An Integrated Approach to TPM and Six Sigma Development Programs
Abstract
A
fundamental component of world-class manufacturing is that of the total
productive maintenance (TPM), which has been recognized as one of the
significant operation strategy to regain the production losses due to equipment
inefficiency.
TPM is the methodology that aims to increase both availability of the existing
equipment hence reducing the need for the further capital investment. The aim
of the paper is to study the implementation of the integreted
approach to TPM and Six Sigma program in an Indonesian industrial
manufacturing industry. Through a case study of implementing TPM in an
manufacturing industry, the practical aspects within and beyond basic TPM
theory, difficulties in the adoption of TPM and Problems encountered during
implementation are discuss.
Using a See through, JH-Check sheet, PM-Check sheet, One Point Lessons,
empirical and comprehensive approach toward the methodology results proper
implementation of TPM. After implementation of TPM on model machine, both
direct and indirect benefits are shown to be obtained for equipment and
employees respectively.
1. Introduction
A
typical manufacturing plant has hundred, even thousand of equipment components
that can create problems in a myriad of ways. Plant managers and production
managers oftentimes don’t understand the reasons behind these chronic problems
and thus miss one of the biggest strategic opportunities available to make improvements
in capacity, throughput and profits. Chronic problems are far too common in most manufacturing
plants, down-time, rejects, waste, production delays are rampant in most
plants. Effective capacity is lost (Increasing capital investment), costs are
increased (at a loss of competitiveness) and profits are reduced (at a loss of
business viability).
Organizations
look for ways to improve their production and management processes in order to
remain competitive in the market. This calls for ways to reduce production
cost, enhance productivity and improve product quality. Therefore,
organizations must utilize all the available resources efficiently and
effectively in order to cater their customers with high quality products at a
low price.
To respond to this major issue in
manufacturing systems, Japanese companies have implemented and developed the
concept of total productive maintenance (TPM). It creates a cooperative
relationship between all organizational activities towards continuous
improvement. Similarly, manufacturing efficiency is controlled by the extent of
its ability to follow procedures and implement them [1-2]. Initially, TPM links
the lean attitude to reduce the waste and increasing productivity of machine
and equipments [3]. Therefore, the employment of complementary approach can
help organizations to minimize breakdowns. On the other hand, Six-Sigma similar
to TPM improves productivity and effectiveness [4]. These two approaches
formalize the basic activities in organizations to achieve performance
benefits.
Every strategy has potential advantages
and each one can generate substantial performance improvement. Indeed, the
different strategies overlap each other because they have some weaknesses and
strengths. An integrated model usually starts from a baseline and develops from
there onwards. This paper provides a detailed explanation about lean
maintenance based on TPM and Six Sigma conceptual integrated model. In the
proposed model, critical success factors are the baseline.
TPM emphasizes on sharing
responsibilities among employees and overall equipment effectiveness, while,
Six-Sigma is an approach to reach continuous improvement. TPM and Six Sigma are
the push for quality in processes, customer requirements and teamwork
activities. They find opportunities and complement the maintainable continuous
improvement.
2.
A
Review of TPM and Six-Sigma
2.1.Objectives of TPM
The purpose of TPM is to generate a
strong relationship between maintenance employees and other employees in
organizations in order to keep machines and equipments running and also to
optimize the organizational overall performance [5]. TPM is a people oriented
strategy that concentrates on improving equipment effectiveness and removing
breakdowns [6]. Moreover, TPM can eliminate the wastes that create through the
six major losses in companies. Failures embrace the losses such as breakdown,
set up, stoppage, decreased speed, defects and reworks and start up.
2.2.Objective of Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a managerial approach to
improve the processes of products and services in order to increase continuous
improvement and decrease defects in organizations [7]. The aim of improvement
process is to remove the origin reasons of performance defects in processes
that previously are present in the organizations [8].
2.1.Critical Success Factors in TPM and Six
Sigma
The role of top management is one of
the most important factors in TPM implementation. Management commitment and
support are necessary for fundamental improvement in organizations [9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, and 15].
Both the Six Sigma and TPM program and
any initiative cannot endure to succeed without commitment and support of top
management. In fact, every program in organizations such as designing,
programming, team forming, responsibility contributing, training should support
by senior executives. Employee involvement as another key factor makes people
to feel an important section of the plan. Moreover, total number of people need
to train for achieving the main target of executive approach. On the other
hand, a good organizational structure and manufacturing strategy are two
management tools that track increasing results of completed programs. Teamwork
plan is next key factor that leads organizations to propagate information
feedback for gaining best results. More important, during the overall employee
contribution, it is significant any employee adopts the philosophy of methods
and be responsible for conducting the defined activities.
TPM and Six Sigma focus on common
identification and elimination inefficient procedure and performance cycle time
and quality defects in manufacturing and processes. TPM is conducted by all
people through team-working activities. All trained employees acquire the skill
and knowledge relevant the maintenance program within the small group
functions. In this paper, the authors seek to clarify the relationship of TPM
and Six Sigma that are simultaneously implemented within manufacturing systems.
Figure 1 shows the aspects of
integrated model to obtain continuous improvement in manufacturing
environments. Whereas, Six Sigma and TPM are two strong philosophies that
influence on overall organizational practices, this research considers the
common critical success factors of two approaches so that achieving
productivity, employee, process and products development and also continuous
improvement.
 |
|
Figure 1: Integrated Maintenance Model
through TPM and Six Sigma
Implementation
|
Figure 1 has shown TPM and Six Sigma
inside a single conceptual model. The identified common critical factors
include management commitment, employee involvement, education and training,
organization structure, manufacturing strategy, responsibility and teamwork. It
is structured in five phases in order to reach continuous improvement. In the
lean steps of model, the structure of maintenance investigates and evaluates in
order to design main contributing factors. In define phase, significance of
equipment and machine situation are recognized. Based on risk failures, the
problem, its scope and process capacity are defined. It is clear that all
critical factors in Figure 1 impact directly on definition and recognition of
real problem in maintenance system towards higher quality. In measure phase,
gathering data is conducted to analyze for next step. Here, it is also
highlighted the role of each identified critical factors to achieve the real
data and information regarding optimization of maintenance system. Besides, to
create improvement in organizations, it is necessary to report all occurrences
and events for obtaining the meaningful improvement.
Therefore, investigating the changes in
performance, demonstrating the solution effectiveness and evaluating the results
can help to improve the process outcomes. Finally, if the organizational
process is improved, it is significant that the generated improvement is
maintained. Meanwhile, control phase shifts on performance to remove all
practices that create defects in manufacturing systems. However, the stages of
Six Sigma (DMAIC) approach, with TPM, are effective for solving the diverse
issues in organizations.
2.1.Overview of line production process
Typical
fluorescent lamps consist of a long glass tube that seals the inner components
from atmosphere. These inner components include two electrodes that emit a flow
of electrons; mercury vapor, which is the source of ultraviolet radiation;
argon gas, which helps in starting the lamp, and of course fluorescent power
coating on the inner surface of the tube.
 |
| Figure 2: Illustration of light production in general fluorescent lamp [19]. |
