The operators in the Steel Service Center (SSC) are going to adopt the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) working method. This is part of the Lean Six Sigma method. This approach helps and guides employees to do their work better and with more commitment and efficiency. “In brief, a TPM is about anchoring our knowledge productivity and maintaining the plant. To create engagement and ownership, the first line maintenance is performed by the machine operators and planned preventative maintenance is performed by the Technical Service engineers. A clear separation of tasks”, says production leader SSC Riny van de Donk.
Of course we are going to train people for this, explains Riny. He followed a so-called Black Belt training within the scope of lean. He can now share his knowledge with the operators. “It is essential that you involve people in the processes as much as possible. They want to be involved too. It makes the work more challenging and rewarding. Autonomous teams offer this possibility. It means that you have to delegate responsibilities and place trust in people. You don’t build a factory, you build people who build a factory for you. I think this is a great approach.”
In the current situation the road map is being implemented. “This details exactly how and when planned and first line maintenance is scheduled to take place, so when the machines will be out-of-action. Safety is a priority, so the machines are switched off according to the LOTO principle (Log Out Tag Out), so that maintenance can take place safely. Unplanned outage was more common in the past. Major maintenance could be compared to a 10,000 km service for your car. Everyone within the organisation knows about this and will need to take this into account. In addition the first-line maintenance is now a task performed by the operators themselves. This involves minor matters like lubrication and inspection of the machine and other components. This preventative maintenance is very important too as it prevents unpleasant surprises from occurring. Allowing us to improve our guarantee of delivery reliability, and we receive fewer complaints. This in turn has a positive effect on our costs. TPM is about a lot more than has been described here. Employees who are interested, are welcome to attend a presentation about TPM. We will be starting with the TPM topics for the decoiler 3 very soon. The operators will be trained for this.”
Riny has noticed that the lean approach is increasing in popularity at MCB. “The planning and production orders are also being digitalised, allowing the operators to report back on the orders in SAP. This means that they are involved in the process from A to Z and, as previously mentioned, this makes the work a lot more rewarding. The people themselves are making more and more suggestions for improvements too. Serious thought is going into how we can increase our safety and quality in the SSC. But how we deal with complaints too. If you discuss these together, without pointing the finger, you can learn from it. The intention of lean is to allow people to blossom and grow through involving them in the improvement of their own work processes. The saying ‘The glass is half full or half empty’ is outdated. The glass has to be filled to measure, human made to measure is the future.”
