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CHAPTER – 5 CASE STUDY

In this phase, descriptive case study method has been deployed (Yin, 2003). The

chapter presents the detailed survey conducted in reputed manufacturing organization

that has been engaged in holistic TPM as well as synergetic TQM-TPM implementation

over a considerable period and has realized significant organizational performance

enhancements. The objectives of case study includes investigations of current status of

TPM as well as benefits attained through synergetic TQM-TPM implementation in the

manufacturing organization to assess roadmap followed by Indian manufacturing

entrepreneur and also evaluating the contributions made by strategic TPM approach as

well as TQM-TPM combined approach towards affecting manufacturing performance

enhancements.

The case study has been conducted at Wire Rod Mill plant (WRM), which is a

part of Long Products (LP) division of Tata Steel, at Kharagpur. Wire Rod Mill plant of

Tata Steel started with holistic TPM implementation over a considerable period i.e.

(Financial Year (FY) 01, 02, 03) and have realized significant organizational

performance enhancements over that period of time. Further they have integrated TQM

approach along with TPM i.e. (FY04, 05, 06), so as to attain the synergistic benefits of

both of quality initiative programmes.

In order to scrutinize the manufacturing organizations for the research work,

support was sought from various reputed Indian manufacturing organizations rigorously

involved with adaptation of TQM and TPM principals. For this purpose, the detailed

research objectives, methodology, scope of work was shared and discussed at length

with the industrial experts and resource persons, followed by detailed clarifications and

personal interactions. It was then decided that manufacturing organizations recognized

by TPM Club India and Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) for their exploits in

TQM-TPM implementation should be selected for conducting detailed case study in the

present context. The manufacturing organization has been scrutinized for its exploits in

thses implementation and willingness to share its learning‘s and data related to TPM as

well as synergetic TPM-TQM implementation.

The case study have been conducted in a phased manner starting from the

evolution of the need for incorporating various quality initiative programmes in any

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organization from the tactical level to the excellence with the support of every person

starting from the Top management level to the workers on the shop floor. In the case

study, the methods/techniques/approaches adopted for implementing TQM and TPM,

the success achieved, the modifications made in the future plans has been compiled and

analyzed in detail.

5.1 Tata Steel - Long Products (LP) division

A case study has been taken up at Tata Steel – Wire Rod Mill (WRM), which is

a part of LP division located in the eastern part of India. Tata steel is the flagship

company of the Tata Group, India‘s most admired trademark, with an annual turnover of

$ 2500 millions. Tata group of companies, with an annual turnover of $12000 million, is

one of the oldest business groups in India and has pioneered various new ventures in the

country including steel, textiles, tea, chemicals, telecom, motors, software, hotels and

steel. The company was established at Jamshedpur in 1907, at a time when steel was not

produced in the country in an organised manner.

Today it represents the country‘s single largest integrated steel works in the

private sector. It has a stature of being the lowest cost producer of Steel globally.

Though the Company‘s main business is manufacturing and sales of various types of

steel, it is also involved in forward and backward integration of steel. Tata Steel Group

is the fifth largest flat steel producer in the world with a production of 14 million tones.

Tata Steel represents country‘s single largest integrated steel works in the private sector

and exemplifies India‘s industrial growth. The operations include raw material mining,

iron making, steel making, rolling it in to various products like Hot Rolled Coils, Cold

Rolled Coils, Wire Rods, Reinforcing Bars and further downstream to pipes, rings,

bearings etc. Steel Business Unit is further categorized in Profit centers or Cost centers.

Figure – 5.1 depicts various core business activities of Tata Steel. Out of this,

Tata Steel Long Products division (LP) was formed through a reorganization in year

1999 as a part of steel business unit in order to bring focus on the LP business portfolio.

The Division with a turnover of 900 million US dollar accounts for about 28% of the

total turnover of Tata Steel. The Division had an margin of 43% which is the highest in

the world among all large (> 1 million tonne) Long Product producers. This is largely

because it caters to the high end segment of the market through superior quality

products and services while being the lowest cost producer. With an annual sales

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volume of 1.70 million tons, the Division has a domestic market share of about 6% of

the total LP market which is supplied by a large number of secondary and unorganized

producers. However the Division targets only the high end segments in all its product

categories with superior quality products. The key products of LP Division are

Reinforcement bars (Rebars) used in construction and Wire rods consumed by the wire

drawing industry. It is the largest producer of the high end wire rods and the third

largest producer of rebars in India. Rebars and wire rods are offered to both institutional

and retail customers. LP division is headed by Vice-president (VP) and the

organizational chart of the division is shown in Figure – 5.2.

Figure – 5.1 Various business activities of Tata Steel

LP Division believes in conducting business by laying thrust on enhancing

customer relationship, technology up-gradation and employee satisfaction along with

the company‘s business philosophy. Considering employee profile, LP Division has a

motivated and committed workforce of 1589 employees. The workforce is classified

under two broad categories viz. Officers and Non Officers. The Non Officers comprise

two broad categories, Supervisors and Workers. LP Division has a base of

approximately 700 customers in Institutional group of customers. It has identified 16

enterprise accounts and 11 customers as key customers to provide specialized set of

products and services. For retail customers, LP Division has an all India network of 30

distributors and over 1500 retailers. The linkage of products with key segments, some

specific customers along with product and service requirements is given in Table – 5.1.

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Figure – 5.2 Organizational Chart of Long Product Division

Table – 5.1 LP Division market Segments and Requirements

Products Market

Segments

Some Key

Customers

Key Product

Requirements Key Service Requirements

High

Carbon

Wire Rods

Railways,

Automotive

and

Construction

Wire Division,

Miki, RIC,

UIC, Bansal,

Raj Ratan,

Gustav

Chemical Composition

and drawability,

Consistent Mechanical

Properties

Delivery Compliance, New

product Development,

Inventory Management.

