So close! Don't overlook this in TPM ...

Uh, oh ...

The much-championed TPM has one tiny downer: An alleged increase in work-related injuries.

With all the potential benefits of implementing the Total Productive Maintenance philosophy, there are a few disadvantages. In the throes of championing worker autonomy, someone forgot to mention that a more diversified worker can potentially mean more diversified injuries.

It happens like this ... A worker uses his machine with skill and ease. In a wave of TPM implementation, he learns to clean and maintain it. Blades are checked and cleaned, the engine is serviced, the functionality of various parts is tested periodically, and needed lubrication is performed. With each new task, the potential for injury increases.

“Not surprisingly, strains and sprains continue to be the bane of many companies, especially with increasingly autonomous workers who act as they think best,” said Robert Prater, a director with Strategic Safety, in an article for Occupational Health & Safety.

So what's the solution? In the enthusiasm to implement TPM, be sure to address safety concerns. A more weighted workload will inevitably introduce more ways to get hurt. Safety training in addition to simple operation training is necessary, but often overlooked. Cleaning supplies can be harmful to the skin or eyes; sharp blades are dangerous to clean or lubricate. There are many potential hazards in any task in nearly any given facility that ought to be addressed, especially for a worker who is newly trained to perform such tasks. Fortunately, OSHA has set in place myriad standards for training and safety

Conversely, the benefits of TPM still far outweigh any negative aspects. The goal of TPM is to maximize equipment effectiveness and longevity and reduce and eliminate loss. These goals are accomplished through three main objectives: standardizing procedures for consistency, streamlining procedures with visual communication, and maximizing the use of space and resources (people and equipment). That last element – maximizing resources – can't be achieved without necessary training on both operational and safety fronts.

Two, Four, Six, Eight ... Wait, No, Just Six.

Toyota got its own lean term. Anyone else? Motorola raised its hand in that great classroom known as industry and introduced ... Six Sigma.

While the methodology is lean at heart, its objective is more data-driven and statistically based. Six Sigma strives to reduce product- and service-quality problems or defects, which naturally translates into some lean-championed benefits like improved productivity, waste reduction, and enhanced customer satisfaction.

Six Sigma, so named because of its emphasis on the statistics measure of deviation from the mean, has fallen under fire lately with analysts questioning its validity.

A quick rundown of Six Sigma, according to Plant Services' asset manager: For normal distributions, 68% of the population should fall within one standard deviation, or sigma, of the mean. For quite some time, many companies upheld a three-sigma benchmark for quality, meaning that you could expect parts to be within specification 99.73% of the time (or have a defect rate of about 2.7 per 1,000 parts). However, Motorola noticed that a process could vary by nearly 1.5 sigma over time, which would mean those parts could have a defect rate of about 0.995 to 1.005 per 1,000. This slight variation in numbers could have a significant impact. For a 1.5-sigma drift in the mean, the sigma level would have to shift to a tolerance of plus/minus six sigma. This new acceptable tolerance level is 3.4 defects per million opportunities, or rather, at least 99.9996599% of data points should fall within plus/minus six sigma from the mean.

Got that?

Team Motorola figured that the ever-ebbing wave of technology was so complex that a more forward-thinking approach to quality levels was needed. Motorola Corp. was one of the first, back in the late 80s, to alter the notion that quality levels ought to be measured in parts per hundred to a case where quality levels should be measured in parts per million or parts per billion.

Since then, Motorola has reported savings of upwards of $17 billion. Not too shabby. The likes of Honeywell, 3M, and General Electric have followed suit, incorporating Six Sigma methodology into their lean practices.

So if money is being saved, mathematical minds are hard at work, and companies are going lean, what's the big problem? Plenty, according to analysts, starting with creativity.

A number of business publications have explored the criticisms of Six Sigma, coming to the same conclusions. First, the rigid and narrow standards of Six Sigma can stifle creativity, prompting "incremental innovation at the expense of blue-sky work." In other words, a company can get so caught up in meeting Six Sigma's limited acceptability that commitment to innovation or value is sacrificed in the name of stark quality. Second, that although the gist of Six Sigma is effective at fixing an existing process, it doesn't help in "coming up with new products or technologies," according to Business Week. Finally, some critics peg the standard deviation shift as arbitrary, maintaining the reasons for choosing six as the number is neither clearly defined nor justified.

What does this all mean? The lesson we have been learning all along: No lean process, be it TPM or Six Sigma -- worker based or data driven -- is a panacea for any business. What these methodologies ought to be promoting is a new way to examine processes, an example of how to think and act differently, and a basic outline for how to proceed successfully and effectively.

One-Way Ticket from Japan to Ohio

How does that cliche go? You can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Consider this: That old dog might not need any new tricks. Especially when he's man's best friend.

