maximise the positive ones, by, for example:

 Eliminating noise, high temperatures, dust, and harmful gases and vapours
 Creating a well-lit, calm, relaxed environment
 Ensuring that work tasks do not create a build-up of fatigue
In pursuing these initiatives, management must always look to create a workplace that people will
actually enjoy working in. If they do this, then the operators themselves are much more likely to
pitch in and help to keep their work environment clean, tidy and well-organised and make it
pleasant and worker-friendly.

For each unit work location, indicate the boundaries, the main pieces of equipment, sources,
measurement points, etc.
For each unit work location, indicate the boundaries, the main pieces of equipment, sources,
measurement points, etc.