Low

Carbon

Wire Rods

Electrodes

ESAB, ADOR,

SHAKUNT,

ANAND ARC

Consistency in

Chemistry, Drawability

Delivery Compliance, New

product Development,

Inventory Management.

Rebars -

Retail

Housing

Construction

Individual

house builders,

Builder

Promoters

Higher Strength re-bars,

BIS compliance,

Negative tolerance,

Recommended Consumer

Price, right weight,

authorized sales outlets,

sales by length,

Replenishment and

complete SKU availability.

Rebars -

Projects

Infrastructure,

Commercial

and industrial

Complexes

HCC,

Gammon,

LandT

Higher Strength re-bars,

BIS compliance,

Negative tolerance

Delivery Commitment and

Compliance, variable

lengths, cut and bent bars,

OE finance, Reliable and

Complete SKU availability.

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5.1.1 Key Strategic Challenges for the LP unit

In keeping with the growth of the economy and the steel markets, LP is aiming to

consolidate and improve its position in the Long Products sector. To that end the

division is aiming to -

a. Become the ‗most preferred‘ rebar supplier to key infrastructure companies in India.

b. Maintain ‗market leadership‘ for rebars in the Individual House Building (IHB)

segment in India.

c. Become the ‗dominant‘ and ‗most preferred‘ supplier of high end wire rods in India.

5.2 Wire Rod Mill Plant (WRM)

Wire Rod Mill (WRM) was established under the modernization phase # 2,

taken by Tata Steel in the year 1983. WRM is one of the major production units in the

long products profit centre (LPCC) as shown in Figure – 5.3. The order for this mill was

placed in October 2, 1984 and the project was completed within a record 28 months

time. Designed and executed with primary emphasis on product quality and at optimum

costs, this single strand Bar and Rod Mill commenced hot rolling on 2nd

March 1987.

The name of the mill was changed to Wire and Rod Mill (WRM) in the year 1999. The

mill is designed for 100 meters per second for 5.5mm diameter Low Carbon Grades (in

No-Twist block) and has a capacity of producing 3,20,000 tons per annum.

Figure – 5.3 Organisational position of Wire Rod Mill

Wire Rod Mill converts billets into Thermo mechanically treated re-bars (First

of its kind in the world) for construction sector application and wire rods to serve the

wire rod customers for different applications in springs, tyre bead, high tensile fasteners,

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nails, wire mesh, pins, PC strand wires, stick and continuous welding electrodes etc for

domestic and export market. The production process at WRM is carried out under

controlled condition at optimum cost. All the main equipments are online like pinch roll

and laying head, cooling facilities, coil handling equipment, coil compactor etc and need

to be operated continuously 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Apart from the main mill

equipments other facilities available at Wire Rod Mill as support facilities are Mill

Providing (for raw material storage), cranes, Oil Cellars, testing Lab, Water Pumps,

offices, stores, Guide repair shops, Roll turning shops, Shipping Yard are also part of

Wire Rod Mill. All the above equipments, areas and the support facilities are subject to

TPM.

5.2.1 Main Products and Production Process at WRM

WRM products can be broadly classified in to two categories, plain rods and

reinforcing bars as shown in Figure – 5.4.

Figure – 5.4 Major Products Category at WRM

The production system at WRM is given in Figure – 5.5 and Process Flow chart

is shown in Figure – 5.6. The orders as received from the Marketing are scheduled for

despatch by Customer Service Department (CSD), which is a central facility of the Tata

Steel. Once the despatch orders are received, the billets quality and quantity are

accordingly planned along with the planning department i.e. LP (Planning). The rolled

material is despatched directly to customers or to stockyards or to External Processing

Agents (EPA) from where the market needs are met.

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Figure – 5.5 Production systems at WRM

Figure – 5.6 Process Flow at WRM

5.2.2 Reasons for TPM Implementation at Wire Rod Mills

The major factors influencing the organization‘s decision to implement TPM

included:

Remaining competitive in market by maintaining lowest price wire rod and re-

bars (TMT) producer

Optimizing overall plant efficiency by improving productivity and optimizing

man power improving with improving working conditions in plant

Improving morale of all employees and need for multi skilled workforce, and

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Creating a department in which all employees feel a pride and creating

empowered teams with participation of all employees.

The organization is aimed at retaining and strengthening its position as lowest

cost producer of steel and steel products through optimal utilization of resources,

becoming the obvious choice of customer through continuous improvement of quality to

maximize customer satisfaction and optimizing value addition for all stake holders

through total employee involvement by small group activities, Kaizens, enhancement of

individual skills for attaining the objective of zero losses and creation of safe and

healthy working environment through total elimination of accidents and pollution.

Moreover, certain internal factors also played a crucial role in enforcing the

management to implement TPM these included:

high breakdown losses,

high setup change losses,

high speed losses,

high defect losses

and high energy consumption

All above factor leads to high manufacturing cost, thereby affecting the

sustained competitiveness of the organization. Since the plant facilities and

manufacturing processes were extremely equipment intensive, even small improvements

in equipment performance could translate into major competitive advantage. Thus, the

need for fostering an efficient TPM implementation program was felt fundamentally

necessary.

5.2.3 TPM Implementation Journey at Wire Rod Mill

The Initiative of TPM in Wire Rod Mill was taken up first with the Manager

Model Machine Compactor, under the guidance of ‗Japan Institute of Plant

Maintenance‘ Japan (JIPM) and TPM Consultants before FY01. It all started by joining

hands with these two and at the same time organizing visits to various TPM

implementing companies (like Sundaram Fasteners etc) and also arranging visits of

TPM consultants to WRM.