Gary L. Convis, a 40-year veteran of the domestic auto industry, spent nearly a quarter century with the glorious Japanese auto maker Toyota at its North American manufacturing plant. Convis had just retired last year after running Toyota Motor Corp. stateside, and now has been picked up by the likes of Dana Corp.

The Toledo-based automobile-components supplier has been struggling with its recent bankruptcy and is looking to the touted "manufacturing whiz" for some lean, mean guidance, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Convis is now the CEO of the $8.7 billion Dana Holding Corp., and everyone is looking to the seasoned pro for his expertise in lean manufacturing.

Analysts believe that if Convis could get Dana to adopt a little Toyota philosophy, things could really turn around for the Fortune 500 firm.

Never mind that the Toyota Production System was generated half a century ago ...

But perhaps that's the magic of lean? Someone actually got it right the first time?

Dana reportedly lost over $550 million last year, but Convis is confident that with a little lean implementation, he can get that turned around, starting with restoring employee's pride in their company. It may seem an odd place to start, but really, it just makes sense. One of the main elements of lean TPM is worker autonomy, which is achieved by touting a worker's ability to have nearly complete independence in his or her job and total responsibility for his or her equipment. Lean experts promote such autonomy by fostering a sense of pride in those duties among workers, and perpetuate that pride with recognition of accomplishments and successes.

In an interview with the Toledo Blade, Convis commented, "I come back to the fundamentals. It's been a couple tough years for sure. I think people's morale is related to pride in working for a great company."

Norman Bodek, who publishes books on productivity, maintains that many companies have embraced lean, but they "wrestle with a fundamental component of the philosophy: the worker."

"We've had this myth of individuality," he said in an interview with the Oregonian. "Management has used that myth to dominate workers and keep them separate. The shame is, we all love teams. We're excited that the Blazers did so well .... It's puzzling to me why we don't have teams in every American company. It's a powerful missing ingredient."

So THAT'S how Toyota got it right the first time! They focused on the integral factor that would never go away: People!

With that concept at the heart of lean, I foresee that philosophy sticking around for another 50 years, and beyond. Dana Corp. will bounce back with Convis as its leader. And hopefully more American companies will follow suit and streamline their operations and focus more on their workers.

Another Point for Labels!

As it turns out, labels are pretty helpful.

While brushing up on some reading about dry chemical safety (isn't that what everyone peruses in their spare time?), I came across an article about the importance of visual communication in the inspection process of dry chemical fire extinguishers. How about that! Apart from properly functioning valves and pressure gauges, the first thing to consider when inspecting a dry chemical fire extinguisher (and good old regular fire extinguishers, too, I imagine) is the labeling. First, a proper fire extinguisher should indicate the class of fire for which it is meant, and a rating number indicating its extinguishing capabilities. This information should be coupled with a rundown of required chemical levels and weight, suitable temperatures for storage and operation, and some hydrostatic test stickers. It sounds like someone over at the dry chemical fire extinguisher factory has 5S on the brain.

Visual communication as a means to organize, streamline operations, and ultimately deliver pertinent information at the exact point it is needed has become key in any business or operation. Its function to inform, warn, and assist has become seemingly commonplace, yet surprisingly few facilities seem to really embrace its benefits. A simple label or sign can diffuse confusion and enhance understanding. Just as you wouldn't want to pick up that fire extinguisher and pull the pin without knowing proper instructions and whether it was even appropriate for the job, you wouldn't approach a lighting panelboard without knowing which circuits are separated by which breakers. This information is generally communicated via color coding and labeling, two useful tools for making anything -- from panelboards to fire extinguishers -- more user-friendly. (And OSHA-friendly!)

At a loss for how to implement some lean-induced visual communication? Start with the basics. Take a visual tour of your facility or workspace, focusing first on safety (what hazards or warnings ought to be marked? what requires PPE?), and then on organization and function (should the inventory shelving be marked? could that bundle of cords be color-coded?). Then get to the fun part: creating the signs and labels. Try out the DuraLabel PRO , a leading industrial-grade label printer that can generate everything from the tiniest wire wrap to reflective parking lot signs. Working alongside your own PC, this handy printer can produce pipe markers, warehouse labels, NFPA diamonds, and OSHA-compliant safety signs, and more using its own templates or your Microsoft docs.

To take a page from the lean book, check out www.labelprinter.com.

Look, Don't Touch: Using TPS Effectively

Let's talk Toyota. Not the cars (though I hear they have stellar crash-test ratings), but the methodology employed on the industrial and business fronts.

Since the rise of the TPS (Toyota Production System) regime, businesses everywhere have gone lean. Lean is good. Lean is efficient, productive, and waste-free. The main goals of TPS are to design out overburden, inconsistency, and eliminate waste. Seeing the obvious advantages, managers shake their heads while chuckling, “Those Toyota guys! What will they come up with next?”

