Implementing Total Productive Maintenance at B.A.T. Niemeyer
Menno Burkunk
Master Thesis
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
Technology Management
Author: Menno Burkunk
Student Number: 1271059
Company: British American Tobacco Niemeyer
First Supervisor: Drs. J. Veldman
Second Supervisor: Dr. Ir. W. Klingenberg
Company Supervisor: Willy Smink (Quality Manager)
Date: September 2009
The author is responsible for the content of this report; the copyright of the report is vested in the ownership of the author.
Preface
This research report that is written for British American Tobacco Niemeyer in Groningen and forms the final Master Thesis of my study Technology Management at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. BAT Niemeyer is a producer of shag and the company is exporting shag to more than 120 countries all over the world. Samson, Lucky Strike, Javaanse Jongens and Pall Mall form their driving brands. The research was interesting, challenging, sometimes complex but above all very instructive. Moreover, the research let me experience the pleasant and open business culture of BAT Niemeyer in which I quickly felt at home.
From BAT Niemeyer I would like to thank Willy Smink (Quality & Product Assurance Manager) and Hugo Timmerman (Business Services Manager) for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research. They supplied me with all the necessary resources I needed to do my research. In my own office with the great view I already felt like a manager. Willy, in spite of his tight schedule, always found time, energy and patience to give me useful feedback and have long and fruitful discussions with me. When I was inclined to take the wrong direction on the road of my research he sent me the right way. Furthermore, I would like to thank my colleagues at the Business Services Department for being a very nice company during my stay. They were always very interested and provided me with the necessary information and pleasant distraction. From the manufacturing site I would like to thank all the employees who were willing to cooperate and provide me with the needed information. Without their help this research could not succeed. Finally, I would like to thank all other colleagues at BAT Niemeyer I did not mention or forgot to mention.
From the university I would like to thank Jasper Veldman and Warse Klingenberg for being my mentors during this research. Jasper, who guided and supported me during the whole research, always provided me with clear, accurate and quick feedback and learned me how to do academic research and to stay critical. He helped me to stay focused and work in a structured manner. Thanks for that!
Finally, I want to thank my friends and family. In particular my sister, Jurriaan and off course my girlfriend for their support and trust in me. A special last thanks goes to my parents, who unconditionally support and coach me.
By finalizing my thesis a fantastic time as a student in Groningen has ended.
Menno Burkunk
Groningen, September 2009
Implementing Total Productive Maintenance at BAT Niemeyer 3
Executive Summary
In spite of the initiation of a TPM program at BAT Niemeyer the results are not as expected. The equipment-efficiency measured by BAT Niemeyer hardly increased since the start of the program. Now, the reorganization, “Horizon”, has been carried out the focus will be on the TPM implementation again.
In order to focus the research on the biggest shortcomings of BAT Niemeyer within TPM an assessment is done in a preliminary investigation. The TPM principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ were indicated with the lowest scores.
The objective of the main investigation is to expose the causes of the low scores on these principles and subsequently formulate recommendations in order to achieve an structural improved implementation of these principles. The improvement will result in an increase in the Overall Equipment Efficiency.
The creation of employee commitment turned out to be essential within ‘cultural awareness’. By creating commitment, the behavior of employees will change in such a manner that it will align with the rules of TPM. Intangible factors such as involvement, ownership, and understanding are the key issues in obtaining commitment. Hansson and Backlund (2003) identified ‘enabling activities’ that influence intangible factors and affect commitment. A survey, based on the model, was carried out under 38 shop floor workers in order to determine the current level of TPM commitment and the current performance of the ‘enabling activities’. The current level of TPM commitment at BAT Niemeyer is insufficient (2,8 on 1-5 scale). The enabling activities turned out to be underperformed (means between 2,4 and 3,6 on 1-5 scale) by middle- and top management. Measuring & Evaluation, Communication & Information and Empowerment activities were statistically proven to be of significant influence on employee commitment by a Multiple Regression Analysis.
In order to create employee commitment the results and the progression of the TPM implementation have to be measured and evaluated more strictly on team level. Clear and quantifiable goals, e.g. in terms of an OEE increase, have to be set and evaluated in formal meetings with middle management. In this way a sense of importance will be created on shop floor level and progression will be experienced. Furthermore, misunderstandings about the goals and guidelines of TPM at BAT Niemeyer have to be taken away by clear and open communication. As a result of the relatively low level of education some shop floor workers do not see the benefits and the exact meaning of the concept which influences motivation negatively. Clear information about desirable behavior in their daily tasks is necessary. Finally, the team responsibility has to be extended, besides production goals,
Implementing Total Productive Maintenance at BAT Niemeyer 4
to improvement goals. By setting their own goals for improvement responsibility will increase. Bad behavior must not be tolerated by management and achieved goals have to be rewarded.
Causes of a low integration of ‘elimination of losses’ principle were searched in shortcomings in the performance of the defined steps in the elimination of losses process. First, the use of model machine can be very useful for BAT Niemeyer. Resources for improvement can be focused on one machine instead of using a ‘big bang’ strategy. Quick and visible benefits will increase the motivation and trust in TPM. The machine can form the guideline for the replication of improvements over the factory to the other, mainly similar, machines. Furthermore, the measurement of the OEE needs to be improved. It is inaccurate and labor intensive. The employees do not trust the OEE output and are unmotivated to work with it. The current OEE measurement cannot form the basis for actions of improvement. A cross-functional so called Focused-Improvement team (FI-team) has to be formed which will drive improvements in the factory. It is in charge of leading the improvement plans and is responsible for establishing lines of action, priorities and tracking activities related to the TPM master plan. The production-, quality- or TPM manager coordinates or leads the group. The FI-team aims at maximal engagement of all area employees and links the knowledge existing within the different teams. Finally, working processes have to be defined in Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Structural losses have a frequent existence and their causes are locked in the organization’s structure which is made up out of standards. By defining work processes in SOP’s a certain situation can be fixed. Which means that a certain level of equipment-efficiency can be fixed. Then, by using creativity and innovation ability these standards can be improved and embedded in the organization by defining a new standard. In this way frequently executed activities like e.g. a tobacco set-up can be optimized and losses of expensive production time will be minimized. A central database with SOP’s has to be created and kept up-to-date.
Besides, these improvements it is essential to take down the workload and take care of covering manpower. Due to the recent reorganization the pressure of workload is relatively high and now and then manpower is insufficient. By taking down the workload pressure the focus can be placed more on TPM again.
Finally, further investigation within group development can be interesting for the optimization of the team performance.
Implementing Total Productive Maintenance at BAT Niemeyer 5
Table of Contents
Preface ...... 3
Executive Summary ...... 4
Table of Contents ...... 6
Abbreviations ...... 9
1 Introduction ...... 10
1.1 The history of British American Tobacco Niemeyer B.V...... 10
1.2 BAT Niemeyer’s mission and characteristics ...... 12
1.3 Production process ...... 13
1.3.1 The primary manufacturing process (preparation) ...... 13
1.3.2 The secondary manufacturing process (packing) ...... 14
1.4 Production organization ...... 14
1.5 Improvement of production process ...... 15
1.5.1 Approach ...... 15
1.5.2 Results ...... 16
2 Problem analysis and research plan ...... 16
2.1 Problem analysis...... 17
2.2 Research plan ...... 17
2.3 Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) ...... 18
2.3.1 Characteristics and objectives ...... 19
2.3.2 Conditions for application ...... 20
2.3.3 Principles of TPM ...... 20
3 Preliminary investigation ...... 24
3.1 TPM Assessment ...... 25
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3.1.1 Description of the TPM assessment tool ...... 25
3.1.2 Respondents ...... 25
3.2 Results ...... 25
3.3 Conclusions ...... 27
4 Main investigation ...... 28
4.1 Objectives ...... 28
4.2 Research questions ...... 28
4.3 Sub-questions ...... 29
4.4 Method of main investigation ...... 29
4.5 Research boundary ...... 30
5 Theoretical framework ...... 31
5.1 Cultural awareness ...... 31
5.2 Elimination of losses ...... 34
6 Diagnosis within the ‘Cultural Awareness’ principle ...... 40
6.1 Method of the survey ...... 40
6.2 Analysis of the data ...... 42
6.3 Survey results ...... 45
6.3.1 Mean scores of the questionnaire items ...... 45
6.3.2 Descriptive statistics & Cronbach’s Alpha ...... 45
6.3.3 Summary of the questionnaire results ...... 49
6.4 Multiple Regression analysis ...... 51
6.5 Conclusions ...... 56
7 Diagnosis within the ‘Elimination of Losses’ principle ...... 57
7.1 Selection of a model machine ...... 57
7.2 OEE measurement & target setting ...... 58
7.3 Determination of the causes of losses & creating improvements ...... 60
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7.4 Embedding of improvements in standards ...... 62
7.5 Conclusions ...... 63
8 Recommendations ...... 64
8.1 Improvement of the ‘cultural awareness’ ...... 64
8.1.1 Measuring & Evaluation ...... 64
8.1.2 Communication & Information...... 66
8.1.3 Empowerment ...... 67
8.2 Improvement of the ‘elimination of losses’ process ...... 67
8.2.1 Selection of a model machine ...... 67
8.2.2 OEE measurement & target setting ...... 68
8.2.3 Determination of the causes of losses & creating improvements...... 69
8.2.4 Embedding of improvements in standards ...... 69
9 Conclusions & Recommendations ...... 70
References ...... 71
Appendices ...... 74
Appendix 1: TPM Assessment tool ...... 74
Appendix 2: ‘Cultural Awareness’ Questionnaire ...... 79
Appendix 3: Questionnaire Results ...... 82
Appendix 4: Production forms ...... 86
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Abbreviations
AGP Finished products department
BAT / B.A.T. British American Tobacco
CBM Condition-based Maintenance
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
FI-team Focused Improvement-team
FTS Factory Technical Support
MUBA Mean Units Between Assistance
OEE Overall Equipment Efficiency
OTS Operational Technical Support
PT Production Technician
PMD Primary Manufacturing Department
SMD Secondary Manufacturing Department
SOP Standard Operating Procedures
TPM Total Productive Maintenance
TQM Total Quality Management
Implementing Total Productive Maintenance at BAT Niemeyer 9
1 Introduction
1.1 The history of British American Tobacco Niemeyer B.V. The founder of the company is Meindert Niemeyer. He was born in 1793 and was educated in business. In 1819 he started a shop/workshop where colonial products were sold and tobacco was made. The business went well. In 1848 his son Theodorus Niemeyer started to take care over the business.
Soon it became clear that Theodorus was a capable business man. A few years later he started a tobacco factory and used very innovative machines. In the factory he produced his own brand “Het Wapen van Rotterdam” and after a while he started to produce brands for other distributors as well.
In 1874 Theodorus Niemeyer bought tobacco factory “De Bijenkorf” and in 1887 the brand “De Tabakshandel” was added. Niemeyer produced these brands till 1920. During the 19th century the company was still selling other non-tobacco products, like Java koffiebonen (coffee beans), Zeeuwse Chocolade (chocolate), tea and liquor.
In 1880 Theodorus’ son Willem became co owner of the company. Again the tobacco business went very well and in 1890 they stopped producing coffee and tea. From that time on they focused totally on producing and selling tobacco. In 1893 Theodorus retired. His two sons, Willem and Albert Willem, went on with the business.
In the upcoming years the first steps for export were already made. In 1897 a warehouse was bought, especially for mechanized wrapping of tobacco for export.
In 1904 opened a new factory at the Paterswoldseweg, next to the train station at the southwest side of Groningen. In that time the factory was located outside the cultivated bowl, but due to the growth of the city the factory nowadays lies completely within the city. In the meanwhile the company kept growing. Lots of small companies like “De Schaapschoe”, “Onnes” and “Pfeiffer” were bought. During the 19th century “Het Wapen van Rotterdam” was the best sold brand of Niemeyer. In the beginning of the 20th century “Rood Krul Wapen” became the best sold brand. In that time “Samson” was already one of the export brands. In the time between the two World Wars “Roode Ster” was the most sold tobacco brand.
In 1909 the company bought a cigarette machine in Paris and the production of cigarettes started. Most of them were exported. In the beginning the cigarette business was booming with a peak of 250 million sold cigarettes in the year 1919. In the following years the cigarette turnover decreased because of the competition of other international cigarette brands.
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After the crisis in 1929 (crash of Wall Street) the management of Niemeyer decided to stop the production of cigarettes. However, the selling of shag and pipe tobacco kept rising. The market for these products of Niemeyer was getting bigger. In the beginning of the 20th century the market was restricted to the northern region of the Netherlands. After the 1st World War the company became one of the largest tobacco producers in the country and also the export was strongly rising.
Logically, the 2nd World War resulted in a major setback in business activities. A shortage of raw materials arose, the factory got damaged and a lot of employees were taken to work for the Germans. One of the directors, Willem August Theodorus Niemeyer, was deported and died in 1945 in a German concentration camp.
After the 2nd World War the business activities were slowly starting up again. The production machines had become obsolete, there wasn’t sufficient foreign currency to buy raw materials and lots of other products were still very scarce. Due to the Marshall help the Dutch situation in general became better and Niemeyer recaptured its position in the market. In these years a lot of people started smoking cigarettes instead of other tobacco products. Niemeyer restarted the cigarette production in 1950 with “Roxy” as their main brand. In the sixties “Sterling” and “Samson” were the main shag brands and in the pipe tobacco assortment “Clan, Holland House, Sail and Zephyr” were the best selling products.
Nowadays the driving shag brands are Samson, Lucky Strike, Javaanse Jongens and Pall Mall. The company is exporting shag to more than 120 countries all over the world.
In the period after the war the company was continuously extended. The international relations with other companies also increased. In countries like Canada, France and Germany selling departments were established.
In 1969, when the company has its 150th anniversary, Theodorus Niemeyer B.V. becomes the predicate “Koninklijke” (royal).
In 1974, Koninklijke Theodorus Niemeyer B.V. becomes part of the English Gallaher Ltd.
In 1990, Koninklijke Theodorus Niemeyer B.V. is sold by Gallaher Ltd. To Rothmans International.
In 1999, Rothmans International becomes part of British American Tobacco (BAT). And so, Koninklijke Theodorus Niemeyer becomes part of British American Tobacco. Within BAT a separate business unit “Smoking Tobacco and Cigars” (STC) exists. Niemeyer becomes an important part of it.
In the year 2004, when BAT clearly started the integration, the name Koninklijke Theodorus Niemeyer is changed in “BAT Niemeyer”. The division’s name is also changed in “Other Tobacco Products” (OTP). So in perspective to BAT globally, BAT Niemeyer is an OTP-factory which is part of the “European Operations” department of BAT.
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The company stops making pipe tobacco and cigars to reduce complexity. From this moment on shag will be the only product that is made at BAT Niemeyer.
British American Tobacco is the second tobacco producer worldwide. The head office is located in London and BAT is operating in over 180 countries. They have a 16.8% worldwide market share with a portfolio of 300 brands. Well known international brands are: Pall Mall, Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Kent, State Express 555, Benson & Hedges, Kool, Viceroy and Winfield. BAT has leadership in more than 50 countries and they employ over 53.000 people. They cooperate with more than 250.000 tobacco farmers. In 2006 the cigarettes sales volume was 689 billion and in 2007 BAT made a £2.905 million profit.
1.2 BAT Niemeyer’s mission and characteristics Mission
According to the Company Plan 2009 the long term mission of BAT Niemeyer is “Maximizing our contribution to BAT”. Worldwide, BAT Niemeyer wants to be the prime OTP-producer for BAT and providing a sustainable base for their workforce.
Characteristics
In 2008 BAT Niemeyer produced 12.6 million kilograms of shag divided over 250 different types of shag products for more then 40 countries all over the world. With about 340 employees (+/-180 directly related to production) BAT Niemeyer is a medium sized production company within the tobacco business.