Seeing the good results of the Manager Model Machine, Management decided to

start TPM activities in full swing. Later in next year (FY01), TPM Kick off was held,

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with the commitment from the Top Management of Tata steel as well as the Top Union

officials re-iterating their commitment toward the TPM journey. This followed a joint

agreement between management and union to implement TPM in the organization.

Further, one full time TPM coordinator was appointed and provided TPM instructor

course training from ‗JIPM‘, Japan. The managers and other employees were trained

through TPM seminars and company visits to have a thorough understanding of TPM

methodology, practices and benefits. Further, TPM organization structure was finalized

for ensuring streamlined implementation of TPM initiatives and realization of true

potential of TPM. Figure – 5.7 depicts the organization structure for TPM

implementation for ensuring total employee participation in the WRM.

Figure – 5.7 Organization structure for TPM of WRM

In starting a horizontal deployment plan was prepared, which was staggered into

3 phases or years (FY01, 02, 03) as shown in Table – 5.2, the plan for TPM

implementation, which includes the finalization of preparatory steps towards TPM

implementation, followed by roadmap for TPM implementation, through holistic

implementation of eight pillar TPM implementation methodology proposed by JIPM.

The plan also reveals the roadmap for TPM initiatives over a period of time. In the first

phase 5 equipments were selected and teams were formed and the members were given

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training about TPM methodology. The first phase was preferred for the deployment of

Jishu Hozen Activities. Apart from the same, subcommittees were also activated viz.

Jishu Hozen (Autonomous Maintenance), Planned Maintenance, Kobetsu Kaizen and

Education and Training, Quality Maintenance, Office TPM and Safety, Health and

Environment (SHE). Each subcommittee was managed by a set of officers and

supervisors and the department has one full time TPM coordinator, for coordinating the

various pillar activities.

The key point of TPM deployment had been formation of ‗small groups / teams‘

of front line operators at the production floor for effective problem solving and

equipment improvements. These teams comprised of small groups consisting of 5–7

workers lead by a supervisor performed preliminary TPM activities like autonomous

maintenance, focused maintenance and preventive maintenance etc.

A working structure was formulated for the functioning of the subcommittees and

having a review system. Each Pillar Subcommittees used to have its internal review

every week and chief had its review every Fortnight. A steering committee formed at

the apex level of Tata Steel, headed by the Deputy Managing Director Steel used to

review the progress of the same every twice a month. The whole movement was guided

and supported by TPM consultant from JIPM who comes once in every two months to

guide and review the process of implementation.

In August FY02, equipments were taken so as to cover all the equipments in the

department for Jishu Hozen Horizontal Deployment and lastly in March FY03 other

than the equipments in the department rest of the support areas and facilities were

covered with Small Group Activities covering the entire Area of the mill and all the

employees of the department.

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182

5.3 The structure of losses and analysis in WRM

The TPM initiatives in Wire Rod Mill started with the Manager Model

Machines, under the guidance of JIPM TPM Consultant. TPM implementation started

with the selection of key model machines from different areas and adoption of four key

TPM initiatives – autonomous maintenance, preventive maintenance, focused

improvement and quality maintenance at these critical production facilities. The

responsibility for implementation and follow up of TPM activities at each of the

machines was attached to supervisors and engineers concerned with that particular

production activity area.

The Small Group Activities (SGA), driving force behind the TPM

implementation, were then introduced at various manufacturing areas in the plant. The

production operators and executives at various levels and related with the different

organization functions were encouraged to form small group kaizen teams. The process

of taking Kobetsu Kaizen (called as improvement Projects in Tata Steel), started when

the quality movement was started in India. The system of taking big Kaizens before

starting TPM has been shown in Figure – 5.8.

Figure – 5.8 Process of project execution before TPM

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Thus in this process, the projects were getting completed but there was no direct

correlation with the improvements observed. Also there was double counting. With a

view to channelize the energy in the correct direction, Kobetsu Kaizen pillar was

activated with the objectives as shown Figure – 5.9. The basic aim was to sweat the

assets and eliminate / cut down on losses in the system.

Figure – 5.9 Approach of Kobetsu Kaizen of TPM

Table – 5.3 shows benchmarks and targets for significant losses for WRM. It

clearly depicts the identification of various performance losses associated with the mill.

The data reveals significantly high total Overall equipment losses (50.1%) and

availability losses (62.4%) at the start of TPM implementation program. The strategies

for controlling these losses were evolved and effectively deployed through total

employee involvement. The roadmap for addressing various performance losses was

evolved by holistic deployment of TPM initiatives. At this stage various maintenance

improvement initiatives were adopted which included: implementation of tracking root

causes for the identified losses, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), developing

planned maintenance check sheets, putting into place predictive maintenance initiatives

at critical equipment, PM analysis, 5S implementation and various other maintenance

improvement initiatives.

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Table – 5.3 Significant losses of WRM

Loss Unit Benchmark Present Target

Overall equipment loss % / year 75 50.1 80

Availability loss % /year 75 62.4 80

Delays Hours/year 100 195.4 120

70 Trimming loss %/ Month 2.0 2.84 2.14

56.8 Rejections % Monthly 0.5 0.85 0.5

0.02 Interruption loss (minor) Hours/month 100 362 50

Accident Loss (minor) No. / Month 4.28 4 3.5

3.5 Customer Complaints No. / Month 10 22 01

5.4 Pillar wise strategies adopted for successful TPM Implementation

The organization has deployed eight pillar TPM implementation approach as

suggested by JIPM. The various TPM pillar initiatives adopted by the organization

included: Jishu Hozen; Kobetsu Kaizen; Planned Maintenance; Quality Maintenance;

Education and Training; Development Management and Safety Health and

Environment. The strategic initiatives deployed under various TPM implementation

pillars have been depicted one by one. The data reveals that TPM has a huge potential of

affecting systematic improvements in manufacturing system performance and requires

lots of efforts on the part of management to dramatically transform the enterprise for

reaping sustained competitive advantage.

