You got an order. Need raw materials for that, which you got in your workshop. Your operator is also waiting there to complete your next order. But what about your machine?
If you take a laser cutting, metal bending, welding or a metal rolling project and see that your machine has the same fault indicator that it had the last week how’d you feel?
Irritated, right?
And over the top, if you see your maintenance team is equipped with other malfunction rather than the one at hand, you’re are more likely to be pissed off.
So, what can you do?
You can complete the order tomorrow, in which case you must keep a day or two in your hand before the due date. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay your employees with overtime bills.
But these are not an effective approach to your problem. You need a more permanent and productive approach. I’m talking about Total Productive Maintenance or TPM.
Identify why the machine broke in the first place. Is the fault indicator turn on often? Were the supervisor informed about the fault? If he was informed by the machine operator, why wasn’t it fixed?
If your metal fabrication shop is solely focused on the breakdown maintenance then it’s time you considered TPM.
What is TPM?
Total Productive Maintenance or TPM is just a holistic approach that ensures that the equipment is ready for use as it was meant to, whenever or wherever it is needed. It has multiple components.
Components of TPM
- Autonomous maintenance or AM for which the operators perform regular maintenance i.e. within their capabilities and control.
2. A system including a scheduled detailing tasks for annual, semiannual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily preventive maintenance or PM.
3. Measurement systems which indicate to the state of TPM and tools readiness. It can range from the simple measurement like “operator PM compliance” up to more sophisticated measures like “mean time between the failures”.
4. The process for analyzing all pieces of equipment and also how critical each of them is to an operation, then managing & investing on the spare parts.
5. Performing the audits that ensure Total Production Maintenance or TPM occurs & that there’s accountability for tools readiness results.
TPM Blitz
After the approach to improvement of Kaizen event, TPM Blitz is modeled, except the main focus is on your machine. The cross-functional team (managers, engineers, operators, maintenance technicians for example) meets for the specific time period. The maintenance technicians conduct the “pre-blitz” that assesses what particular work needs to be completed and which supplies and parts need to be ordered for when the blitz starts.
Keep things ready
TPM is the proven approach that brings your equipment up-to the targeted condition required for your stainless steel fabrication, aluminium fabrication, or steel fabrication processes. And to be honest, we just started to scratch the surface. There is a lot more to come.
TPM is undoubtedly a better approach to a long-term, efficient solution to your constant machine breakdowns. So, to make the approach more productive, we need to spend more time on the concept.