At the head of the company there is a Managing Director. As shown in the figure below the company is divided into 7 departments and every department has a manager at the head of it. The department managers report to the Managing Director. The department managers and the Managing Director together form the so called Leadership Team (LT) of BAT Niemeyer.
Managing Director
Quality & Business Product Human Finance Supply Chain Manufacturing Product Services Development Resource Assurance
Figure 1: Organization chart BAT Niemeyer
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1.3 Production process The core process of BAT Niemeyer can be divided in two main parts:
1. Primary manufacturing department (PMD): preparation of the tobacco
2. Secondary manufacturing department (SMD): packing of the shag
The figure below is a schematic view of the production process.
Figure 2: Production process (schematic)
1.3.1 The primary manufacturing process (preparation) The tobacco blend, which is related to the different shag brands and types, is a mélange containing several different types of raw tobacco. The selection of these types of tobacco is done by “product development” and “Leaf”. To guarantee a constant “product perception” for the customer a very delicate process is designed. It starts with the selection of tobacco leafs in different countries all over the world and ends with the drying of the tobacco (curen) in a typical manner. In a brand like Samson the mélange contains about 21 different types of tobacco.
The preparation of a batch is selected and transported from the “raw tobacco’ storage. At this stage of the process the tobacco has a 12% humidity and can be compared with dry leafs in autumn. The batches of raw tobacco are being transported by a transportation system to a conditioning machine in which the humidity will rise. For the production of shag it is important that the leafs are not being damaged before they are being cut into long, thin wires. After conditioning the humidity of the leafs is high enough to take the next step of the process. In this stage the tobacco is sauced and transported to a silo. During this journey the tobacco’s humidity is raised again for further processing.
In the silo the different tobacco leafs are mixed to get the aimed mélange. From the silo the leafs are transported to a cutting machine. Before they go into this machine the leafs are stretched and are laid
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in the same direction. By doing this the stalk of the leaf can be cut in small pieces which results in a higher quality of end-product. When the leafs are cut the tobacco is lead through a drying and cooling machine to realize the aimed humidity. In some cases a flavor is added. The flavor machine is the last station.
Then the tobacco is packed into aluminum bins and brought to the tobacco attic, where it will stay for at least 24 hours. The humidity of the tobacco will now be between 19% and 27% (brand dependent). This process of preparation is mainly mechanically automated. Human activity (related to the processed kilos of tobacco) is very low and is mainly concentrated on steering the process.
1.3.2 The secondary manufacturing process (packing) The end-product is a composition of different packing materials, the tobacco itself, and added substances. In the market, on end-user level, there are several packing units; the pouch (laminate or paper-insert), the block pack and the cardboard (can). The diversity of the packing machines equals the diversity of the packing materials.
When a certain batch is scheduled for packing the needed packing materials are already transported from inventory storage to the factory floor. The ingredients of an end-product are formulated in a BOM (bill of materials). The associated blend is thrown directly from the tobacco attic into the packing machine. The packing machine automatically packs, labels (tax banderoles) and weighs the products. Then the units are packed in a transport box by a case packer and transported automatically to the ‘finished product’ department (AGP). Here the boxes are sent to storage or prepared for transport if they are part of a customer order.
1.4 Production organization Last year BAT Niemeyer carried out a reorganization under the name of project “Horizon”. The structure of the production organization transformed from a 5-layer to a 4-layer hierarchical structure. A realignment of tasks and responsibilities was carried out and some functions were replaced by others. The functions of “team leader” and “production leader” were eliminated. The “area managers” are now at the head of the so called “mini-factories” and within the teams there is no hierarchical structure anymore. In the new structure more responsibility is assigned to the shop floor workers. The new organizational structure of the manufacturing department is given in the figure below.
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Figure 3: Organization structure of the manufacturing department after project “Horizon”
All the teams contain a Production Technician (PT), an All-round Operator and operators. The PT serves as technical support in the team and also functions as a production operator. The former engineering and maintenance tasks are now divided over the team PT’s, the Operational Technical Support (OTS) and the Factory Technical Support (FTS). Operators will also carry out simple maintenance tasks. OTS is mainly occupied with process improvement, control techniques and training & education for the team members. FTS is responsible for projects and maintenance support.
1.5 Improvement of production process
1.5.1 Approach Several years ago BAT Niemeyer decided to define their strategy in becoming a “World Class” organization. Most of the initiated long term projects align with this strategy and contribute in becoming an organization with this status. The company will strive to products which are always available for the customer at the right place; the right time; with the required quality and for a good price.
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Because of decreasing sale volumes and increasing pressure on margins BAT Niemeyer was obliged to produce more effective and efficient. They are operating in a market with high price elasticity. Setting higher prices for the end customer will result in a relative high loss in sale volumes or losses in market share. Because of this BAT Niemeyer’s focus is on reducing costs to enlarge their profit margin on the products. The production process at BAT Niemeyer can be counted to the semi-process industry. High investments in expensive production machines are typical for organizations in this industry. These production machines play an essential role in the process and a maximum utilization of the machine park is desired.
Several years ago Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is chosen by BAT Niemeyer as one of the means to achieve this. TPM is a team based maintenance strategy which is developed to maximize the equipment-efficiency of the production machines. By realizing a better occupation of the machines one can produce a higher volume in the same time span. The cost price will decrease and with equal selling prices the profit margins will rise. Another with coming advantage is a shorter cycle time. Because of this shorter cycle time one can produce more flexible and will be able to deliver the products faster.
1.5.2 Results In spite of the initiation of a TPM program the results are not as expected. The equipment-efficiency measured by BAT Niemeyer hardly increased since the start of the program. According to the data from the organization several machines in the production process (e.g. mini-factory 1) are having an equipment-efficiency around 50%. Ahlmann’s (1993) investigation showed a mean equipment- efficiency around 60% in organizations in the Swedish industries. According to Nakajima (1989), the founder of TPM, it is not unusual that identical companies implementing TPM reach an equipment- efficiency of 90%. Moreover, cases were results stay away are not a rare phenomenon. According to Shaffer & Thomson (1992) the majority of the investigated organizations which implemented (at least tried to) TPM gained no or little results.
The management of BAT Niemeyer wants to reach a higher equipment-efficiency of the production machines (and so an increased productivity) by means of an improved implementation of TPM within the organization. Shortcomings in the implementation of TPM will have a negative impact on the results. In concrete terms these are losses in the equipment-efficiency of the production machines (Chan et al., 2005; Sharma et al., 2006).
2 Problem analysis and research plan
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2.1 Problem analysis According to the management of BAT Niemeyer TPM is not implemented properly in the current situation, resulting in a relatively low equipment-effectiveness in different parts of the production process. For the management it is difficult to assign a concrete cause to the failure, but it is clear for them that, especially on team level, TPM is insufficiently embedded in the organization. In the new organization structure (see chapter 1.3.3) the teams are responsible for controlling and carrying out the process. The efficiency of the process should be consolidated and improved.
The management is wondering why the initiated TPM program at BAT Niemeyer still does not result in an increase in the equipment-efficiency. But probably even more important: which actions have to be taken by BAT Niemeyer to obtain the desired results? This investigation is aimed at finding the answer to this question.
2.2 Research plan In the current situation a discrepancy is expected to exist between the integration of TPM at BAT Niemeyer and how it should be integrated in the desired situation according to the TPM theory. This discrepancy has a negative influence on the equipment-efficiency and therefore it should be minimized. To achieve this several steps have to be taken. First, the shortcomings of BAT Niemeyer in functioning according to the prescriptions of TPM have to be determined. Then, the exact causes of these shortcomings have to be identified. When the causes of the shortcomings in TPM at BAT Niemeyer are determined, recommendations can be formulated to improve the situation.
Considering the time span of the investigation it will not be possible to investigate all the shortcomings within TPM at BAT Niemeyer in detail. Because of this reason a preliminary investigation will be carried out to expose the most severe shortcomings of BAT Niemeyer within TPM. These aspects of TPM are less developed at BAT Niemeyer and have the highest potential for improvement. The preliminary investigation will find an answer to the following research question:
How does BAT Niemeyer score on the principles of TPM?
The preceding is visualized in the figure below.
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Figure 4: The preliminary investigation; determination of the discrepancy in the 7 principles of TPM
Figure 4 shows that the shortcomings of BAT Niemeyer in the current situation will be tested based on different ‘principles of TPM’. An assessment will be conducted in order to determine the degree in which BAT Niemeyer works according to the prescriptions of TPM. The assessment tool is developed within the University of Groningen (RUG). The assessment tool has two goals: first of all, it gives the user insight to what degree the activities on the shop floor align with TPM and to what extent TPM has penetrated the site. Secondly, it gives the user insight where TPM is not integrated, or insufficient, and where action has to be taken to improve the situation.
2.3 Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) In this paragraph basic information about the TPM concept will be given. The characteristics, objectives and conditions for application of TPM will discussed. Then, a description of the 7 TPM principles will be given.
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2.3.1 Characteristics and objectives TPM originated in 1971 in Japan. It is based on the American concept of ‘preventive maintenance’, which is developed in the 60’s. From that moment on maintenance was not seen as an expense anymore, but as a way to generate more profit. The Japanese ‘Nippon Denso’ was the one who adopted the concept of the Americans and added the ‘T’ from ‘Total’ to it. According to the founder of TPM, Nakajima, the definition of ‘Total’ in TPM can be formulated in three different ways:
1. Total efficiency of all the equipment in the organization;
2. total maintenance system for all the installations during their life cycle;
3. total cooperation of all the employees in the organization.
TPM strives to an increase of the productivity by improving the performance of the production equipment. Productivity is the relation between effort and revenues, between input and output. Input can be defined as labor, as capital, as raw materials, it concerns the total input. The output is formed by finished products. As a result of TPM both labor productivity and the return on investments will be influenced positively.
The TPM concept consists out of the following five elements (Nakajima, 1988):
1. TPM strives to maximization of the equipment-efficiency;
2. TPM establishes a thorough preventive maintenance system during the whole lifecycle of the equipment;
3. TPM is integrated within several departments in the organization;
4. TPM involves all the employees, from top management to the shop floor workers;
5. TPM is an aggressive strategy which is focused on the improvement of the function and design of the production equipment.
According to Aalders (1996) TPM is focused on all the activities related to the equipment which influence the equipment-efficiency. It focuses also on the activities that take place outside the ‘available time for production’, like planned maintenance, modifications and constructing new equipment. Because of the strong focus on ‘ownership’, TPM is often associated with strong involvement on the shop floor. Teams will become “owners” of the equipment which implies a true cultural change. The separation between controlling (operator) and repairing (mechanic) is being raised and the teams will together become responsible for the functioning of the machine.
Kumar (2006) describes TPM as a cooperative relation between different functions and it promotes production maintenance by means of motivation management and voluntary small-group activities. It
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demands a horizontal structure in stead of conventional vertical structure which contains to much authorities.
As mentioned earlier, TPM strives to the maximization of the equipment-effectiveness. The most common manner to measure this effectiveness is using the metric called Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). The OEE is calculated according to three parameters of the installation: the Availability (A), the Efficiency (E) and the Quality (Q). (A) is a measure for the time that the installation is available for production, (E) is a measure for the time that the machine actually produces and (Q) is a measure for the amount of good produced products. By multiplying the parameters the OEE is calculated;
OEE= A * E * Q (Oechsner et al., 2003).
2.3.2 Conditions for application In order to make TPM successful, an organization first has to comply with three conditions (Nakajima, 1988):
1. Yaruki: improvement of employee motivation;
2. Yaruude: improvement of employee skills;
3. Yaruba: improvement of employee working environment.
An implementation of TPM without firstly complying with the above conditions is doomed to fail. A dangerous aspect of a TPM failure is the possibility that it will produce a negative association of it among the employees. A negative association with TPM will hamper a successful implementation in the future. To achieve results with TPM the whole organization, form top management to shop floor workers, has to support the philosophy. Especially in the start-up phase it is important to create commitment under the employees, but also further on in the process it will be essential.
2.3.3 Principles of TPM The assessment is based on a categorization of TPM into 7 different principles (Hoondert, 1997). The principles will now be discussed.
Cultural awareness
Cultural awareness under the employees forms a condition for a successful implementation of TPM. TPM requires a narrow cooperation between different departments within the organization. When implementing TPM two aspects are of great importance (Aalders, 1993):
1. during the implementation the behavior of the involved ones has to be changed in such a way that it aligns with the prescriptions of TPM;
2. the involved ones have to get motivated to really deliver the desired performance.
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The desired behavior contains: sticking to agreements, working conform standards, supporting employees, identifying shortcomings and working in formal groups. The objective of TPM claims continuous improvement of all the employees. Everyone in the organization contributes individually to the goals of the organization. It is clearly a matter of major concern that every individual within the organization supports the TPM philosophy to make it successful. To obtain this awareness the management should actively propagate the principles of TPM.
5S
5S is focused on eliminating the losses in a workplace by organizing the workplace in an arranged and clean manner. On the workplace all the needed equipment, materials and tools have a fixed place. There is a place for everything, and everything is in its place. Time spent searching for a part is eliminated. 5S is originated in Japan. The 5S stands for:
Sort (seiri); Set in order (seiton);
Shine / Sweep (seiso); Standardize (seiketsu); Sustain (shitsuku).
The steps have to be executed in the preceding order. The majority of the principles are based on the fact that workplaces are organized according to the 5S principle. For this reason, 5S forms, just like cultural awareness, an important condition to make TPM successful.
Training & Education
Training and Education is also a principle which is of major importance during the first phase of the TPM implementation. Knowledge need to have knowledge about the basic principles of TPM. The training of the employees, and operators in particular, is of importance within TPM because the range of tasks will be extended. By means of training the employees will be enabled to satisfy the specific requirements set by TPM. Without proper training an operator is for example not able to carry out maintenance tasks.
Another important aspect of TPM, which requires education and training, is carrying out the tasks according to standard operating procedures (SOP). By standardizing working processes the human activities related to the equipment can be controlled and with that a certain level of productivity can be consolidated. When consolidation is reached the processes have to be improved to realize an increase in the efficiency of the production machines.
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An additional advantage of training and educating of the operators is the motivating aspect. Because their range of tasks will be extended the operators will become more aware of their own capabilities and qualities.
Elimination of losses
TPM’s main goal is to increase the productivity by means of improvement of the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). Shortcomings in the area of TPM will result in losses in the OEE. The OEE makes a distinction between different types of losses and categorizes them. As mentioned earlier the OEE is calculated by three different variables: availability (A), efficiency (E) and quality (Q) (Nicholas, 1998; Oechsner et al., 2003). By multiplying the three parameter the OEE will be calculated (OEE = A * E * Q). The three parameters are determined by the so called ‘six big losses’ (Nicholas, 1998). In the table below the ‘six big losses’ are related to the three variables.
1. Downtime from sporadic or chronic equipment breakdowns Availability (A) 2. Downtime from equipment setup and adjustments
3. Idling and minor stoppages Efficiency (E) 4. Reduced speed of operation
5. Defect products caused by variability in equipment performance Quality (Q) 6. Reduced yield caused by non-optimal operation
Figure 5: The OEE- parameters categorized into the ‘six big losses’ (Nicholas, 1998).
The first two types of losses influence the Availability. Losses 3 and 4 influence the Efficiency parameter and losses 5 and 6 determine the Quality parameter of the OEE.
By a categorization of the losses an organization is better able to analyze the losses. The causes of the different types of losses can be retrieved by means of several cause-analysis methods. The cause analysis has to be done in a systematic way by small-group activities. When the causes are exposed ideas for improvement have to be generated. Then, the improvement proposals have to be transformed into adjustments in the production equipment or the working processes (SOP). By eliminating the losses according to the preceding procedure the OEE will form the basis for future improvement actions. So, it is essential that the measurement of the OEE is done in a correct manner.