5.4.1 Jishu Hozen and Kobetsu Kaizen Initiatives

Prior to start of TPM, the equipments were getting neglected causing lot of

interruptions and failures due to lack of knowledge and ownership about the equipment.

Unorganised work place was resulting in high revival time of Breakdowns and

interruptions as well as making the work area hazard prone. There was a strong sense of

division of work making it difficult to work cohesively between various functions. In a

bid to bring about change in the mind set cluster-manning concept, Quality Circles etc.

were introduced but the expected outcome didn‘t come through.

The concept of Jishu Hozen was deployed in 3rd

phases for various equipments.

In 1st Phase all the critical equipments were planned, in phase 2

nd rest of the online

equipments and support systems were covered and in the last phase all the support areas

were covered. The deployment plan for the same is depicted in Figure – 5.10.

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Figure – 5.10 Deployment plan for JH of WRM

One of the major thrust to change the shop floor mindset and get a commitment

from each and every employee till down the organization was to involve all managers

extensively in the initial stages of the activity. For this Drives: on ‗0‘ Leakage, 2S

Improvement, Nothing on Ground, Visual workplace Improvement and ‗Jishu Hozen

Awareness to all‘ was initiated. And time-to-time such drives were taken to give an

impetus and a visible change in the shop floor. All the TPM Circles were carried over to

three level of audits as shown in Figure – 5.11 for each step; first by themselves, next

level by the pillar team and finally by a team from TPM central Group.

Figure – 5.11 Review mechanisms for the Jishu Hozen Activities

The whole movement was supported by rigorous training of all the employees at

various stages. The Jishu Hozen activities are carried primarily by the Jishu Hozen

Small Group Circles, which are called as TPM circles in the department. The TPM

Circles are made with each area and the members are the one working in that area only.

Most of the circles are spread across the shifts and for most shift-wise sub-circles are

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created. The TPM circles work on the Jishu Hozen 7 step methodology and do the

activities as defined by the step. The resources if any are provided through the team

leader and for proper guidance at each step, the same is being provided with the Jishu

Hozen Pillar team, which constitutes of officers from the department. Autonomy during

the working for the TPM teams and the leader was provided as far as possible. The

working methodology of the TPM Circles is shown as in Figure – 5.12.

Figure – 5.12 Jishu Hozen working flow chart

Once the kaizens are taken, for maintaining the equipment conditions, standards

were prepared. Followed by check sheets to be implemented and responsibilities

distributed between themselves. Kaizens were also taken to reduce the number of

inspection points and also to reduce the time for CLI. Results for the same are given in

Figure – 5.13. For the Abnormalities of type Sources of Contamination and Hard to

access areas, the countermeasure was predominantly Kaizens, which were taken by each

of the circle along with the help of Jishu Hozen Pillar and Planned Maintenance Pillar.

The Kaizens as taken by the Jishu Hozen circles are shown in Figure – 5.14.

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Figure – 5.13 Reduction in Inspection time in Jishu Hozen Activities [[

Figure – 5.14 Various Kaizens taken by the Jishu Hozen circles

Figure – 5.15 (a- d) describes improvements affected at workplace through

strategic JH initiatives. The data clearly describes increased number of tags on

production equipment and high JH Kaizens implemented at workplace. The data reveals

that strategic JH initiatives have contributed significantly towards ensuring enhanced

employee participation, change of attitude at workplace.

5.15 (a) Reduction in Cobbles and scraps at WRM 5.15 (b) Reduction in cleaning time at Furnace

Nos.

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5.15 (c) Reduction in Fuel rate of Furnace at WRM 5.15 (d) Number of Abnormalities Red and White

identified and Restored upto FY03

Figure – 5.15 (a- d) Improvements affected through Strategic JH initiatives

5.4.2 Planned Maintenance Activities

The objectives of Planned Maintenance initiatives included: achieving the most

efficient use of equipment; building a comprehensive PM system; seeking support and

co-operation from everyone; promoting and implementing PM using Small Group

Activity (SGA); ensuring zero breakdown, supporting JH initiatives; preventing

breakdown recurrence; effective deployment of time based maintenance, corrective

maintenance and condition based maintenance initiatives; efficient spare part

management, and lubrication management.

The strategic initiatives under the PM pillar to achieve the aforesaid objectives

included: providing training to operators for identifying abnormalities; removing

abnormalities (red tags); providing support in implementing kaizens for easy to clean,

inspect, lubricate and retighten situations; providing support for developing equipment

standards; displaying lubrication standards for easy checking and providing support in

making training materials about the machine details as shown in Figure – 5.16.

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Figure – 5.16 Relation of Planned Maintenance with rest of the pillars

The operations group in planned maintenance is responsible for setting of the

equipment and operating the same. Routine maintenance job like roll gap setting, pass

setting, guide setting and first level inspection are done by the operations. The

maintenance groups supply the roll assembly, guide assembly in modular form for

changing as and when required in addition the maintenance group also takes care of

lubrication, hydraulics, water supply and compressed air supply, power distribution.

Specialised equipments line various drives, motors gear boxes, cylinders and other

actuator are maintained by the maintenance group. The planned maintenance support

during each step of Jishu Hozen activities is shown in Table - 5.4.