So what's the problem? Revering TPS and all things appertaining to it to the point of complete dependence on it. When a business is confronted with a challenge, rather than examining its company-specific needs and roadblocks to find a creative solution, it asks, What would Toyota do? It’s a fair enough inquiry; after all, Toyota's name is in the title of the philosophy. But that's just it – TPS is meant to be a business philosophy, not a panacea for all things challenging on the workfront.

Using different lean concepts championed by TPS, businesses in need of a little direction should reevaluate their use of kanban, kaizen, and 5S techniques. Don't make a blanket comparison between your company and another – each is intrinsically different and will require solutions catered to their respective dynamics.

The following is an analogy from Gembutsu Consulting:

“Imagine that we are given the task of winning a bicycle race. Unfortunately, we are not bicycle experts and do not know what type of equipment to purchase for this race. Luckily, we are very good friends with an expert. In fact, he is a Tour de France champ! We call upon this individual for his recommendations with the mindset that his knowledge and experience can surely help us prepare for and win a race. With great excitement and passion, our friend runs through his preferred bicycle brands, models, and training methods. Satisfied with this information, we go to the local bike shop and make a purchase based on our friend's recommendations. On race day, we are terribly disappointed to find that this ‘expert’ recommended bikes made for competition on a flat, paved road, while we will be racing on dirt trails in rough, mountainous terrain.”

Every business is different, from warehouse to office space. There are differences in end product, in production, company size, equipment, building makeup, company hierarchy and culture, needs, etc. It is illogical, then, to expect that exact replication of business practices would translate well in any workplace. While a general system or model for improvement and success ought to be implemented, relying on the exact play-by-play of another business (even one as esteemed as Toyota) will fall short of your company’s needs, abilities, and goals.

“When we copy specific tools (“I need a bicycle”) without understanding why, even with the best intentions, we run a great risk of implementing the wrong solution,” according to Gembutsu. While one modification may have worked for the “benchmark company,” it may not be appropriate for your company based on all the factors.

The moral of the story? Don’t be lazy and expect Toyota to fix everything for you. I hear they've got a pretty demanding automobile schedule. If your business needs a little nudge in the right direction or a complete overhaul, examine the specific reasons that need exists in the first place. Evaluate the company dynamic, from equipment usage to personnel issues, and, armed with TPS philosophy, start making decisions that will result in a leaner, meaner business. You know what TPS' ultimate goal is; now use your brilliant business to get your company there.

For a little extra help on streamlining your business Toyota-style, check out Graphic Products, Inc., a lean manufacturer and supplier of premier industrial labeling and printing supplies sure to get any business shaped up with 5S aplomb.

Become TPM Savvy with Labels

Total Productive Maintenance, or TPM, is a wide-ranging program meant to maximize equipment availability. This is achieved with preventive and predictive maintenance. A central idea in TPM is the concept of self-directed maintenance, wherein machine operators are responsible for the routine maintenance and operations of their machines and equipment. With regular, routine maintenance, cleaning, and necessary upgrades, machines and equipment should ultimately improve in functionality and longevity. The major goal of TPM is total elimination of all losses – lost equipment, lost time, lost money. Eradicating these things can lead to improved utilization of production assets and plant capacity, as well as a boost in worker morale.

Graphic Products, Inc., an Oregon-based manufacturer and supplier of industrial-grade printing and labeling products and supplies, provides a key element in getting any facility organized and functional to comply with the TPM philosophy: Labels. By properly and plainly labeling areas, equipment, and maintenance protocol, a workplace will stay more organized and ultimately run more efficiently.

The concept of implementing a standardized labeling system in any facility promotes visual communication, which is simply the idea of communicating pertinent information to a person at the exact point that information is needed. For example, in a wave of TPM overhaul, some specific machinery could be affixed with a series of labels and signage: OSHA-compliant warning labels, RTK labels indicating the type of personal protective equipment (PPE) required for running that machinery, as well as a sign detailing operating instructions, and a sign detailing a maintenance plan. All of this information is presented graphically at the very place the operator most needs it. This is visual communication, and it is a highly effective tool for enhancing efficiency and productivity. Any uncertainty about operating, cleaning, or maintaining the machinery should be eliminated; accidents and injuries should decrease because any hazards or warnings are clearly posted. Graphic Products, Inc., makes this possible with the DuraLabel PRO, the premier labeling machine.This desktop thermal-transfer label printer is extremely versatile and quickly prints anything from small wire wraps to reflective parking signs with the help of your own PC.

As workers become more self-sufficient and proficient in their duties with the help of visual communication, the TPM philosophy can be sustained and a more efficient and ultimately more productive workplace will emerge.

Learn more about how TPM can improve your workplace by requesting a TPM guide, sent to you free.