Preventive Maintenance
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The existence of losses can be assigned to many causes. One of the most common causes of losses in the equipment-efficiency is downtime because of equipment breakdowns. Preventive maintenance focuses at preventing breakdowns by carrying out planned maintenance. Planned maintenance aims at preventing a decline in the equipment’s condition by predicting it and eliminating it. Within preventive maintenance, periodic or planned maintenance is more and more taken over by the so called predictive maintenance.
Predictive maintenance, or condition-based maintenance (CBM) attempts to evaluate the condition of equipment by performing periodic or continuous (online) equipment condition monitoring. The ultimate goal of predictive maintenance is to perform maintenance at a scheduled point in time when the maintenance activity is most cost-effective and before the equipment loses optimum performance. This is in contrast to time- and/or operation count-based maintenance, where a piece of equipment gets maintained whether it needs it or not. Time-based maintenance is labor intensive, ineffective in identifying problems that develop between scheduled inspections, and is not cost-effective (Jardine et al., 2006).
The "predictive" component of predictive maintenance stems from the goal of predicting the future trend of the equipment's condition. This approach uses principles of statistical process control to determine at what point in the future maintenance activities will be appropriate. Most inspections are performed while equipment is in service, thereby minimizing the disruption of normal system operations. Adoption of predictive maintenance can result in substantial cost savings and higher system reliability.
Autonomous maintenance
When a certain level of equipment-efficiency is reached by eliminated losses, the next step is to consolidate the OEE at that level. Problems or defects which occur in the process are in most cases firstly detected by the operators controlling the production machines. Considering this fact it would be ideal if the operator also maintains the machine. However, because of the increasing technical complexity of the production equipment it is impossible for the operator to carry out total maintenance. Due to this change, the maintenance and the operation of the machines are divided into two different tasks. TPM takes it for granted that a strict separation of these two disciplines leads to lower involvement of the operator with the equipment resulting in lower awareness for the condition of the machine. Defects and other problems will eventually occur more often which will lead to decrease in the OEE. By increasing the involvement of the operator problems will be detected in an earlier stage. Then, the problems can directly be solved and will prevent the occurrence of more severe problems and defects. The prevention of these bigger problems has a positive influence on the OEE.
To increase the involvement of the operator the range of tasks will be extended. Besides controlling the machine, the operator will also carry out maintenance tasks. This part of relatively simple
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maintenance tasks will be taken from the maintenance employees and is called “autonomous maintenance”. To enable autonomous maintenance for the operators it is necessary that the maintenance department has set standard operating procedures.
Early Equipment Management
The elimination of losses and the consolidation of the reached level of OEE by carrying out preventive and autonomous maintenance, contribute to the objective of TPM. However, it would be even more efficient when the new equipment produces at a high OEE level from the moment of installation. In that case it will not be necessary to eliminate the losses before the consolidation of the OEE can begin. New production equipment can be delivered with a certain level of effectiveness. The discipline of designing and building of equipment containing a high initial OEE is called “early equipment management”. Besides the goal of delivering the equipment with a high efficiency it has another goal: controlling the design- and built process of equipment in such a manner that future aspects are predictable. These aspects are:
quality; life-cycle costs; flexibility of the production process;
costs of production automation; intrinsic safety of the production process
In early equipment management it is essential, just like in autonomous maintenance, that a narrow cooperation between production, maintenance and engineering exists. Requirements of all the three disciplines have to be taken into account to achieve the best results.
3 Preliminary investigation
In this chapter an assessment will be carried out in order to indicate the lowest scoring principles of TPM at BAT Niemeyer. The two principles assessed with the lowest score will form the focus for the main investigation.
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3.1 TPM Assessment
3.1.1 Description of the TPM assessment tool The assessment tool consists of several statements related to TPM (see appendix 1). Each of the 7 TPM-principles is represented by around 9 statements, which have to be assessed by the participant with a score from zero to four (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4). A statement assessed with (4) means that the participant totally agrees with the statement. A score of (0) implicates that the participant totally disagrees.
3.1.2 Respondents To eliminate subjectivity the assessment has to be carried out with as many respondents as possible. However, the respondents are required to have broad knowledge about the organization and must be narrowly involved with the production process and the TPM implementation. The production- and the quality manager were the only employees at BAT Niemeyer which fulfilled these requirements. To make the outcome more objective I personally, as researcher, participated in the assessment as well. I was able to participate in the assessment based on the knowledge that I obtained by observations, conversations and documents analysis during the first months of my investigation.
3.2 Results In the first radar graph (figure 6) the mean scores are shown for each participant individually. The second radar graph (figure 7) shows the mean score of the three participants per principle. The scores are given on a 0-10 scale (sum of given scores per principle / total possible score per principle X 10). The original results per individual can be found in appendix 1.
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Figure 6: TPM Assessment: Mean scores per respondent
If we look at figure 6 it can be stated that the mean scores per principle are not widely spread. The quality manager is in general slightly more positive about the situation, but the form of the graph is almost similar to the others.
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Figure 7: TPM Assessment mean scores (average of the three respondents)
If we consider the second radar graph (figure 7), with the overall mean scores, it can be noticed that especially the principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ are low valued by the respondents with an overall mean score of 4,8. In the table below the scores are given per principle in ascending order.
Principle Score (0-10)
Cultural Awareness 4,8
Elimination of Losses 4,8
Preventive Maintenance 6,3
5S 6,5
Autonomous Maintenance 7,2
Education & Training 7,5
Early Equipment Management 7,8
Figure 8: Assessment’s mean scores TPM principles at BAT Niemeyer.
The scores given in the table above are the mean scores of the three respondents per principle. The scores reflect the perceptions of three individual respondents and so they are subjective. Nevertheless, we assume that they are useful to give a proper indication of the current status in relation to the TPM principles.
3.3 Conclusions The preliminary investigation is conducted to indicate what the least developed principles of TPM at BAT Niemeyer are and where improvement has the highest priority. This indication has been done by means of the TPM assessment tool of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. The preliminary investigation has to answer the following research question:
How does BAT Niemeyer score on the principles of TPM?
The main investigation will focus on the improvement of BAT Niemeyer within the two principles which are indicated with the lowest scores. The ‘cultural awareness’ and the ‘elimination of losses’ principles were valued with the lowest mean score of 4,8.
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In order to make TPM successful at BAT Niemeyer it is essential to realize ‘cultural awareness’ among the employees. They have to be aware of the prescriptions of TPM and they have to know what is expected in their daily tasks to contribute to the organization’s goals.
The ‘elimination of losses’ is directly focused on increasing the OEE. The maximization of the OEE in fact forms the main objective of TPM.
4 Main investigation
4.1 Objectives The objective of the main investigation is based on the DOV-model (diagnosis, design, change) created by De Leeuw (2000). In the first stage of the investigation, the diagnosis, the causes of the low scores for the two principles at BAT Niemeyer have to be determined. Based on the diagnosis recommendations for elimination of the causes will be formulated. This part of the investigation is called the design. The actual implementation of the recommendations, the change, will be done by BAT Niemeyer and lies beyond the scope of this investigation.
The research goal of the main investigation contains two parts which can be formulated as follows:
1. Making a diagnosis in which the causes for the relative low integration of the TPM principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ at BAT Niemeyer will be exposed;
2. formulating recommendations within the TPM principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’, in order to achieve a structural improved implementation of these principles at BAT Niemeyer.
The recommendations that will be made have to be aimed at achieving a ‘structural’ improvement. In this context ‘structural’ implies embedding the improvements in the organization. This means that the improved implementation of the principles will be maintained for the long-term. The improved implementation will result in an increase of the equipment-efficiency.
4.2 Research questions The research question which will be answered by the main investigation is:
1. Which causes can be assigned to the relative low scores for the TPM principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ at BAT Niemeyer?
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2. How can BAT Niemeyer achieve a structural improved implementation of the TPM principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ resulting in an increased equipment-efficiency of the production machines?
4.3 Sub-questions In order to answer the main research question it will be split into two separate parts. The first part, existing out of sub-questions 1 and 2, concerns the investigation related to the ‘cultural awareness’ principle:
1. Which causes can be assigned to the existing lack of ‘cultural awareness’ at BAT Niemeyer?
2. How can an increased ‘cultural awareness’ be realized and embedded within BAT Niemeyer?
The second part concerns the investigation within the ‘elimination of losses’ principle:
3. Which causes can be assigned to the relatively low score on the ‘elimination of losses’ principle at BAT Niemeyer?
4. How can an improved implementation of the ‘elimination of losses’ principle be realized and embedded within BAT Niemeyer?
4.4 Method of main investigation The data sources that will be used during the main investigation are:
Scientific literature: articles, books; BAT Niemeyer: employees, database documents;
the Internet.
Sub-questions 1 & 2
In order to answer the first two sub-questions a further investigation in the literature will be done related to the ‘cultural awareness’ principle. In the literature means for the realization of ‘awareness’ have to be determined. Based on the theoretical framework and common sense a questionnaire will be constructed. By conducting the survey the actual degree of cultural awareness among the employees, and the related causes, can be determined. Besides the questionnaire, additional semi- structured interviews with employees (area manager, shop floor workers) will be done if necessary. All the activities will take place within mini-factory 1.
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By means of the mentioned data collection activities it will be possible to review the situation at BAT Niemeyer with theory. Then, based on the diagnosis, recommendations for achieving and embedding awareness can be formulated.
Sub-questions 3 & 4
In order to answer sub-questions 3 and 4 the concept of ‘elimination of losses’ further investigation will be done in literature. By conducting literature research the characteristics of the principle will be defined in more detail. Then, by means of semi-structured interviews with the area managers and shop floor workers (operators, production technicians), observations on the shop floor and analysis of existing documents in the database, the situation at BAT Niemeyer will be analyzed. In the database the main part of the documents within BAT Niemeyer are stored, like OEE-reports, operating procedures, Kaizen documents, project documents, performance results, instruction guides, etc.
The collected information will be analyzed and causes for a lacking ‘elimination of losses’ will be determined and recommendations for improvement can be made.
4.5 Research boundary The investigation will be conducted within mini-factory 1. In this part of the factory the shag is divided into portions and packed by means of so called ‘paper-insert’ machines. Mini-factory 1 contains 15 machines which are divided over 6 teams. The teams work 16 hours per day separated in two shifts of 8 hours. As mentioned before the teams are self-regulating (autonomous) and have no hierarchy.
The demarcation of the investigation within mini-factory 1 has several reasons. In the schematic view the production process (chapter 1.3) is divided into two main departments: the Primary (PMD) and the Secondary (SMD). From the KPI-dashboard (database) it becomes clear that the productivity (Kg / man- hour) of the SMD is much lower than the PMD’s productivity. SMD had in January 2009 a mean productivity of 53 kg per man-hour against a mean of 125 kg per man-hour at the PMD. Considering the characteristics of the two production processes a clear explanation for this difference can be found. The process at the PMD is a continuous process, in which large amounts of shag are produced in a relative short amount of time. The process is less labor-intensive and less sensitive for breakdowns and other efficiency losses. On the other hand, the SMD process is a packing process where the machines have to execute complex and accurate operations, like weighing small portions of shag. The paper-insert machines are built of complex, mechanical parts which have to be maintained well. The process in the SMD is less robust than the PMD process.
The focus of the production planning lies at the SMD. It often happens that several teams are behind on planning, because of machine breakdowns. The production at SMD is planned in such a manner that tobacco changes on machines, resulting in time-consuming (45min according to planning) setups, are
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minimized. The PMD is in general far more capable of producing according to the planning. To avoid idleness in the SMD a buffer is placed between PMD and SMD on the so called ‘tobacco attic’.
From the preceding facts it can be concluded that TPM can be of great influence on the production process by increasing the equipment-effectiveness. Especially, at the SMD where a relative low productivity is realized, TPM can be very helpful.
5 Theoretical framework
To determine the causes of the current state of awareness it is first important to define the exact meaning of the term ‘cultural awareness’ and how it can be obtained . In chapter 5.2 the ‘elimination of losses’ principle will be defined.
5.1 Cultural awareness The creation of awareness means that the behavior of the employees will change in such a manner that it will align with the rules of TPM. The involved ones have to be motivated to achieve the necessary performance (Aalders, 1993). So, besides the fact that the employees are aware of the new rules they also have to be motivated to change their behavior and be willing to obey the rules of the new culture. Employee’s ‘awareness’ of the rules is not sufficient. The will and motivation, or commitment, to work according these rules is even more important. Intangible factors such as involvement, ownership, and understanding are the key issues in obtaining commitment, because they affect the characteristics (perceptions, attitudes, expectations, values) of individuals.
A change of culture has to be realized which will motivate and involve the people in the process of TPM in which employee understanding and support is present. Different writers see the creation of commitment as the first step in the implementation of TPM. Several papers on TPM (and TQM) implementation, e.g. Allen & Kilmann (2001) and Bamber et al. (1999) have recognized cultural change to be vital in the implementation process. In particular change related to obtaining employee and management commitment. Kanji & Asher (1993) accentuate the difficulty of creating the right culture during the implementation of TPM: “changing things is much easier than changing people”.
Management commitment is clearly a key factor which must be present before initiating an implementation process. Management is responsible for the availability of resources and the overall implementation approach. So, management commitment is a prerequisite. However management commitment can decrease during the process, for example, due to:
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Unclear understanding of what is being done, and of the objectives and methodologies of the concept (Clark, 1991; Hipkin and Lockett, 1995).
Perceived threats to supervisors and mangers’ roles (Bardoel and Sohal, 1999).
Failure to produce results quickly where management has little patience to await benefits and is looking for short-term returns on investment (Schawn and Khan, 1994; Laszo, 1999).Withdrawal of management support may also occur when benefits cannot be identified or attributed to the concept implemented (Bowler and Leonard, 1994).
Employee commitment is also necessary since employees actually execute the activities during the implementation and after completion. Employees’ willingness to change to a TPM-culture can be affected negatively for various reasons (Hansson et al., 2003):
demoralized staff may resist change due to, for example, fear of losing jobs, status affected or negative experience of earlier problematic change projects;
unwillingness to change due to stressful work conditions or not understanding the process, i.e. personnel are unable to see the benefits of the implementation;
conservatism, or upholding existing practices, stemming from insufficient knowledge of the new working methods.
Uncommitted management and employees are obviously severe obstacles for managing the change. Characteristics of individuals play an important role in obtaining commitment. Perceptions, attitudes, expectations and values could obstruct acceptance of and motivation to work with a TPM implementation (Saad and Siha, 2000; Tsang and Chan, 2000; Schawn and Kahn, 1994).
Hansson and Backlund (2003) identified activities that influence intangible factors (involvement, understanding, ownership) and affect commitment. They identified several categories to be important in managing commitment (see figure 9):
Support and leadership, making employees feel recognized, and visibly showing the significance of the implementation to motivate employees (Allen and Kilmann, 2001). Management should also consider the work environment, i.e. whether employees have the time and resources for improvement efforts; this is fundamental for ensuring that employees willingly comply with the implementation (Cooke, 2000)
Strategic planning, which implies activities which link TPM to the company mission, vision and defined business strategy, and strategic priorities and goals (Bardoel and Sohal, 1999).
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This gives a clear picture of how the improvement will benefit the organization and promote desired achievements such as management and employee understanding.
Planning the implementation, which implies developing a clear scope in order to identify obstacles and driving forces (Hipkin and Lockett, 1995). This facilitates monitoring and follow- up, which promotes desired achievements such as management and employee understanding and involvement. It also implies activities which promote the participation of all concerned parties (e.g. front-line staff, unions, and management), usually by means of small teams, in goal setting, and identifying solutions (Schawn and Khan, 1994). The participation of employees promotes desired achievements such as involvement and ownership.