Table -5.4 Planned maintenance support during each step of Jishu Hozen activities

Jishu Hozen Steps Planned Maintenance Support

Step-1: Initial thorough

cleaning

Providing safety instructions before cleaning

Teach impact of forced deterioration on the equipment.

Explaining machine function define basic Ok and Not Ok

conditions

Training to operators on moving parts, functional inspection

rotating mechanisms

Help in Identification of Cleaning and Inspection items and tools.

Abnormality identification training and to teach about red and

white tags.

Teaching Inspection on the equipment and helping to find out

Abnormalities on the equipment

Restoring Red Tags / Help in restoring red tags.

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Table -5.4 Planned maintenance support during each step of Jishu Hozen activities

Jishu Hozen Steps Planned Maintenance Support

Step-2: Countermeasures

against the sources

contamination and Hard to

access areas

Take up Kaizens and help to Jishu Hozen in implementing of

various kaizen

Conducting root cause analysis of typical problems.

Taking countermeasures for the red tags

Step-3: Preparation of

tentative C, L, I, T standards Guidance and Help in preparation of Cleaning, Lubrication,

Inspection, Retightening standards, its frequency, methods of

doing

Help in implementing visual control

Step-4: General Inspection Preparation of general inspection training modules and training the

operators on the same

There is lot of cohesion between the operation and maintenance team at all

levels. At worker level there are Kaizen teams for the each equipment where both

operation and maintenance workers are part of each team. Similarly at officer‘s level the

PM Team consists of members of maintenance and operations working towards

improving equipment availability and reducing number of stoppages. Daily review

meetings are held at Chief‘s level where members from operation and maintenance are

present to discuss daily performance and to improve equipment and plant performance.

Shutdown meetings are held by leader of planned maintenance team in which leader of

Jishu Hozen team is also present and the points requiring planned maintenance support

are noted and attended to in the shutdown. The shutdown job list addresses the

requirements of operations groups. In addition to motivate operations and maintenance

group towards common objective of improvement in performance of the department,

same incentive bonus is given to both operation and maintenance based on overall

performance of the mill, in terms of production and quality. A basic Plant Maintenance

(PM) structure existed WRM has been shown in Figure – 5.17.

Figure – 5.17 Plant Maintenance (PM) structure at WRM

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Wire Rod Mill has been certified to quality system ISO 9001 and the department

follows the procedures listed down for drawings, calibration of measuring instruments,

control of rolls etc. The rolls are machined in CNC machines as per profile indicated in

the drawing. The drawings are controlled centrally and whenever any change is carried

out, drawing with a new revision number is issued and the previous version is destroyed

by all controlled copy holders. All the measuring instruments have a listed calibration

procedure and records are maintained for the date of calibration, next due date.

Calibration certificate is issued by the competent certifying authority and this is

maintained in the records. Any measuring device that does not pass the calibration test

is discarded. The spares part category is given in Figure – 5.18 and trend of spare part

inventory is shown in Figure – 5.19. Maintenance costs are determined in terms of

Rupees per ton of production. Maintenance, labour costs and contract labour costs are

separately monitored. Figure – 5.20 shows the trend of Maintenance cost.

Figure – 5.18 Spares inventory at WRM

Figure – 5.19 Trend of spare part inventory

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Figure – 5.20 Trend of Maintenance cost at WRM

5.4.3 Quality Maintenance Initiatives

The aims under Quality Maintenance initiatives included: reducing process

defects through observing required equipment maintenance and achieving zero customer

complaints. The methodology adopted for achieving the QM objectives included:

confirming standard quality characteristics; instantaneously recognition and defection of

defect symptoms and occurrence of defects; assuring product quality; investigating unit

processes, material and energy utilization; maintaining equipment conditions on

production systems; setting 3M conditions and inspection reference values;

standardization of work practices and trend control.

The flow chart shown in Figure – 5.21 depicts the methodology adopted to carry

out the activities of the Quality Maintenance pillar to eliminate / reduce the various

causes of defects / defect modes. Once the quality defect modes and the process are

identified and mapped based on above flow chart, also subsequent to the development of

the operating conditions, the parameters already being monitored then are identified.

Check sheets developed for the parameters, which were not being captured is shown in

Figure – 5.22. This gave the extent / areas where the particular defect modes were

generated, and which need to be controlled by the pillar.

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Figure – 5.21 Process Flow chart of Quality Maintenance methodology followed at

WRM

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Figure – 5.22 Check sheet developed for controlling the quality parameters

The check sheets for the ease of implementation were put across the shifts and

functions. The same underwent refinement after some usage and got amalgamated with

the existing check sheets. If the data / conditions set, deviates from the standards,

analysis of the same is carried out and remedial actions like; standards revision or some

kaizen is adopted. The results of overall achievement through Quality Maintenance

Initiatives are as given from Figure – 5.23 (a - d).

5.23 (a) Monthly Trend of rejection at WRM 5.23 (b) Monthly Trend of Customer Complaint at

WRM

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5.23 (c) Monthly Trend of trimming loss at WRM 5.23 (d) Monthly Trend of diversion at WRM

Figure – 5.23 (a-d) Results of overall achievement through Quality Maintenance

Initiatives

5.4.4 Education and Training

The aims under Education and Training initiatives included: significantly

enhancing technical skill level of operators and maintenance men to realize zero

breakdowns, zero defects, zero accidents, and leveraging overall knowledge. The targets

for ET pillar included: realization of zero breakdowns, zero defects and zero accidents

by enhancing knowledge, skill rating with overall average skill matrix.