Buying-in and empowerment, which implies activities such as selling the concept to each group, identifying what each group or level of employees and management want (Allen and Kilmann, 2001; Bamber et al, 1999). Buy-in activities promote desired achievements such as involvement and ownership, and facilitate the identification and control of expectations. Empowerment activities, such as sharing responsibility, promote involvement, job satisfaction, independence and ownership among employees.
Training and education, which implies activities that develop employee competence, skills and knowledge (Bardoel and Sohal, 1999). Training promotes employee belief that the company is investing in them; it also supports understanding and awareness.
Measuring and evaluation, which implies activities such as obtaining measurable and quantified results and objectives, so as to have a clear scope and focus, and continually monitoring and following through the process (Bamber et al, 1999). This reveals progress and results that promote management and employee involvement and understanding. Employees have to see how they can personally benefit from the change, while management must see how it benefits the company. Measuring and evaluation yields feedback on results that promote creation of a motivated management which continuously provides resources and support for the implementation. Such management also motivates and engages employees as they experience progress (Allen and Kilmann, 2001).
Communication and information, which implies open and valuable communication with all the employees within the organization about the aims and goals of the TPM concept. Informing all the employees about the goal of the implementation and making clear what the implementation means for the daily tasks of the employee personally (Tsang and Chan, 2000). Communication and information promote desired achievements such as understanding and involvement.
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Figure 9: Important categories in managing commitment (Hansson et al., 2003)
The management of commitment according to the above standards increases the chance that employees will support the implementation. Employee support and commitment will increase the chance of a successful implementation of TPM.
5.2 Elimination of losses The low score on the ‘elimination of losses’ principle is caused by a lacking elimination of losses process. The main goal of the elimination of losses process is maximization of the equipment- efficiency by eliminating losses. These losses are indicated by measurement of the Overall Equipment Effectiveness. These losses in equipment-efficiency are results of shortcomings in TPM and form a basis for improvement actions. This process of measuring the OEE losses and using it as a basis for future actions forms the core activity of TPM (Aalders, 1993; Ljungberg, 2008). According to Beer et al. (1992) and Shaffer & Thomson (1992) in most cases a lack of focus on results could be seen as the main cause of the TPM failure. Organizations should focus more on results instead of activities. By directly eliminating the losses in the equipment-efficiency of the production machine this focus will be obtained. Moreover, achieving quick results in the early stage of implementation will create recognition and trust under the employees.
The different activities in the process of elimination of losses (Aalders, 1993; Chan et al., 2005) are given in figure 10. In this chapter the different steps will be discussed.
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Elimination of losses
Determine model-machine
OEE measure + target setting
Determine direct/ indirect causes of losses
FI- Create ideas for improvement team
Continuous Improvement
Fix improvements in standards
Extend standards
Figure 10: Process of ‘elimination of losses’ (adapted from Aalders, 1993; Chan et al, 2005)
Model machine
A critical step in the early stage of TPM implementation is the selection of a model machine. By selecting a model machine it possible to focus your sources firstly on one machine, instead of using a ‘big bang’ strategy. The results of the model machine at an early stage would have a crucial psychological/morale effect (Lycke, 2003). It is obvious that TPM implementation requires extra costs for the change of current machine performance and procedure in which all of these are not easy to quantify. As a result, the selected model machine needs to have significant improvement compared to other non-TPM machines after the TPM implementation (Chan et al., 2005). Moreover, the improvements and lessons within TPM can be extended to the remaining machines and are much faster as the model machine is acting as a guideline for the replication. Criteria for model machine selection can be developed as follows:
Bottleneck process among the whole production line;
Unique machine in production;
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Low availability or low Mean Unit Between Assists (MUBA = total number of units produced / number of stoppages).
OEE measure and target setting
In TPM system, all machines need to have a clear and quantifiable target no matter whether it is a model machine or a follower machine. TPM effectiveness measurement is usually made by the OEE measurement, which was already determined as a function of availability, performance efficiency and quality rate. The wastes can be categorized into the so called ‘six big losses’ (Nicholas, 1998):
1. Downtime from sporadic or chronic equipment breakdowns.
2. Downtime from equipment setup and adjustments.
These two losses affect the availability of a machine. The more time the equipment is stopped for setups or repairs, the less time remaining for it to do work.
3. Idling and minor stoppages (machine is running, but parts flowing to it periodically jam or parts flowing from it are momentarily blocked because the next machine is broken down).
4. Reduced speed of operation (equipment is running, but at a reduced speed because it is worn out or needs adjustment).
These two losses in combination affect the equipment efficiency. Equipment that is periodically interrupted by shortages, or that produces at a rate less than its standard capacity takes longer than necessary to do the work. The following losses affect the quality variable of the OEE:
5. Defect products caused by variability in equipment performance.
6. Reduced yield caused by non-optimal operation.
Equipment that is worn-out or near breakdown causes defects and increases process variability.
The calculation of the OEE using the six major losses is shown in the figure below.
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Figure 11: Calculation of the OEE
For TPM implementation for the model machine, a simple method for monitoring the performance of machine like the MUBA can also be used instead of OEE. In most cases the number of stoppages and produced items can automatically be monitored and recorded by the machine. Besides the MUBA, target values that are used are; “number of improvements (Kaizen)”, “number of one-point lessons (OPL)” and the “number of suggestions” made in a certain period.
Nevertheless, performance measures should adhere to some basic criteria if they are to be effective. Tangen (2002) suggests that:
The measures must be derived from strategic objectives to ensure that employees’ behavior is in line with corporate goals.
The measures must provide timely, relevant and accurate feedback, from both a long-term and short-term perspective.
Measurement should be undertaken in ways that easily understood by those whose performance is being evaluated.
Measurement should be accomplished by a limited number of performance measures that consist of both financial and non-financial measures.
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Proper measurement is relevant because TPM has a strong hierarchical structure of target setting which leads from top management to shop floor. The organization’s main goals, set by the management, form a direct input for the target settings on the shop floor and are not distracted from sub-goals. An example of a main goal is a 5% raise of the equipment-effectiveness on a yearly basis. All the activities on the shop floor are then focused on achieving this goal and every employee contributes his or her part. Ideas for improvement are examined based on their contribution to the main goals of the organization.
Determination of the causes of losses
Within TPM goals are often determined in terms of an OEE increase. So, existing losses in the OEE have to be eliminated. The causes of losses can be analyzed by several different methods. Initially, using the pareto-analysis (20% of the causes are responsible for 80% of the losses) a selection of the most harmful losses must be made. These losses will form the focus of further investigation. It is important to know if these losses have an incidental or structural character. Incidental losses have a small chance on a repeated existence and the cause is not locked in the structure of the organization (human, machine, material and method). Structural losses have a frequent existence and their causes are locked in the organization’s structure (Aalders, 1993). Human, machines, material and method together form the structure which is built out of standard operating procedures (SOP). Structural losses result from following these standards. To determine if a loss is structural or incidental the cause has to be found. For finding the primary cause of a loss several methods for cause analysis exist. Examples of cause analysis methods are (Aalders, 1993):
Fishbone analysis (Ishikawa-diagram); Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA); Failure tree analysis;
Pareto analysis; Organizational investigation; Brainstorming;
Physical modeling analysis; Why, why, because, logical analysis.
Focused Improvement-team
When the OEE is measured the direct and indirect causes of the losses have to be determined. A cross-functional team will solve the root causes/problems and will drive improvements. This specialized ‘small-group-activity’ team is often named a “focused improvement team” (FI-team). The FI-team is occupied with all activities that maximize the overall effectiveness of equipment and help the organization in elimination of major losses and improvement of performance. The FI-team is a
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cross-functional team with members from engineering, maintenance group and production (Chan et al, 2005) and often the factory manager is also included (which shows the importance of improvement activities). In this way the three different disciplines are directly connected and the necessary knowledge is present. Creativity and ability to innovate are essential characteristics of the team. The FI-team has regularly formal meetings and have a plan used for the implementation of continuous improvement by means of improvement projects. The plan can be structured in the following stages (Garcia Arca et al, 2008):
1. Design of the improvement plan (objectives) and definitions of guidelines. The improvement plan includes the various improvement projects developed by the FI-team.
2. Approval of the proposed plan by the company management (implying commitment to it).
3. Presentation of the project (management team, works committee, personnel).
4. Implementation. Pilot experience (model machine).
5. Evaluation of results and tracking mechanism.
6. Extension to other areas of the factory.
Embedding of improvements in standards
When a loss turns out to have a structural cause it will lead to an adjustment in the standards. By changing the standard the cause of the loss, and so the loss itself, will be eliminated.
When maximizing the productivity of the production-installation it is necessary to control human activity around this installation. Production, engineering and maintenance are the disciplines which are of influence on the installation. By means of standardizing working processes in standard operating procedures (SOP) a certain level of productivity can be consolidated. The relation between human activity, equipment-efficiency and productivity within TPM is given in the figure below.
Figure 12: Relation between human activity, equipment-efficiency and productivity (Aalders, 1993).
By laying down working processes in SOP’s a certain situation can be fixed. Which means that a certain level of equipment-efficiency can be fixed. Then, by using creativity and innovation ability these
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standards can be improved. Within TPM all the employees are expected to contribute to this process of continuous improvement. Coming up with ideas for improvement has to be rewarded. The proposed improvements have to be examined in detail before they eventually will become the new standard and are embedded in the organization
This continuous process of elimination of losses, which mainly consists out of consolidation and improvement, is a never ending aim at perfection.
6 Diagnosis within the ‘Cultural Awareness’ principle
In this chapter the causes of a relative low level of ‘cultural awareness’ will be investigated by means of a survey. The results will be presented and discussed.
6.1 Method of the survey In order to determine the current level of commitment and related causes under the shop floor workers at BAT Niemeyer a survey is done. The survey was done in June 2009, in the factory canteen of mini- factory 1 and 2. Although the boundary is determined around mini-factory 1 the shop floor workers of mini-factory 2 were useful for the questionnaire. They work on the same work floor, with identical rules, some identical machines, in the same culture, etc. So, it is assumed that their perception of the enabling activities does not differ from the shop floor in mini-factory 1. The respondents were approached during their coffee break. 38 (out of the +/- 90) respondents were willing to fill in the questionnaire. Three of them turned out to be temporary employees and were not able to fill in the questionnaire. These respondents were deleted out of the data. All the other 35 respondents had no ‘missing values’, so they were all useful for the survey.
The questionnaire is created by the researcher and derived from the model of Hansson and Backlund (2003) and the related descriptions of the activities. They identified activities that influence intangible factors and affect commitment during the change process (see figure 13).
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Figure 13: Important categories in managing commitment (Hansson & Backlund, 2003)
The questionnaire consists out of 19 statements. The first 18 statements are created to determine how the shop floor workers experience and value the ‘enabling activities’. Statement 19 is formulated to determine the current state of employee commitment. Each category of activities is represented in the questionnaire by at least 1 and at maximum 4 statements.
The statements can be valued by a so called ‘5-point Likert-scale’. A likert-scale questionnaire consists out of statements. The respondents have to value their level of agreement with the statement. Likert-scale statements are relative easy to answer for the respondents compared to most other types of questions. The assignment of different standard answers creates the possibility to measure intensity instead of ‘hard’ yes or no answer. Mere over, Likert-scale answers are relative easy to process in the analysis. In the questionnaire the respondents had to value the statements with a score from 1 to 5:
1 = totally disagree; 2 = partly disagree;
3 = neutral; 4 = partly agree; 5 = totally agree.
Furthermore the next characteristics and assumptions are essential for further analysis of the data:
The above labeling is bivalent (distinctly two-directional) and symmetrical;
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The assumption is made that the intervals of the labeled measures are equally spaced. So, unless the discrete nature, the variables will be considered on interval level instead of ordinal level;
All the statements are formulated positive. The higher the score, the more positive the judgment of the respondent is;
Even if the distribution of the individual observations is not normal, the distribution of the sample means will be normally distributed because the sample size is 35 (n >30)(Malhotra, 2007) ;
The survey asks the respondent for a judgment, or a meaning, so it is subjective.
The questionnaire can be found in Appendix 2.
6.2 Analysis of the data In order to analyze the data from the questionnaire several steps will be taken. The analysis will be conducted with the help of the statistics software SPSS (v.17.0). The steps are based on the construct of the conceptual model from Hansson & Backlund (2003) in which the “7 categories of enabling activities” are assumed to be success factors or predictors of the dependent variable “employee commitment”. A more detailed description of the model can be found in chapter 5.1.
Descriptive statistics
In the first step the items per category will be analyzed in a descriptive way by using frequency charts, means and standard deviations. Some variables are represented by one item and some are represented by a group of items. These items will be described individually and the variable as a whole will be discussed.
Homogeneity
In the questionnaire statements are formulated to determine the current level of the enabling activities. Each category is represented by one or a group of statements. These statements are considered to measure the same aspect. This has to be tested in advance before further analysis. For the measurement of the level of homogeneity of these groups a reliability analysis will be done. The statistical test that will be used is Cronbach’s Alpha. Cronbach’s Alpha is a number between 0 and 1 to indicate the level of homogeneity i.e. the level of measuring the same concept.
Cronbach’s Alpha will be used according to the following conditions:
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Value Cronbach’s Alpha Action
Delete the items with lowest “item total correlation” value and/or the highest “alpha if item is deleted” value. Do it stepwise. If alpha remains < 0,60 after < 0,60 repeated elimination it will be impossible to form a scale based on the remaining items and the calculation of a “summated scale” is not allowed.
Delete the items with the lowest “item total correlation” value and/or the highest “alpha if item is deleted” value. Do it stepwise to increase the value of Between 0,60 – 0,80 alpha. By doing this a trade-off needs to be made between the increase of alpha and the amount of eliminated items. E.g. a 0,02 increase in alpha as a result from several eliminated items is not justified.
> 0,80 Elimination of items in order to increase alpha is redundant and the “summated scale” can directly be calculated.
Figure 14: Instructions for the application of Cronbach's Alpha.
Based on the above instructions the summated scales will be calculated which represent the independent variables or categories of enabling activities.
Multiple Regression analysis (stepwise)
For BAT Niemeyer it is important to know which enabling activities can be improved in order to create employee commitment. So, the (mean) scores per questionnaire item and per variable will give them a good indication of the current situation. But it is probably even more interesting to know in what extent these categories of enabling activities influence employee commitment. As Hansson & Backlund (2003) mention individual characteristics, such as attitudes and expectations, are also influenced by contextual aspects such as corporate culture. This implicates that, although the model is universal, the level of influence of the different activities on commitment can differ per company. So, by means of a Multiple Regression analysis it will be determined which independent variables are statistically of significant influence on employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer.
Multiple Regression analysis is a general statistical technique used to analyze the relationship between a single dependent variable (commitment) and several independent (enabling activities) variables. The objective of multiple regression analysis is to use the independent variables whose values are known to predict the single dependent value. Each independent variable is weighted by the regression analysis procedure to ensure maximal prediction from the set of independent variables. The analysis will be done stepwise. The purpose of stepwise regression is to select, from a large number of predictor variables, a small subset of variables that account for most of the variation in the dependent variable. In this procedure, the predictor variables enter or are removed from the regression equation. Initially, there are no predictor variables in the regression equation. Predictor
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variables are entered one at a time, only if they meet certain criteria specified in terms of F-ratio ( = explained variance / unexplained variance). The order in which the variables are included is based on the contribution to the explained variance. Predictors that no longer meet the specified criterion at each step are removed (Hair et al, 2005).
To interpret the direction of the relationship between variables, one looks at the signs (plus or minus) of the regression or B coefficients. If a B coefficient is positive, then the relationship of this variable with the dependent variable is positive. The general form of the multiple regression equation is as follows (Malhotra, 1996):
Y= B0 + B 1X1 + B2X2 + B3X3 + ... BkXk + u
So, a linear relation is assumed. B0 is called the intercept (constant), B1 measures the change in Y with respect to X1, holding other factors fixed, etc.. The u in the model contains other factors affecting
Y. The degree to which the predictors (Xn) are related to the dependent (Y) variable is expressed in R-square. R-square is the proportion of variance in the dependent variable which can be predicted from the independent variables based on the given multiple regression model.
The following characteristics and assumptions will be tested in order to apply a proper regression analysis:
Normality; The sample data is normally distributed
Linearity; A linear relation between the independent variables and Commitment is assumed and will be checked.
Independent observations; Only one observation (questionnaire) is done.
Homoscedasticity; We assume that the error in the population we are estimating is distributed with a mean of 0 and constant (homoscedastic) variance.
Collinearity; Collinearity occurs when a single independent variable is highly correlated with another (or a set of) independent variable(s). A collinearity with a “Tolerance-value” < 0,10 and a “VIF-value” > 10 is considered to be problematic (Hair et al., 1995). Significance level 95%; (criteria of stepwise method: Probability-of-F-to-enter <= ,050, Probability-of-F-to-remove >= ,100).
The analysis will be done using the statistical software program SPSS (v.17.0).
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6.3 Survey results
6.3.1 Mean scores of the questionnaire items In the bar graph below an oversight of the mean results per item are given. The items are shown in ascending order and the end, in red, the mean of the employee commitment is given.
Figure 15: Mean scores of the questionnaires’ items (ascending)
Item 7 , which is about the “clearness of next steps to be taken in the TPM implementation”, has the lowest mean score of 2,3. Item 5, “consciousness of the contribution of TPM to the continuation of the production in Groningen” has the highest mean score of 3,6. The score of 2,8 on item 19 directly shows us that the “employee commitment” is surely not sufficient under the respondents.
In the next paragraphs more details of the results will be presented for all the 19 questionnaire items.
6.3.2 Descriptive statistics & Cronbach’s Alpha
Support & Leadership
Support and leadership is represented by items 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
1. My executive shows me that working 2,8 1,2 26% 74% 0,775 according to TPM is very important for BAT
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Niemeyer. All items included 2. My executive shows met the benefits of TPM 2,8 1,1 29% 72% for my daily tasks.
3. My executive provides me sufficient time and 2,8 1,3 29% 72% means to improve the production process.
4. When I come up with an idea for improvement 3,1 1,0 31% 69% or remarks my executive takes me serious.
* Scale 1-5
Items 1, 2 and 3 are slightly negative (mean < 3) on a continuous scale. Item 4 is slightly positive. All the items are valued as underperformed. Considering a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.775 , the calculation of a summated scale is allowed with all the items included.
Strategic planning Strategic planning is represented by item 5 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
5. It is clear how TPM contributes to the Not continued existence of the production in 3,6 1,2 60% 40% applicable Groningen (“Made in Groningen”).
*Scale 1-5
Item 5 was valued with the highest mean score of 3,6, but it is still not sufficient and needs to be improved. Because item 5 is the only item in the category Strategic planning Cronbach’s alpha is not applicable.
Planning the implementation Planning the implementation is represented by the items 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
6. It is clear for me in which stage of the TPM 2,6 1,0 17% 83% implementation we currently are. 0,808 7. It is clear how the next steps of the TPM 2,3 1,0 12% 88% implementation must be done. All items included 8. Me and my team members are being 3,1 0,9 32% 69% involved with the TPM implementation.
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9. Within TPM it is clear what is being 3,1 1,1 45% 55% expected from our team.
*Scale 1-5
Item 7 is the lowest scoring item in the questionnaire. Only 12% has a positive perception of this statement. Item 6, 7 and 8 are all valued as underperformed. Cronbach’s alpha is 0,808 which is > 0.80 which means that the items show large homogeneity. All the items together will form Strategic planning and the summated scale can be calculated.
Buying-in & Empowerment Buying-in & Empowerment is represented by items 10 and 11 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
10. BAT Niemeyer discusses with us what we 0,200 2,4 0,9 11% 89% as a team expect from TPM. No summated 11. I am allowed to take decisions by myself 3,4 0,9 55% 45% scale which are of influence on the production. allowed
*Scale 1-5
If we compare the means of item 10 and 11 the remark can be made that they differ significantly. The ratios of positive and non-positive respondents show that item 11 is valued far more positive than item 10. The two items have a Cronbach’s alpha of 0,200 which means that there is no homogeneity and the calculation of a summated scale is not allowed. These two items will be analyzed individually in the regression analysis. So, Buying-in and Empowerment will form two separate variables.
Measuring & Evaluation Measuring & evaluation is represented by items 12, 13, and 14 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
12. The production results of the TPM 2,7 1,0 14% 86% implementation are being measured. 0,772 13. The measured results of the TPM implementation are being discussed with 2,6 0,9 18% 82% Items 13 & our team. 14 are included 14. The measured results show me the 2,7 0,9 17% 83% benefits of TPM for my daily tasks.
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*Scale 1-5
All the items score slightly negative. The items have a Cronbach’s alpha of 0,712. It will increase to 0,772 if item 12 is deleted, which is significant. So, item 12 will be left out in the calculation of the summated scale.
Training & Education Training & education is represented by items 15 and 16 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
15. I am well trained in the basic principles of TPM (Kaizen, One-point-lesson, MOEE) and 3,4 1,1 51% 49% 0,679 I know how to use them in my daily tasks. Both items 16. BAT Niemeyer offers me the possibility to included 3,0 1,2 31% 69% participate in TPM courses and workshops.
* Scale 1-5
The Cronbach’s alpha of the two items is 0,679. Deleting one of the items to increase alpha is not possible. The calculation of summated scale is allowed because the items show sufficient homogeneity (> 0,60).
Communication & Information Communication and information is represented by items 17 and 18 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
17. The company provides me with sufficient 2,7 1,0 17% 83% information about the goals of TPM. 0,894
18. The company provides me with sufficient Both items information about the consequences of 2,7 1,0 17% 83% included TPM for my daily tasks.
* Scale 1-5
The respondents are slightly negative about the way BAT Niemeyer provides information related to TPM. The two items show very high homogeneity with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0,894. The calculation of a summated scale is directly allowed.
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Employee commitment Employee commitment is the dependent variable which is represented by item 19 of the questionnaire.
positive non-positive Cronbach’s Item Mean* SD (score 4, 5) (score 1, 2, 3) α
19. I believe in the TPM philosophy and I am 2,8 1,1 26% 74% x motivated to make it successful.
* Scale 1-5
The mean score of 2,8 is slightly negative on a continuous scale. Employee commitment is desired to have a minimum value of 4 to say the commitment under the employees is sufficient to make TPM successful. Only 26% of the respondents has a positive perception of the statement. 74% is non- positive. The spread of the given answers is given in the figure below.
Figure 16: Distribution of the answers given on Item 19: Commitment
Cronbach’s alpha is not applicable because the dependent variable commitment is represented by only one statement in the questionnaire.
6.3.3 Summary of the questionnaire results
Items In the table below a summary of the overall perceptions of the items in the questionnaire are given.
Item Overall perception (mode) * Item Overall perception (mode) *
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1 Non-positive (3) 10 Negative (2)
2 Negative (2) 11 Positive (4)
3 Non-positive (3) 12 Non-positive (3)
4 Non-positive (3) 13 Non-positive (3)
5 Positive (4) 14 Non-positive (3)
6 Non-positive (3) 15 Positive (4)
7 Negative (2) 16 Non-positive (3)
8 Non-positive (3) 17 Non-positive (3)
9 Positive (4) 18 Non-positive (3)
* used categorization for the overall perception: Mode 1, 2: negative perception (also non-positive) Mode 3: non-positive perception Mode 4, 5: positive perception
If we consider the totals of the perceptions, it can be noticed that only 4 of the 18 items were valued as positive. 11 items were valued as neutral or non-positive and 3 items were valued as negative. So, 14 out if the 18 items , which is almost 78%, has been valued by the employees of BAT Niemeyer as non- positive. The employee commitment, which is assumed to have a causal relation with the factors represented by these items, also has a overall non-positive perception (mode 3, mean score 2,8).
Independent Variables (summated scales)
The summated scales of the items per category of enabling activities are calculated according to the instructions related to Cronbach’s alpha. The mean score per independent variable and the definitions of the summated scales as they will be used in SPSS are given in the table (ascending).
Definition Category of enabling activities Mean score Independent variable (X)
Buying-in 2,4 BuyingIn
Measuring & Evaluation 2,7 MeasurEva
Communication & Information 2,7 CommInfo
Planning the Implementation 2,8 PlannImp
Support & Leadership 2,9 SuppLeader
Training & Education 3,2 TrainEdu
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Empowerment 3,4 Empower
Strategic Planning 3,6 StrPlann
Figure 17: Mean score per variable at BAT Niemeyer (categories of “enabling activities”)
The independent variable Buying-in turns out to be the lowest valued with a mean score of 2,4. Strategic Planning is the highest valued variable with a means core of 3,6. Considering a minimum mean score of 4 to be desired for BAT Niemeyer, none of the variables scores sufficient.
6.4 Multiple Regression analysis In this paragraph the statistically significant independent variables will be determined by means of a multiple regression analysis. In the context of the investigation this statistical significant coefficients have to be translated to managerial significant terms. In order to increase the employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer the relative impact and importance of the independent variables on commitment is most important.
The SPSS output of the correlation analysis and the regression analysis (stepwise) is given below.
Correlations Commitment SuppLeader StrPlann PlannImp BuyingIn Empower MeasurEva TrainEdu CommInfo Commitment Pearson 1,000 ,644** ,391* ,660** ,531** ,495** ,717** ,325 ,710** Correlation Sig. (2- ,000 ,020 ,000 ,001 ,003 ,000 ,056 ,000 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 SuppLeader Pearson ,644** 1,000 ,089 ,743** ,525** ,223 ,629** ,252 ,560** Correlation Sig. (2- ,000 ,612 ,000 ,001 ,197 ,000 ,144 ,000 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 StrPlann Pearson ,391* ,089 1,000 ,095 ,198 ,415* ,237 ,292 ,336* Correlation Sig. (2- ,020 ,612 ,588 ,254 ,013 ,171 ,089 ,049 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 PlannImp Pearson ,660** ,743** ,095 1,000 ,528** ,301 ,571** ,250 ,631** Correlation Sig. (2- ,000 ,000 ,588 ,001 ,079 ,000 ,147 ,000 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35
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BuyingIn Pearson ,531** ,525** ,198 ,528** 1,000 ,184 ,676** ,316 ,460** Correlation Sig. (2- ,001 ,001 ,254 ,001 ,290 ,000 ,065 ,005 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35
Empower Pearson ** * * ,495 ,223 ,415 ,301 ,184 1,000 ,174 ,246 ,346 Correlation Sig. (2- ,003 ,197 ,013 ,079 ,290 ,318 ,154 ,042 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 MeasurEva Pearson ,717** ,629** ,237 ,571** ,676** ,174 1,000 ,313 ,547** Correlation Sig. (2- ,000 ,000 ,171 ,000 ,000 ,318 ,067 ,001 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 TrainEdu Pearson ,325 ,252 ,292 ,250 ,316 ,246 ,313 1,000 ,507** Correlation Sig. (2- ,056 ,144 ,089 ,147 ,065 ,154 ,067 ,002 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 CommInfo Pearson ,710** ,560** ,336* ,631** ,460** ,346* ,547** ,507** 1,000 Correlation Sig. (2- ,000 ,000 ,049 ,000 ,005 ,042 ,001 ,002 tailed) N 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2- tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
According to the above correlation matrix all the independent variables, except “TrainEdu”, have a significant positive relation with the dependent variable commitment. A correlation of +1 means that there is a perfect positive linear relationship between variables. It is a positive relationship because high scores on one variable are associated with high scores on the other variable. This means, for example, if “MeasurEva” scores high “Commitment” will also be high and vice versa. This correlation only considers the two variables once at a time so the other variables are then left out of consideration. Furthermore, it does not imply causality. In order to expose significant causal relations the regression analysis has to be applied.
Model Summary
Change Statistics Adjusted R Std. Error of R Square Model R R Square Square the Estimate Change F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change 1 ,717a ,514 ,499 ,814 ,514 34,920 1 33 ,000
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2 ,811b ,658 ,637 ,693 ,144 13,521 1 32 ,001 3 ,856c ,733 ,707 ,622 ,075 8,673 1 31 ,006 a. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva b. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo c. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo, Empower
The “Model Summary” of the stepwise regression analysis shows the automatically selected significant variables, Measuring & Evaluation, Communication & Information and Empowerment based on a significance level of 95% (p ≤ 0,05). The R-square of 0,733 (73,3%) is the proportion of variance in the dependent variable (Commitment) which can be explained by the independent variables. This is an overall measure of the strength of association and does not reflect the extent to which any particular independent variable (X) is associated with the dependent variable (Y). The Adjusted R-square gives a more realistic result, because it is adjusted for the number of independent variables and the sample size. So, in our case (8 predictors, n=35) 70,7% of the variance in Y(Commitment) can be explained by the three independent variables Measuring & Evaluation, Communication & Information and Empowerment, which reveals quite a good fit of the model. The F value for the "Change Statistics" shows the significance level associated with adding the variable for that step. All the three steps are significant and, logically, if a step was not significant, it would not have been modeled.
Excluded Variablesd Collinearity Statistics Partial Minimum Model Beta In t Sig. Correlation Tolerance VIF Tolerance 1 BuyingIn ,086a ,519 ,608 ,091 ,544 1,840 ,544
Empower ,382a 3,623 ,001 ,539 ,970 1,031 ,970
SuppLeader ,320a 2,160 ,038 ,357 ,604 1,656 ,604
PlannImp ,372a 2,756 ,010 ,438 ,673 1,485 ,673
TrainEdu ,112a ,875 ,388 ,153 ,902 1,108 ,902
CommInfo ,454a 3,677 ,001 ,545 ,701 1,426 ,701
StrPlann ,234a 1,952 ,060 ,326 ,944 1,059 ,944 2 BuyingIn ,011b ,076 ,940 ,014 ,532 1,880 ,473 Empower ,291b 2,945 ,006 ,468 ,880 1,137 ,636
SuppLeader ,177b 1,269 ,214 ,222 ,537 1,861 ,537
PlannImp ,201b 1,437 ,161 ,250 ,529 1,890 ,529
TrainEdu -,069b -,572 ,572 -,102 ,741 1,350 ,576
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StrPlann ,144b 1,327 ,194 ,232 ,883 1,132 ,656 3 BuyingIn -,008c -,060 ,953 -,011 ,531 1,885 ,472
SuppLeader ,158c 1,256 ,219 ,223 ,536 1,866 ,536
PlannImp ,155c 1,216 ,233 ,217 ,520 1,921 ,520
TrainEdu -,098c -,905 ,372 -,163 ,735 1,360 ,541
StrPlann ,051c ,480 ,635 ,087 ,781 1,281 ,621 a. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), MeasurEva b. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo c. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo, Empower d. Dependent Variable: Commitment
In the “Excluded Variables’ table above the significance levels of the variables during the steps are shown. After the third step there are no significant (“Sig.”< 0,05) variables left, so no more variables can be added to the model.