The prevailing situation before TPM implementation involved: lack of system

for skill identification, training imparted to achieve only number of training man-days /

employee / year, discrimination through repeated training of certain employees, non-

evaluation of training effectiveness, and absence of structure for assessing training

needs and training the employees. Also the training system was focussed on the number

of training man days provided to the employees. The effectiveness of the training was

not being captured and monitored. Also the training imparted was not fully based on the

needs employee-wise but on a generalized basis for a set of employees doing a

particular job.

This resulted in a situation where the person, even though had the skill to tackle

a situation and perform his job, was send to the training repeatedly. In light of the above

drawbacks, Education and Training pillar was initiated with the twin objectives as given

in Figure – 5.24. And taking a clue from the drawbacks of the previous system, the

needs for the future system were drawn out as shown in Table – 5.5.

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Figure – 5.24 Objectives of Training and Education pillar before TPM

Table – 5.5 Need for a revised Training and Education System S. No. Drawbacks of Old System Changes Required

1 Focus of Training on just number of

Training man-days / man / year.

Need Based Training to be imparted

with monitoring on a Skill Gap Matrix

2

Repeated Employees were sending

for the same training, even though the

person was already acquainted with

the same.

Strictly need based, with no

unnecessary repeatability.

3 No Evaluation of the training

effectiveness.

Each Training imparted to be judged for

its effectiveness with each trainee

4 Competency levels / Skill needs not

being identified for all employees.

Skills and Training needs to be

identified and monitored for each

employee separately.

5 No standard structure for imparting

Training.

Proper planning of training material,

trainers / mentors, trainees and training

dates to be done.

Every time to start with training, the skill level for each employee was identified.

For officers a Personal Development Plan (PDP) was developed and for Supervisors and

workers a Training Need Survey (TNS) was done. For supervisors and workers

(unionized category), the inputs to the above were taken from:

Past performances (Feedbacks of superiors): How the person has performed at the

field / workplace in the last one year, expertise in conducting his jobs, attitude,

commitment and enthusiasm towards performing his duties and any self initiated

‗Good Jobs‘ performed by him.

Futures expectations: plans of the company, new upcoming technologies, market

predictions.

197

Personal Records: Previous training, educational qualifications, behavioral traits

shown by him.

For officers apart from the above, following was also taken as input:

Individuals assessment of self

Superior‘s recommendations

Central HR team feedback

To track the training plans, its compliance and manage the whole system, a full

time training coordinator has been appointed. Apart from the trainings being imparted,

based on the identified skill deficiencies, time to time Knowledge sharing sessions are

being conducted within the department, covering best practices in the area of work, new

technologies in the market, experimentations and learning‘s from them, knowledge

sharing by experts in the field outside of department. The same has been depicted in

Figure – 5.25. And flow chart for Training Execution has been shown in Figure – 5.26.

Figure – 5.25 System of sharing knowledge with the employees after TPM

198

Figure – 5.26 Flowchart depicting Training Execution at WRM

The numbers of mentors developed from above Training and Education

programme in various training modules are as shown in Figure – 5.27. The mentors

developed had been certified by the central Training Institute of the company. The

modules developed are shown in Figure – 5.28. Results of education and training can be

summarised in the amount of delays caused due to lack of skills of the employee which

is shown in Figure – 5.29.

Figure – 5.27 Number of Mentors developed

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Figure – 5.28 Number of Training modules Developed

Figure – 5.29 Mill delays due to lack of skill of employees

5.4.5 Safety, Hygiene and Environment (SHE) Initiatives

The aims under Safety, Hygiene and Environment initiatives included attaining

and maintaining zero accident level, and creating a healthy, clean working area. The

strategic initiatives under the SHE pillar to achieve the aforesaid objectives included

adopting safety measures to protect production operators from equipment accidents,

making operations safe and promoting a cheerful working environment, adopting

appropriate measures to achieve environment protection (noise, vibration, heat, smoke

etc.), paying attention to health and hygiene of employees.

As the background issues for undertaking Safety, Hygiene and Environment (SHE)

initiatives at WRM plant included:

High accidents in organization

High man days lost due to accidents per year

200

Unsafe working environment conditions at workplace and

Difficulties regarding meeting the statutory norms for pollution

Incidence Tracking up to by SHE Committee and Chief level only.

Visibility of the unsafe conditions even after logging in to Log Book was poor.

Near Miss Cases were not being captured

Whereas Tata Steel reaffirms its commitment to provide safe work place and

clean environment to its employees and other stakeholders as an integral part of its

business philosophy and values. For which they modified SHE working structure which

is shown in Figure – 5.30 and various aspects of Environmental protection at work place

has been shown in Table – 5.6.

Figure – 5.30 SHE working structure after TPM

Table – 5.6 Environmental protection at work place

S. No. Characteristics Frequency Maintained by Protection

1. Noise 6 Months EMS

Co-ordinator

Use of ear plugs and ear muffs

if noise level > 80 db.

2.

Emission from

chimney

6 Months

1 Year

Process

Manager

Rolling

Keep emission within 150

mg/Nm3. Milligrams per cubic

meter (at normal conditions)

3.

Hazardous waste

generation

Waste Oil Sludge

Monthly Process Manager

Rolling and Sec.

head Mechanical

Follow laid down procedure

for handling hazardous waste.

4. Auto Emission

Smoke

6 Months Supply

Management

Maintain within specified

limits

5. Specific Energy Monthly All concerned

Monitor trend and introduce

appliances like V/F Drive to

reduce power consumption

201

SHE initiatives at WRM plant establish with a vision that WRM will continually

enhance the Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety (EHS) performance

activities, products and services through a structured EHS management framework and

towards this commitment, it shall:

1. Establish and achieve EHS objectives and targets.

2. Ensure compliance with applicable EHS legislation and other requirement and

go beyond.

3. Conserve natural resources and energy by constantly seeking to reduce

consumption and promoting waste avoidance and recycling measures.