ANOVAd
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 23,121 1 23,121 34,920 ,000a Residual 21,850 33 ,662 Total 44,971 34 2 Regression 29,611 2 14,806 30,845 ,000b Residual 15,360 32 ,480 Total 44,971 34 3 Regression 32,969 3 10,990 28,385 ,000c Residual 12,002 31 ,387 Total 44,971 34 a. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva b. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo c. Predictors: (Constant), MeasurEva, CommInfo, Empower d. Dependent Variable: Commitment
The “ANOVA” (Analysis of Variances) tests whether the model is significantly better at predicting the outcome than using the average as a ‘best guess’. The output table above tests the overall significance of the model (that is, of the regression equation), for all the steps. The F value or F-ratio of the model represents the ratio in improvement in prediction that results from fitting the model
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(“Regression”) relative to the inaccuracy that still exists (“Residual”). The F-ratio of 28,385 means that, considering our model based on the sample used for estimation, we can explain about 28 times more variation than when using the average. Considering the Sig. of 0,000 it is not likely to happen by chance (less than 0,1% of the time). We can interpret these results as meaning that the final model, model 3, significantly improves our ability to predict the outcome variable, Commitment.
Now the significance of the model is confirmed we need the Coefficients” table in order to create the regression equation of the model.
Coefficientsa Unstandardized Standardized Collinearity Coefficients Coefficients Correlations Statistics Zero- Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. order Partial Part Tolerance VIF 1 (Constant) ,258 ,456 ,566 ,576 MeasurEva ,962 ,163 ,717 5,909 ,000 ,717 ,717 ,717 1,000 1,000 2 (Constant) -,352 ,422 -,833 ,411 MeasurEva ,629 ,166 ,469 3,802 ,001 ,717 ,558 ,393 ,701 1,426 CommInfo ,549 ,149 ,454 3,677 ,001 ,710 ,545 ,380 ,701 1,426 3 (Constant) -1,229 ,482 -2,548 ,016 MeasurEva ,638 ,149 ,475 4,290 ,000 ,717 ,610 ,398 ,701 1,427 CommInfo ,423 ,141 ,349 3,003 ,005 ,710 ,475 ,279 ,636 1,572 Empower ,356 ,121 ,291 2,945 ,006 ,495 ,468 ,273 ,880 1,137 a. Dependent Variable: Commitment
It is allowed to use the “Unstandardized B Coefficients” instead of the “Standardized Beta Coefficients”, because the variables are measured on equal and comparable scales (Hair et al, 1995). The t-test tests the significance of each b coefficient, which are all < 0,05. It is possible to have a regression model which is significant overall by the F test (“ANOVA”) , but where a particular coefficient is not significant. The relation between the significant independent variables and the dependent variable, commitment (Y) can now be formulated:
Y (Commitment) = -1,229 + 0,638 (MeasurEva) + 0,423 (CommInfo) + 0,356 (Empower)
In the context of the investigation the predictive function of the equation is less relevant than the relative impact of the independent variables. So, based on the survey, Measuring & Evaluation turns out to have the biggest influence on employee commitment. It has about 51% more influence on commitment than Communication & Information and about 79% more influence than the
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Empowerment variable. Communication & Information has 16% more influence on Commitment than Empowerment.
Although, Hansson and Backlund (2003) distinguish different categories of enabling activities to create employee commitment, the survey exposes that only three of the eight categories are of significant influence. One could say that it is company dependent and that the context determines the level influence per category. This could be worth investigating but lies beyond the scope of this investigation.
Another explanation for the result of the regression analysis must be considered. If we look at the different categories in their practical application, it can be noticed that it is nearly impossible to carry out the different activities completely separated. The relatively big part of the activities are highly intertwined. For example, during Monitoring & Evaluation, were results are being measured and evaluated, aspects of Support & Leadership and Communication & Information play an important role. When employees are getting feedback on the achieved results, information is given and the executive simultaneously explains, for example, how the results contribute benefit to the operators’ daily tasks.
The recommendations will be focused on the three significant variables, but it will become clear that the several activities form the remaining categories have a stake in it.
6.5 Conclusions In this chapter we wanted to determine existing causes for the assumed lack of cultural awareness, which was indicated by the preliminary investigation. In the theoretical framework it was stated that ’cultural awareness’ is not just the same as ‘awareness of culture’, but that the ‘motivation’ aspect forms a big part of it. That is why commitment is chosen as the covering term, which is more commonly used.
First of all the level of commitment is measured by means of the survey in order to confirm the indication from the preliminary investigation. With a mean score of 2,8 (1-5 scale) the Commitment of the employees at BAT Niemeyer towards TPM is insufficient.
According to the theory of Hansson & Backlund (2003) the enabling activities (independent variables) influence intangible factors and affect commitment during the implementation of TPM. Causes of this existing lack of employee commitment have to be searched in the way the enabling activities are performed.
If we look at the results of the survey on item level 78% was valued as non-positive (mode< 4). The mean scores lay between 2,3 and 3,6 (scale 1-5) so they all scored insufficient. The mean scores of the variables lay between 2,4 and 3,6 and so they all underperform.
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The Measuring & Evaluation, Communication & Information and Empowerment activities turned out to be statistically of significant influence on the employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer. With a 95% reliability it can be stated that they determine 70,7% of the variance in Commitment. Moreover, with their low mean scores of respectively 2,7 , 2,7 and 3,4 they can be assigned as the main causes of the low level of commitment on the shop floor.
Necessarily, the way in which the ‘enabling activities’ are carried out in the current situation has to be improved in order to realize employee commitment. A detailed description of the actions for improvement will be given in chapter 8.
7 Diagnosis within the ‘Elimination of Losses’ principle
In this chapter the causes of a low score within the ‘elimination of losses’ principle will be exposed. The causes will be searched in terms of shortcomings in the ‘elimination of losses’ process, described earlier.
7.1 Selection of a model machine As mentioned before a critical step in the early stage of TPM implementation is the selection of a model machine. BAT Niemeyer never selected a model machine during the implementation phase. By selecting a model machine it possible to focus your sources firstly on one machine, instead of using a ‘big bang’ strategy. To limit the uncertainty and enhance the chances of success in the initial stage, small scale pilot projects should be conducted where quick and visible benefits can be expected. Admirable results in the first six months can convince management and the workforce that significant improvements in machine uptime can be achieved. Till now, BAT Niemeyer did not achieve convincing results in machine up time, which harms the motivation and trust of the employees related to TPM. So, it will have a positive impact on creating employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer when concrete results can be shown to personnel.
However, in a further stage of the TPM implementation a model machine is still very useful. Improvements and lessons within TPM can be extended to the remaining machines and are much faster as the model machine is acting as a guideline for the replication. Especially in the case of BAT Niemeyer, where most of the machines show high similarity, replication of improvements can be done very quickly.
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7.2 OEE measurement & target setting Several years ago BAT Niemeyer implemented a so called OEE-toolkit. The toolkit is a piece of software which is able to calculate the OEE of the production machines according to the calculation formula given in chapter 5.2. After several observations and conversations on the work floor it became clear that there were possibilities for improvement related to the toolkit. Shop floor workers clearly doubted the reliability of the OEE. Considering the fact that the OEE is the most important indicator for the success of the TPM implementation and has to drive improvement activities, it was worth doing some further investigation.
To calculate the OEE break-downs, stops, production volumes, defects, etc. of the individual production machines have to be registered. At BAT Niemeyer the OEE-toolkit receives this data from two different input channels (see figure below).
Production forms Promis/ Business Objects (ERP)
Automated OEE-Toolkit Manual input input
OEE-output
Figure 18: Data collection stream for the OEE calculation at BAT Niemeyer
The first data source for the OEE-calculation is are the ERP software systems called Promis and Business Objects. The systems are able to accurately register data like machine stops, idleness, machine speed, production volumes, etc. The ERP systems can directly be connected to the toolkit.
The second data source is formed by the production forms (see Appendix 3). This production form is being used by every operator, every shift for every batch. Besides the registration of the production volumes and controlling activities the backside of the form is meant to be used for the registration of machine idleness, breakdowns and short stops. Operators are able to notify more detailed information about the cause of a certain stop in contrast to the ERP’s which are very accurate but limited to a certain aggregation level.
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The total registered time by the operator on the production form has to align with the length of his shift. The production forms are manually being processed into the OEE-toolkit.
Problems
The two data sources both entail several problems. The following problems are related to Promis and Business Objects:
The ERP’s are limited to a certain aggregation level. So, some causes of stops or breakdowns cannot be registered. E.g. They can register that the cause of a certain stop is located in a certain part of the machine but do not know what the exact cause is.
Because of the limited aggregation level the employees do not exactly know what information is reliable and useful for the toolkit.
Most of the employees who work with the OEE toolkit do not exactly know which information is interfaced with the toolkit.
Because of the diversity of breakdown registrations and categories on different aggregation levels the information has to be translated which results in information losses.
The eventual output of the OEE is being adapted arbitrary by several employees. So, the result is affected by differences in interpretations of the registered numbers.
Problems related to the production forms:
Registration of the stops/breakdowns is very labor intensive. Both, for the operators and for the employees working with the toolkit.
Registration of the stops/breakdowns is very inaccurate because the operators make an estimation at the end of their shift to justify the operating time in their shift.
It is impossible for the operators to accurately fill in the form because they are too busy with controlling the machine.
In the current situation the OEE is mainly used and seen as an overall indicator of the performance. The exposed problems prove that the calculation of the OEE is unreliable and labor intensive. It confirms the preceding suspicions of the employees. It is crucial that the measurement of the OEE is done in a proper way because the results determine future actions of improvement. The current OEE output which lacks to provide the needed information cannot form this basis for improvement. Another important result of the unreliable measurement of the OEE is the fact that employees do not trust the
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OEE measure. Resulting in employees which are not willing to work to with it and employees which are not motivated to improve it.
Although, the data collection problem is quite complex it is essential in TPM to arrange a proper OEE measurement. Avoiding the problem by directly going towards operator maintenance and small group activities without investigating the configuration of losses is dangerous. It might lead to operator maintenance and small group activities without having effects on the OEE.
Target setting
As mentioned before, in a TPM system, all machines need to have a clear and quantifiable target no matter whether it is a model machine or a follower machine. In the current situation the main goal for the teams is to produce the planned amount of products. At least, that is how the floor workers perceive it. One of the causes of having the problems to keep up with the production planning is the understaffing in the teams as a result of the recent reorganization. No concrete short- and long-term goals in terms of an OEE increase per machine are set for the teams. The results of the OEE output are seldom being evaluated with the team members on team level. The way they receive feedback is by means of printed outputs of the OEE toolkit, which are being pinned down weekly at a whiteboard in the factory. The operators seldom analyze this output and find it hard to interpret the results. Some of the employees do not even know how the different parameters of the OEE are influenced. The operators are not motivated to use the OEE output as a basis for small improvement actions during their daily tasks. Timely, relevant and accurate goals and feedback is needed to trigger the shop floor workers to use the OEE as a basis for small improvement activities.
The preceding aligns with the low scores in the results of the questionnaire for the Measuring & Evaluation activities.
7.3 Determination of the causes of losses & creating improvements Focused Improvement team
In most TPM organizations a cross-functional team (engineering, maintenance, production and management), is normally occupied with the elimination of big structural losses and drives the improvements actions in the factory. By means of different TPM tools, like cause analysis methods, in combination with their knowledge the team is able to expose the causes of structural losses and come up with solutions. The cross-functionality of the team links the knowledge of the different departments and makes it innovative and able to come up with ideas for improvement. It is in charge of leading the improvement plans and is responsible for establishing lines of action, priorities and tracking activities.
At BAT Niemeyer there is no official dedicated FI-team with members from different departments with formal meetings in which structured plans for improvement projects are made, goals are set and
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results are evaluated. Of course, improvement projects are carried but this is more on a reactive base than a pro-active base and not that centralized. When the shop floor walks into large and complex problems the OTS and/or FTS is usually occupied with the problem. Although they are technically sophisticated they are not cross-functional. This can result in non-optimal use of the knowledge and experience which is present within the organization, for example, under operators. Engagement of operators in such a way is also important to create commitment on the shop floor.
Production Technicians
In the current situation at BAT Niemeyer the PT’s are expected to print out the OEE output for their team and try to eliminate the main losses. In this process no analysis methods (e.g. why, why, why, because) are used. The analysis documents are available in the database but they are seldom being used. Most of the PT’s and operators do not trust the outcomes of the OEE measurement, because they are aware of the way the OEE is being composed. Due to a lack of manpower and the pressure of workload the PT’s sometimes can hardly find time to analyze the losses in their OEE. During their daily tasks they are mainly occupied with solving ad-hoc problems to keep the machine running.
Operators
In a continuous improvement culture all the employees in the organization are expected to contribute to improvements. In a TPM organization operators are occupied with small maintenance activities but they also have to play an important role in the improvement process. Operators are the ones spending most of the time at the machines so they have the best practical knowledge and ‘feel’ the machine. Operators can form an important information and for an improvement team. Besides, they can come up with their own ideas for improvement based on their experience and the problems they encounter in their daily tasks.
During observations and conversations on the shop floor several things became clear. The operators in mini-factory 1 are during their shift mainly occupied with keeping up with the production schedule. They are constantly busy with solving little problems, like machine breakdowns, and inserting pouches. So, there is barely time for additional improvement actions. The motivation of the operators to improve the production process already turned out to be low in the survey. In general operators do not feel motivated and do not have the time to investigate the causes of breakdowns. Some operators actually know the root causes, but they do not feel the necessity to undertake action like filling in a Kaizen or one-point-lesson document. These ,and other TPM documents, are available in the database but they are not being used anymore. Before the reorganization they were. Mere over, senior management tolerates such poor behavior, so in that way the shop floor workers are not triggered to use the documents. They do not feel the urgency of using the documents and do not think it is expected from them by their executives.
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7.4 Embedding of improvements in standards The standardization of operation processes is another essential aspect in the process of elimination of losses. Structural losses have a frequent existence and their causes are locked in the organization’s structure which is made up out of standards. By defining work processes in SOP’s a certain situation can be fixed. Which means that a certain level of equipment-efficiency can be fixed. Then, by using creativity and innovation ability these standards can be improved.
Like most other organizations BAT Niemeyer works with instructions and protocols that are defined to structure the production process to a certain level. E.g. different maintenance checklists are present to steer the shop floor workers in their maintenance activities and there is a tight protocol to guard the quality (size, weight, labels, etc.) of the finished products. However, the usage of SOP’s can be improved in order to optimize processes and eliminate existing losses. Standard activities which are repeated several times a day are carried out in various ways and so often not carried out in an efficient way. The different teams within mini-factory 1 all have their own work habits and communications. They even differ per shift. Next, an illustration will be given to demonstrate how some shortcomings in working with SOP’s can be improved and how they could benefit to the results at BAT Niemeyer.
Standard operating procedures at BAT Niemeyer: An illustration from the shop floor
During several observations on the shop floor it turned out that for a relatively labor intensive and time consuming activity like a so called ‘tobacco change’ no fixed detailed SOP is being used. A global description of this operating procedure is present (although it took quite a while to show it) but in practice no optimized detailed standard procedure for the tobacco change is being applied by the different teams.
The ‘tobacco change’ is a time consuming activity. During the change the machine is idle and different actions are being carried out; the machine has to be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, some administration is being done, some material is being brought away, new machine settings are being set, etc. Because the machine is idle during these activities the change has a big impact on the availability of the machine and so on the OEE.
Several observations of tobacco changes have been done within different teams and it became clear that there was quite a difference in the way they were carried out. Some teams used a very efficient method with the help of two other operators, while in other teams the activity was carried out by only one operator. The order in which the different activities were done also differed. Remarkable and interesting is the fact that the duration of the changes fluctuated between 28 and 96 minutes. That is quite a lot considering the fact that the activity sometimes has to be done several times a day. According to the production planning a tobacco change is scheduled on 45 minutes.