4. Eliminate, minimize and / or control adverse environmental impacts and

occupational health and safety risks through adopting appropriate ‗State-of-the-

art‘ technology and best EHS management practices at all levels and functions.

5. Enhance awareness, skill and competence of employees and contractors so as to

enable them to demonstrate their involvement, responsibility and accountability

for sound EHS performance.‘

The results of overall achievement through Safety, Hygiene and Environment are as

given from Figure – 5.31 (a-d).

5.31 (a) No. of Safe Working Procedures made at

WRM

5.31 (b) No. of Minor Accidents occurred at WRM

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5.31 (c) No. of Major Accidents occurred at WRM 5.31 (d) Status of stack emission at WRM

Figure – 5.31 (a-d) Results of overall achievement through Safety, Hygiene and

Environment

5.5 Benifits of TPM Implementation Initiatives at WRM in FY03

The results of TPM implementation have been broadly reflected in Figure – 5.32

(a-p). The study has revealed that holistic approach towards TPM implementation has

resulted in host of benefits for the organization. A brief account of benefits realized by

making proactive investments in TPM initiatives has been presented below to highlight

the contributions made by TPM initiatives in enhancing the manufacturing performance.

Some of the intangible results which are very evident are as follows

(a) A sense of self-prestige in the employees for being their plant clean and

arranged compared to other plants.

(b) Better communication between the various functions. People al last started

looking at the problems in the mill above their functional responsibilities.

(c) Employees are coming forward without any hesitation for implementing any

kaizen.

(d) A culture developed where people started being more open to sharing

knowledge and developing their colleagues.

203

Figure 5.32 (a) Production at WRM Figure 5.32 (b) Availability at WRM

Figure 5.32 (c) Productivity at WRM Figure 5.32 (d) Performance rate at WRM

204

Figure 5.32 (e) Overall Plant Efficiency at WRM Figure 5.32 (f) Customer Complaint at WRM

Figure 5.32 (g) Reduction in Cobbles and Scraps at WRM Figure 5.32 (h) Monthly Rejection at WRM

205

Figure 5.32 (i) Quality Rate at WRM Figure 5.32 (j) Conversion cost at WRM

Figure 5.32 (k) Major Accidents at WRM Figure 5.32 (l) Minor Accidents at WRM

206

Figure 5.32 (m) Number of Suggestions at WRM Figure 5.32 (n) Overall Dispatch Compliance at WRM

Figure 5.32 (o) Trend of Minor Interruptions at WRM Figure 5.32 (p) Trend of Major Interruptions at WRM

207

5.6 TPM programme supported by TQM: Transfusion of TQM-TPM (From

FY04)

Earlier day‘s quality was considered as the responsibility of quality control

department only, rather than being understood as a tool for gaining competitive

advantage by focusing on customer requirements. Similarly, maintenance was also

treated as a low profile job with its scope limited to breakdown and preventive

maintenance. The strategic implications of quality and maintenance to improve

competitiveness have been realized by many business captains in the beginning of last

decade. Now day‘s modern organizations are implementing various quality initiative

programmes like Total Quality Management (TQM), Total Productive Maintenance

(TPM), Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Lean, and International

Organization for Standardization (ISO) simultaneously to achieve synergy. All these

approaches have different orientations, but over the last couple of decades, TQM and

TPM have become key concepts for enabling organizations to meet and conquer

fierce competition. Many manufacturing companies have implemented at least one of

these improvement programs or even both of them for strengthening their competitive

position.

Total Quality Management and Total Productive Maintenance have gained

considerable acceptance in a organizations to take on the challenge of fierce global

competition. These two improvement drives are being adopted and adapted for raising

performance standards of a company to world class level.

Though TQM is defined as an approach for improving effectiveness and

flexibility of business as a whole. It is a way of organizing and involving the whole

organization, every department and every individual (Oakland, 1988). Similarly TPM,

as defined by Nakajima (1988), is ‗plant improvement methodology, which enables

continuous and rapid improvement of manufacturing processes through use of

employee involvement, employee empowerment and closed loop measurement of

results‘. Both are considered as comprehensive management strategies, which are

built on a common foundation of continuous improvement and organization-wide

involvement, but with different focus areas, i.e. quality and maintenance respectively.

With the same above mentioned vision for attaining synergic benefits Total

Quality Management (TQM) practices was started at Wire Rod Mill (WRM) in FY04

at Tata Steel. TQM was started in view to support already functioning TPM

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programme in order to attain synergistic result in terms of high business performance.

Later on with the success of supporting TQM with TPM programme in getting high

results, TQM practices became more wide spread in FY05 and 06. Table – 5.7 below

illustrates the TQM promotion since then:

Table – 5.7 TQM Promotion at LP Division in FY04

Year TPM-TQM Activities Purpose

FY’04 Formulation of Vision Economic Value Addition (EVA)

Focus, Integration of quality with

manufacturing

TOP (Total Operational

Performance) in

Operations

Internal customer

concept

Accelerate continuous

improvement

Ensure quality at each step for

end customer satisfaction

FY’05

TOP (Total Operational

Performance) in Marketing

RVM (Retail Value

Management)

CVM (Customer

Value Management)

Increase Efficiency and

Effectiveness of the Channel

Network

Win -Win relationship with key

customers

ASPIRE

TPM

Integration of all Improvement

Initiatives

Employee Involvement, Kaizens,

Autonomous Maintenance

FY’06

onwards

Academic Support Program

Inspiring Renaissance

Educators ASPIRE (TQM &

TQC TECHNOLOGY)

Increased Customer Focus, Supply

Chain Improvements and Global

Competitiveness, Understand the

evolving needs of customer

5.6.1 TPM-TQM Objectives at LP Division

In the past FY‘01-03, the main business objectives of LP Division were (a) To

create value by becoming Economic Value Addition (EVA) positive through sweating

of assets and (b) Serving the Individual house builders (IHB) through an organized

retail network. These business objectives called for TQM practices focusing on cost

and productivity so that the LP division could become more effective and efficient in

its operations. At the same time Retail Value Management was taken up as the key

TQM practice, which would help us build relationship with channel partners and

enhance satisfaction to customers (IHBs). Therefore the TQM objectives have been

envisioned to create specialists in problem solving across the organization to address

the objective of becoming EVA positive and de-commoditization through Branding to

address the second objective of serving the IHBs through an organized retail network.