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The development of an optimized standard procedure for a tobacco change could result in a significant increase in the availability of the machines. Moreover, it will stabilize the production process, because the fluctuation of the needed time will decrease. This will make it easier to make a tight production planning and increase productivity. The SOP’s or work instructions that are present in the database are seldom revised and improved.
The preceding illustration is just an example, but it confirms that the use of SOP’s can be improved which will could be of great influence on the OEE. It also confirms the lack of the presence of an continuous improvement culture. Someone (e.g. an FI-team) should audit the present SOP’s once per period and improve it when necessary. The tobacco change could have been optimized (e.g. by the use of a setup optimization method like SMED) on a model machine and rolled out over the factory.
7.5 Conclusions In this chapter we exposed existing causes for the relatively low score on the ‘elimination of losses’ principle at BAT Niemeyer in the preliminary investigation. The low score on the ‘elimination of losses’ principle is assumed to be caused by a lacking elimination of losses process. The process is defined in chapter 5.2.
The first step in the process of elimination of losses is the selection of a model machine. There is no such machine at BAT Niemeyer. By focusing your resources quick and visible benefits can be made in the first period of the TPM implementation which creates commitment and awareness towards TPM. BAT Niemeyer used a kind of ‘big bang’ strategy in which it is difficult to achieve quick results and creates a negative association with TPM. After the implementation the model machine can act as a guideline for the replication of improvements over the factory. This is especially useful at BAT Niemeyer because the machines and the related processes show high similarity.
The next step in the elimination of losses process is the OEE measurement. The exposed problems prove that the calculation of the OEE at BAT Niemeyer is unreliable and labor intensive. It is crucial that the measurement of the OEE is done in a proper way because the results determine future actions of improvement. Because of bad data collection the current OEE output lacks to provide the needed information cannot form the basis for improvement. Another important result of the unreliable measurement of the OEE is the fact that employees do not trust the OEE measure. This has a negative effect on the employee’s commitment to improve it by small group activities.
The preceding findings align with the relatively low scores for the Measuring & Evaluation activities in the survey.
In the current situation, on team level, no clear and quantifiable goals are set in terms of an OEE increase. Due to a lack of covering manpower and the pressure of workload shop floor workers are
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mainly focused on keeping up with the production planning. Timely, relevant and accurate goals and feedback is needed to trigger the shop floor workers to use the OEE as a basis for small actions of improvement.
At BAT Niemeyer there is no dedicated cross-functional FI-team that is occupied with the elimination of big structural losses of the OEE. A FI-team is in charge of leading the improvement plans and is responsible for establishing lines of action, priorities and tracking activities. The OTS and FTS department are mainly occupied with complex improvement projects. They are not cross-functional which can result in loss of knowledge. E.g. operators form a useful source of information when they are engaged in such projects.
A remark must be made that some of the indicated problems are a result of the recent reorganization. Because of the temporary lack of manpower and the high workload the pressure on the production is quit high, so less time can be spent on e.g. improvement activities.
8 Recommendations
In this chapter recommendations for achieving a structural improved implementation of the principles ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ will be done. The recommendations are based on the theoretical framework, chapter 5, and the exposed causes discussed in chapter 6 and 7.
8.1 Improvement of the ‘cultural awareness’ It the theoretical framework several categories of enabling activities were identified in order to create employee commitment (defined as the covering term for the intangible factors like awareness, understanding, ownership and motivation). The survey exposed that the way in which these activities are carried out at BAT Niemeyer is insufficient and has to be improved. Monitoring & Evaluation, Communication & Information and Empowerment turned out to be of significant influence on employee commitment.
8.1.1 Measuring & Evaluation In order to increase the employee commitment on the short term the management of BAT Niemeyer has to set its first priorities on the improvement of their Monitoring & Evaluation activities. This category turned out to have the biggest influence on employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer and in the current situation the activities are carried out in an insufficient way.
First, before getting started with the improvement of these activities the pressure of the workload needs to be taken down and sufficient manpower has to be present. You cannot expect from
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personnel to be motivated to carry out TPM activities when they can hardly keep up with the production planning.
The OEE is the far most important tool to measure and monitor results and progress within TPM. The accuracy and the level of useful information it provides need to be improved. A detailed instruction of this will be given in chapter 8.2.2. Unreliable monitoring of the OEE will result in unmotivated shop floor workers. They will not be motivated to improve results when the measurement of the results is not accurate.
The first step in the improvement of the Monitoring & Evaluation activities is the start-up of formal goal setting and feedback meetings. Formal meetings need to be planned (e.g. once in two weeks with the area manager) were concrete short-term goals are set and results are evaluated per team. In the meetings the executive (area manager or TPM manager) clearly has to explain the reasons and the importance of the meetings in order to create understanding (this clearly confirms that the Communication & Information and Support & Leadership activities are intertwined with the Monitoring & Evaluation activities).
Arranging feedback and goal setting meetings on a strictly and regular base establishes a sense of importance under the employees, which is not present at the moment. By doing this, the area manager (middle management) forms an important means to propagate management commitment to the shop floor. After a while employees will get used to the setting, achievement and evaluation of goals and the process will be embedded in the organization structure.
Goals can be set in several ways. Once the OEE is improved quantified objectives can be set in terms of an OEE increase per machine or losses selected for elimination. But other clear and quantifiable objectives in terms of mean units between assists (MUBA), number of Kaizens, one-point-lessons, improvement, suggestions or training hours for skill level enhancement are also appropriate. It is important that tools are simple and can be used for quick and clear feedback. E.g. displaying the MUBA on the screen of the machines will create more motivation under employees to keep the machine running than printing out the results at the end of the week. Clear and quantifiable feedback on team level will let employees experience progress which motivates them.
Once the operators have tackled numerous amounts of equipment defects and breakdowns, they can taste the satisfaction of successful improvement. This development of a “Can-Do” attitude really motivates operators to initiate more small improvement activities. A positive attitude, ownership and concern are developed.
When the goals are set in agreement with the team members themselves they will feel involved and responsible for it. Recognition and acceptation of individual responsibility (Empowerment) for equipment will rise. Furthermore, continuous visualization of results during the process is important.
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White boards in the factory must provide clear and up-to-date information. In the current situation shop floor workers seldom look at it, because the given information is often not relevant.
For the long-term, the monitoring and evaluation of goals in terms of TPM implementation steps have to be done (Planning the implementation). It has to be clear for middle management and shop floor workers what the actual status of the implementation is and which steps have to be taken. So, employees will have more understanding of how their daily tasks contribute to the whole and how it fits within the TPM philosophy. E.g. meetings and items on the whiteboards and flat screens are possible means to inform the employees about the current status of the implementation plan.
8.1.2 Communication & Information Communication & Information is highly intertwined with the other enabling activities. It forms an important part in practically all of the other categories. So , it forms a strong means to create employee commitment.
According to the survey, shop floor workers do not receive sufficient information about the exact goals and guidelines of TPM and how TPM influences their daily tasks. In order to realize employee commitment under the shop floor workers more understanding has to be created. The average education level of the production is not so high, and for some of them it is hard see the actual meaning of TPM and how to perform well in the implementation. E.g. some misunderstandings and lack of knowledge about TPM still exists on the shop floor. Some production workers have the feeling that TPM is trying to make production workers to do more work. So, the management has to accentuate the benefits of TPM for their daily tasks and let them understand the whole concept. Furthermore, TPM is often seen as some sort of isolated project which is done parallel to ‘normal’ production instead of a new culture.
A refreshing introductory presentation (training) for the production people can be given, or at least for the new employees which are contracted recently. It is time to make clear that now the reorganization has been done the focus will be on TPM again. Misunderstandings have to be taken away now the fear for losing their jobs is overcome.
An open atmosphere and the involvement of BAT Niemeyer’s communications department will form critical success factors. Furthermore, informal meetings of top and middle management and union representatives to discuss TPM can be useful in addition to the formal communication. By open and meaningful communication about aims and goals, and about the TPM concept and how it will affect employees personally, understanding and involvement will be increased.
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8.1.3 Empowerment After the reorganization more responsibility has moved from middle management to the teams on the shop floor. The survey confirmed this so the shop floor workers are aware of it. That is a positive fact which will result in involvement, job satisfaction and the feeling of ownership.
In general the shop floor workers react positive on the fact that they are allowed to take more decisions which are of influence on the production process. They have the feeling that their contribution is important for BAT Niemeyer and that they can make a difference. The only thing is that their contributions are mainly focused on keeping up with the production planning because of the pressure of workload mentioned earlier. At the moment they do not feel the responsibility of, for example, initiating improvement actions by filling in Kaizens.
Once the pressure of workload has been taken down and the time and means are available, BAT Niemeyer can expect responsibility related to TPM actions from the teams. Thereby is it important that the teams will set their own goals and targets (see recommendations Monitoring & Evaluation) in agreement with middle management (area manager) in order to create ownership and involvement. Subsequently, because they have the responsibility in achieving the goals, successes have to be rewarded and bad behavior must not be tolerated by management.
8.2 Improvement of the ‘elimination of losses’ process
8.2.1 Selection of a model machine The selection of a model machine can be useful for BAT Niemeyer. The implementation of TPM by means of big bang strategy far more difficult than starting with only one machine. BAT Niemeyer will be able to focus resources on one machine and the lessons learned can rolled out over the factory. The fact that the machines in the factory show high similarity forms a big advantage in this process. The example of the ‘tobacco change’ optimization, mentioned in chapter 8.4, illustrates how useful a model machine can be. Besides the improvement of standard operating procedures the model machine will be very useful to test machine adaptations.
When using a model machine where team members will be selected to contribute to certain improvement actions some aspects need to be taken into account. Non selected TPM-members can have the feeling that the workload increases during the implementation and that they are isolated from TPM. It is important to involve the other shop floor workers with the TPM activities by means of clear and open communication and information so that they understand the meaning of it and know that they can benefit from it themselves.
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8.2.2 OEE measurement & target setting In chapter 7.2 it became clear that the calculation of the OEE at BAT Niemeyer is unreliable, labor intensive and does not satisfy the information need. Several steps of improvement need to be taken in order to make the OEE useful as a basis for improvement actions.
Initially, the content and the form of the needed data, has to be determined. Information related to losses has to be on such an aggregation level that is useful for the shop floor workers. Too detailed data may result in unmotivated personnel and reaction against measurement. Data must be collected and owned- and reviewed daily and weekly.
Based on the generated information they have to able to investigate and eliminate losses. The possibilities of the ERP’s have to be investigated. It would ideal if the ERP’s aggregation level of data registering could be extended to a lower level. In the current situation the operators are expected to measure the losses on a low aggregation level during production, which is inaccurate and labor intensive. Besides, it frustrates shop floor workers. The production form needs to be revised. The form can only contain information which can be registered accurately by the operators during their shift. Writing down inaccurate information is just a waste of resources.
Furthermore, ambiguities related to the interface connection between the ERP’s and the OEE-toolkit have to be solved. Losses clearly have to be categorized (according to the Six Big Losses, chapter 5.2) and data has to be processed according to a fixed procedure and not in an arbitrary manner. Without a constant and fixed procedure the output is unreliable and not useful.
The data collection problem is not uncommon in TPM organizations. The advantage at BAT Niemeyer (mini-factory 1) is the fact that the machines show high similarity. Investigation and tests can be done on one (model) machine and then improvements can be rolled out over the other machines.
If the preceding improvements can hardly be realized on the short-term, the measurement of the MUBA (mean units between assist) forms a good, temporary alternative. In the control screen of the machine the MUBA (total number of units produced / number of stoppages) can easily be displayed. It gives simple and quick feedback and shows progress.
Finally, it is essential that the elimination process which is formed around the measurement (see chapter 8.1.1), is designed in such a way that the OEE- measurement leads to structural improvement actions. If the OEE-measures are pure seen as a management tool, the shop floor workers do not buy in.
Target setting
The ‘target setting’ recommendations are already discussed in the Monitoring & Evaluation paragraph. The setting of targets forms an essential element in the Monitoring & Evaluation process.
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8.2.3 Determination of the causes of losses & creating improvements In order to boost the improvement culture at BAT Niemeyer the formation of formal cross-functional FI- team could be very useful. A central team with members from production, maintenance (PT’s) and engineering (OTS / FTS) which is in charge of leading the improvement plans and is responsible for establishing lines of action, priorities and tracking activities related to the TPM master plan. Is has to be the core around which the continuous improvement plan revolves. The production-, quality- or TPM manager coordinates or leads the group. The members have to be well trained in TPM principles and have a relatively high educational level. It is preferred that they are relative young of age so that they are more eager to learn and accept change.
The team has to aim for maximum participation of all area employees. So, the team can receive contributions (ideas, suggestions, etc.) from anyone in the area, even though they do not belong to the team. In this way the local knowledge from the teams can be centralized, used and spread over other areas. In the current situation knowledge, ideas, etc., often stays within the boundaries of the team while it is useful for other teams because they have nearly identical machines and processes.
While the FI-team is occupied with the more complex problems and guarding the continuity of the continuous improvement process, the PT’s in the teams can focus on eliminating losses in the OEE of their ‘own’ machines and maintenance tasks. Once the OEE is revised and gives reliable and accurate information, concrete short-term goals can be set and be evaluated. Formal meetings between the PT’s of the teams and members of the FI-team should be planned in order to exchange problems, findings and knowledge.
8.2.4 Embedding of improvements in standards Within mini-factory 1 standard activities which are repeated several times a day are carried out in various ways and so often not carried out in an efficient way. By defining these work processes in SOP’s a certain situation can be fixed, which means that a certain level of equipment-efficiency can be fixed. Then, by using creativity and innovation ability these standards can be improved. The FI-team has to play a leading role in the improved implementation of SOP’s.
First, all the currently present SOP’s (like one-point-lessons) have to be traced, collected and checked on completeness. Then, a library has to be created in which the SOP’s can be stored and managed. Finally, the SOP’s have to be present at the locations where they are used as reminder.
It has to be clear for the employees why the standards are used and that it is inevitable in optimizing the production process (OEE). E.g. the necessity and the benefits of it can easily be illustrated with an example like the tobacco change where clearly expensive production time is spoiled. Bad behavior of employees must not be tolerated by management. If the management does not emphasize the importance of it, especially in the start-up phase, personnel will be prone to do it their own way.
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Involvement of the shop floor workers in improving the standards will make them more willing to accept the new standards and use them as guidelines.
9 Conclusions & Recommendations
This research started with a preliminary investigation in order to determine how BAT Niemeyer scored on the TPM principles. The scope of the following main investigation was set on the two lowest scoring principles, ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’.
The main objective of the main investigation was to determine the causes for the relative low integration of the ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘elimination of losses’ TPM principles at BAT Niemeyer. Subsequently, recommendations had to be made in order to achieve a structural improved implementation of these principles resulting in an OEE increase.
The existing lack of ‘cultural awareness’ can mainly be assigned to shortcomings of senior and middle management in the performance of activities within the Measuring & Evaluation-, Communication & Information- and Empowerment categories. These categories of activities were statistically proven to be of significant influence on employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer.
In order to increase employee commitment at BAT Niemeyer results of the TPM implementation continually have to be measured, monitored and followed through the process. In formal meetings concrete short-, mid- and long-term goals have to be set in terms of measurable and quantifiable results and have to be evaluated per team. Furthermore, because misunderstandings exist, employees have to be provided with sufficient information about the exact goals, guidelines and benefits of TPM and how it influences their daily tasks. So, open and meaningful communication about aims and goals of TPM is essential. Finally, in order to create commitment, responsibility related to TPM implementation has to be shared with the shop floor workers which results in involvement, job satisfaction and ownership. When the management is not able to create an environment in which employees feel recognized and involved, employees will not have the drive to contribute to the organization’s goals.
The ‘elimination of losses’ process at BAT Niemeyer has several shortcomings which have to be improved. A model machine has to be selected that acts as a guideline for the replication of improvements and lessons within TPM over the factory. The measurement and calculation of the OEE has to be improved. The current OEE cannot form the basis for improvement actions. A cross- functional Focused-Improvement team has to be formed which will drive improvements in the factory
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and aims at maximum engagement of the shop floor workers. The use of SOP’s has to be improved. Causes of losses can be eliminated and embedded in the organization by improving the SOP’s.
Besides the implementation of the preceding improvements the workload has to be taken down, so time can be spent on TPM activities. Furthermore, untrained employees have to indicated and educated so that all of them are able to work according the TPM philosophy. Now the reorganization is carried out the “old” master plan can be picked up again.
Reflection & Further investigation
In literature and in this research TPM is divided into different principles which are considered as separate parts of the TPM concept. During the research I discovered that in practice these principles are highly inter related and it is very hard to consider them individually. So, eventually it would be better to consider the concept as a whole. However, it was impossible due to time limitations.
Enabling activities (Hansson & Backlund, 2003) are of great influence on the intangible factors like involvement, understanding, motivation, etc., and so affect employee commitment. In the research three of the categories were proven to be statistically of significant influence. Nevertheless, these activities must not be seen as a comprehensive means to create commitment. During the research I discovered that the social relations and the characteristics of the team members could probably be of great impact on the performance of the team. Some team members do not work in a co-operative manner. This affects the morale of the team and so the performance of the team. Therefore further investigation within group development is desirable in order to optimize team performance.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: TPM Assessment tool CULTURAL AWARENESS
1 Plant Management communicates with shop floor workers regarding employee satisfaction and organizational objectives at least twice per year.
2 Employees are able to accurately describe the organizations goals and how their job contributes to the achievement of those goals.
3 There is a formal process for production workers to regularly receive feedback on problems detected in downstream processes and at the customer.
4 There is a formal process in place that provides shop floor workers the opportunity to work in groups to address performance, quality, or safety issues.
5 Shop floor employees understand and can use common performance metrics to monitor and improve production processes.
6 When problems in the production process occur they are detected and investigated within 10 minutes of the first occurrence (e.g. Whether it be engineering, maintenance, or support personnel, there is a sense of urgence to rectify problems when they occur.)
7 Employees know the six wastes, are actively involved in identifying waste in their processes and are empowered to work to reduce or eliminate the waste.
8 Production engineers and support staff routinely go to the spot of a problem in production to assess the actual situation and talk to production workers.
9 De basisprincipes van TPM worden duidelijk door het management uitgedragen.
5S
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1 The plant is generally clear of all unnecessary materials or scrap and isles are clear of obstructions.
2 Machines have all safety guard devices operative, and are and locked out immediately when broken down.
3 Lines on the floor clearly distinguish work areas, paths, and material handling isles. Signs clearly identify production, inventory staging, and material drop areas.
4 All employees are considerate of housekeeping and operators consider daily “clean-up & put away” activities part of their jobs.
5 There is "a place for everything and everything in its place"; every container, tool and part rack is clearly labelled and easily accessible to the user. People using tools, parts, fixtures, quality gages, etc. know where to find them.
6 Updated display boards containing job training, safety, operating measurable, production data, quality problem and countermeasure information are readily visible throughout the plant.
7 Product quality and productivity boards are updated frequently for each line or process (e.g. product quality; returns, scrap, FTT, SPC. Productivity; production, uptime, utilization, etc. Operators get regular feedback on the team’s performance.)
8 Check-sheets describing and tracking the top defects are posted and up to date at each work station (e.g. Each operator is aware of the key quality points and defect history of the process they are doing).
9 Alle werkplekken binnen de organisatie zijn volgens het 5S principe ingericht.
10 There is good, effective communication between production shifts in the plant (e.g. Equipment, quality problems, production schedules, etc. are communicated daily, and production areas are left “ready to go” by the previous shift)
EDUCATIE EN TRAINING
1 A Standard Operating Procedure (or SOP) has been developed and used to train operators for each production process.
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2 Operators are given a formal training period before doing a job on their own. Few defects or production slowdowns are attributable to new/inexperienced operators.
3 Production operators are multi-process capable; fully trained and able to do the work at each ` station in a production cell or each job in a production line team.
4 Maintenance team managers and workers have been trained in the basics of TPM.
5 Employees have been trained in the continuous improvement methods and have been affected by or participated in a continuous improvement project.
6 Workers have been trained in the basics of error-proofing and there is a team responsible for analyzing production defects and identifying error proofing opportunities.
7 Op het moment dat er een nieuwe installatie in het proces wordt opgenomen, worden alle betrokken werknemers geschoold zodat ze de installatie kunnen bedienen.
ELIMINEREN VAN VERLIEZEN
1 Frequently repeated, non-production operations in the plant are standardized such as change- over processes, quality checks, equipment and perishable tool checks, etc.
2 SOP’s are time dated and show what and when improvements have been made.
3 SOP’s throughout the plant are regularly audited for completeness and adherence.
4 Operators individually perform their processes according to the process sheets or SOP’s and make few method or technique errors.
5 Defective items are immediately detected when they occur in the production process.
6 Continuous improvement projects are structured, planned, and time boxed; successes are recognized and expanded throughout the plant.
7 Voor alle installaties binnen de organisatie is bekend wat de availability is.
8 Voor alle geproduceerde producten binnen de organisatie is bekend hoeveel % er defect is.
9 Voor alle installaties binnen de organisatie is bekend wat de efficiency is.
10 Voor alle installaties binnen de organisatie is bekend wat de OEE is.
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11 Voor alle werknemers binnen de organisatie is bekend welke soort verliezen van invloed zijn op welke parameter van de OEE.
12 De organisatie maakt gebruik van analyse methoden om de primaire oorzaak van verliezen te achterhalen.
PREVENTIEF ONDERHOUD
1 Al het preventieve onderhoud dat uitgevoerd dient te worden, is vastgelegd in een onderhoudsplan.
2 Van de veel voorkomende verliezen en defecten is het duidelijk waar deze verliezen en defecten vandaan komen.
3 Het achterhalen van de oorzaken van defecten gebeurt aan de hand van gestructureerde methoden als FMEA of RCA .
4 Voor alle werknemers binnen de organisatie is duidelijk wat de meest voorkomende defecten zijn en wat de reden is van die defecten.
5 Error-proofing devices and methods have been implemented or are being developed to eliminate the top production defects for each work area in the plant.
6 Preventive maintenance activity lists are posted in work areas and item completions are tracked over time.
7 Preventive maintenance activities are focused on increasing utilization and minimizing cycle time variation.
8 Preventive maintenance responsibilities are defined for both maintenance and production workers.
9 Al het preventieve onderhoud is vast gelegd is standaarden.
10 Elke installatie heeft een norm om duidelijk te maken op welk moment het preventieve onderhoud uitgevoerd zou moeten worden.
AUTONOOM ONDERHOUD
1 Alle onderhoudstaken die door de operator moeten worden uitgevoerd zijn vast gelegd in standaarden.
2 Bij het opstellen van de standaarden is de operator ondersteund door een specialist.
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3 Alle gereedschappen en administratieve hulpmiddelen voor het uitvoeren van autonoom onderhoud zijn aanwezig.
4 Operators houden zich naast het bedienen van de productie-installaties bezig met het schoonmaken, smeren en controleren van installaties.
5 Er wordt gewerkt volgend een algemeen onderhoudsplan dat is opgesteld door de onderhoudsdienst.
6 Er is voldoende tijd ingepland voor het uitvoeren van autonoom onderhoud.
7 Er is terugkoppeling naar de operators over de behaalde resultaten die zijn behaald door het autonome onderhoud.
8 Operators rapporteren naar aanleiding van het gedane onderhoud richting de onderhoudsdienst de volgende punten: verholpen storingen en/of afwijkingen, afwijkingen in het uitvoeren van de standaarden en aanvraag voor onderhoud wat door de operator niet gedaan kan worden omdat hij daar de vaardigheden niet voor bezit.
EARLY EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT
QUESTIONS: SCORE*
1 There is a formal process in place to solicit ideas and suggestions for improvements from all employees and to recognize their participation (e.g. Suggestion systems, quality circles, incentive programs, etc.)
2 Operators provide input and are involved in the process of job design, engineering and standardization.
3 Nadat een nieuwe installatie opgeleverd is, wordt het onderhoud aan de installatie uitgevoerd op basis van de beschrijving van de leverancier.
4 Een nieuwe installatie wordt direct in het plan voor preventief - en autonoom onderhoud opgenomen.
5 Bij het ontwerpen, bouwen en aanbesteden van nieuwe installaties wordt er nauw samengewerkt tussen operators, engineering en onderhoud.
Results TPM tool
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Manufacturing Manager 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Score (0-10)
Cultural awareness 2 1 3 3 1 1 1 3 1 4.4
5S 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 2 1 5.5
Educatie & Training 2 3 3 1 3 4 4 7.1
Elimineren van verliezen 3 2 0 2 3 2 2 3 3 3 2 1 5.4
Preventief onderhoud 3 2 0 1 3 2 2 3 3 3 5.5
Autonoom onderhoud 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 3 5.9
Early Equipment management 2 2 3 4 3 7.0
Researcher 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Score (0-10)
Cultural awareness 2 1 3 3 1 1 1 3 1 4.4
5S 3 3 3 4 3 2 2 0 3 2 6.3
Educatie & Training 2 3 3 2 3 3 4 7.1
Elimineren van verliezen 3 2 0 2 3 1 1 2 1 2 1 0 3.8
Preventief onderhoud 3 2 0 2 4 3 3 3 3 3 6.5
Autonoom onderhoud 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 3 6.3
Early Equipment management 2 2 3 4 3 7.0
Quality Manager 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Score (0-10)
Cultural awareness 1 2 2 3 4 3 2 3 1 5.8
5S 3 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 4 3 7.8
Educatie & Training 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 8.2
Elimineren van verliezen 3 3 1 2 2 3 1 0 3 3 3 1 5.2
Preventief onderhoud 4 3 1 2 0 2 4 4 4 4 7.0
Autonoom onderhoud 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 9.4
Early Equipment management 4 3 4 4 4 9.5
Appendix 2: ‘Cultural Awareness’ Questionnaire Score: 1 = helemaal niet mee eens
2 = gedeeltelijk niet mee eens
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Stelling: 3 = neutraal
4 = gedeeltelijk mee eens
5 = helemaal mee eens
Ondersteuning en leiderschap
1 Mijn leidinggevende laat mij duidelijk zien dat werken volgens TPM erg belangrijk is 1 2 3 4 5
voor BAT Niemeyer.
Toelichting:
2 Mijn leidinggevende heeft mij laten zien wat de voordelen van TPM voor mijn eigen 1 2 3 4 5
werk zijn.
Toelichting:
3 Ik krijg van mijn leidinggevende voldoende tijd en middelen om het 1 2 3 4 5
productieproces te verbeteren.
Toelichting:
4 Als ik een idee heb voor verbetering of het ergens niet mee eens ben wordt hier 1 2 3 4 5
door mijn leidinggevende naar geluisterd.
Toelichting:
Ontwikkeling strategisch besef
5 Het is mij duidelijk hoe TPM op de lange termijn bijdraagt aan het voortbestaan 1 2 3 4 5
van onze productie in Groningen (“Made in Groningen”).
Toelichting:
Planning van de TPM implementatie
6 Het is mij duidelijk hoe ver we op dit moment zijn met de invoering van TPM. 1 2 3 4 5
Toelichting:
7 Het is mij duidelijk hoe de invoering van TPM verder moet verlopen.
Toelichting:
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8 Ik word als lid van een team samen met collega’s betrokken bij de invoering van 1 2 3 4 5
TPM.
Toelichting:
9 Het is voor ons team duidelijk wat er op het gebied van TPM van ons verwacht 1 2 3 4 5
wordt.
Toelichting:
Ontwikkeling verwachtingspatroon en eigen verantwoordelijkheid
10 BAT Niemeyer bespreekt met ons team wat wij zelf van TPM verwachten. 1 2 3 4 5
Toelichting:
11 3Ik mag bij het werken volgens TPM ook zelf bepaalde beslissingen nemen die 1 2 3 4 5
invloed hebben op de productie.
Toelichting:
Meten van resultaten en evaluatie 12 De resultaten van de invoering van TPM op de productie worden gemeten. 1 2 3 4 5
Toelichting:
13 De gemeten resultaten van de invoering van TPM worden met ons team besproken. 1 2 3 4 5
Toelichting:
14 Uit de gemeten resultaten wordt mij duidelijk wat voor mijzelf de voordelen van 1 2 3 4 5
TPM zijn.
Toelichting:
Training en opleiding 15 Ik ben goed getraind in de basisprincipes (Kaizen, 5s, Een-punts-lessen, samenstelling 1 2 3 4 5 MOEE) van TPM en weet hoe ik die in mijn dagelijkse werk moet gebruiken.
Toelichting:
16 BAT Niemeyer biedt mij de mogelijkheid tot het volgen van TPM-cursussen of – 1 2 3 4 5 trainingen.
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Toelichting:
Communicatie en informatie 17 Ik krijg vanuit het bedrijf voldoende goede informatie over het doel van TPM. 1 2 3 4 5
Toelichting:
18 Ik krijg vanuit het bedrijf voldoende goede informatie over de betekenis van TPM 1 2 3 4 5 voor mijn eigen dagelijkse werkzaamheden.
Toelichting:
Algemeen vertrouwen in TPM
19 Ik heb vertrouwen in TPM en ik ben gemotiveerd om het succesvol te maken. 1 2 3 4 5
Appendix 3: Questionnaire Results
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Item 7 Item 8
Item 9 Item 10
Item 11 Item 12
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Appendix 4: Production Forms
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Appendix 4: Production forms
Ochtend Produktieformulier MOEE Pakkerijen Datum: RPM: Machine: Naam:
(a) (b) (c) (D) Batch Produktomschrijving Spec. Nr. Blend Produktie Lege bakken Uitval (a+b+c) / rpm TRW
Uitgepland via bedrijfsbureau en goedgekeurd : Lektest (aanvang dienst, machine overdracht, iedere twee uur) Lunchpauze min. Tijd: Proeven / testen KD min. 0 - 100 Perfect TPM-activiteiten min. 100 - 200 Goed Werkoverleg min. 200 - 300 Actie Uitgepland anders min.
> 300 Afkeur Totaal (E) : min.
Controle uiterlijke aspecten Opmerkingen: Tijd: 6:30 7:15 8:15 9:15 10:15 11:15 12:15 13:15 14:00 Paraaf:
Controle specificatie (aanvang dienst, machine overdracht, produktwissel) Tijd: 6:00 Paraaf:
Figure 1: Production form front side
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Batch Batch Batch Batch 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 tijd freq tijd freq tijd freq tijd freq Weger / Jacobsladder Pouche maak/invoer Pouche-overg./inslagkam Binnensealunit Meeneemketting / band Tape unit Banderollen unit Afvoercontrole Checkweger
storing Printer / Laser Flowwrap / Cello. Mach Inloopverzamelaar Parcel/TBD machine Bundeltransport Casepacker Omkasting Starten/ Afsluiten Wisselen Geen personeel Bijvullen materiaal Geen materiaal Slecht materiaal Wachten TSE Wachten OGP stilstand Poetsen / AO Stofzuigen / Schoonmaken AGP down/dozentrans. Op extern verzoek
Totaal stilstand & storing : + + + = Pouchecontrole Flapcontrole
+ kortestop
Opmerkingen: Totaal korte stops : + + + + D = = = =
Productietijd : + + + = + E = Totaal geschreven tijd
Figure 2: Production form backside
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