209

In the current period (FY‘04-06) there has been a paradigm shift in the

business objectives in terms of becoming more pro-active with the customers. The

division realized that with limited volume of production it had to create differentiation

in the market by constantly identifying the latent needs of the customer and

translating them into new product and service features. Also partnership with the

demanding, hi-end leading Construction companies was important to remain far ahead

of its competitors. The division also realized that in the retail segment the local

competition has been quick to copy the new product and service offerings of LP

Division. Thus the organization has to become flexible and agile by aligning the goals

of the various departments. One of the key success factors to enable this is to propel a

culture of cross-functional working across departments. A summary of the past and

the present business objectives has been depicted in Table – 5.8.

Table – 5.8 Business objectives matching the TQM objective

Past (FY’01-03)

TPM ALONE

Current (FY’04-06)

TPM-TQM

Reason for Change

Business

Objective

Serve the Individual

House Building

customer(IHB)

Enhance brand image of

Re-bars to the Individual

House Building segment

Enhanced Consumer Focus

To be the most preferred

re-bar supplier to leading

construction companies.

To maintain the most

preferred and dominant

supplier status in high

end Wire Rods

New segment – Direct

Customers

Become EVA Positive Improve margin in line

with Company

Objectives

Migrate from Sustenance to

Growth

Improve frequency rate to

World Benchmark of 0.8

Concerted Effort on Safety

TQM

Objective Enhance Customer

Satisfaction

Create Value and

Build Relationship

with Customers

De-commoditize

Rebars through

Branding

Stretch Targets to

propel innovative

ideas

Create specialists in

problem solving

Capture and Address

latent / unstated need of

customers

Bring Flexibility and

agility with culture of

Cross-functional

working

Align departments

towards common goals

and measures

Continuous improvement

thru benchmarking and

PDCA

Proactive Customer Focus in

all Segments

Continue to be effective and

Efficient for Growth

Create a culture of

Improvement through

employee involvement and

Process Standardization

210

5.7 TQM journey at WRM

The TQM framework at WRM plant has been derived from the company

framework as articulated in the company. However, the various TQM vehicles as well

as the Focused Methodologies have been suited to the needs of WRM based on the

remaining problems from the past period and the current TQM objectives. The TQM

vehicles and methodologies were mapped against the focused activities related to the

challenging strategies. This was done for all the business objectives. Once this

detailed matrix had been finalized for 80% of the focused activities, department wise

education and training needs were identified and complied across WRM.

5.7.1 The various TQM vehicles and methodologies in WRM

5.7.1.1 Policy Management

One of the key aspects of Policy Management is the deployment of Annual

Business Plan. This has undergone a significant shift in comparison to the past period.

The Policy Management system which was used in past is illustrated in Figure – 5.33

by a simple process flow diagram. The policies at various levels of the organization

were identified through the score card methodology which had the following

problems:

• Too Many objectives - multiplying at each level

• Internal focus – Low Customer Focus

• Cascading not Exhaustive

• Prioritization of CTQs (Critical to Quality Parameters) based on

opinions/perception

Thus everyone in the Division seemed to be focusing on everything and there

was too much of fire-fighting, with focus on the short term only. The Policy

Management System was modified in the current business environment to bring about

more alignment with the customer. Also a drill down of the Means through cause and

effect ensured that only the important means were pursued and reviewed. A PDCA on

the Policy Management system resulted in the new process as outlined in Figure –

5.34.

211

Figure – 5.33 A Policy Management system in the past period

Figure – 5.34 Policy Management System in the current period

Till FY03, the company used to have internal measure of weekly dispatch

compliance. This measure was driven from an internal need to have higher dispatches

and therefore make higher profits at the end of the month. Hence while, WRM

showed good dispatch compliances (tons per week from a certain mill), this measure

212

did not ensure that the right SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) are produced at the right

time and amount and shipped to the right location. Hence, customers most often got

the volumes of SKUs less than their requirement and most often delayed, and as a

result, the delivery compliance remained very low.

With a shift in the policy formulation process, the policies were now derived

from customer focused business objectives and strategies. This ensured that the policy

measure (KPM) changed from what the mills desired (weekly volume dispatch

compliance) to what the customer desired (daily/weekly delivery compliance). A

considerable effort was also put in to understand benchmarks across the best steel

companies. Thus the whole process of identifying policies and setting targets was

revised based on the new policy formulation process. Table – 5.9 below illustrates the

change in target setting methodology towards customer orientation.

Table – 5.9 Target Setting Methodology for Delivery Compliance

Customer

Requirement

WRM

Performance FY02 FY03 FY04

FY05

(Target)

Up to

FY03

Daily/ Weekly

Delivery

Compliance

Weekly Dispatch

Compliance

60% to

68%

67% to

78%

Stop this

measure

--------------

FY04

onwards

Daily/ Weekly

Delivery

Compliance

Daily/ Weekly

Delivery

Compliance

Not

started

Not

Started

80%

98%

The Policy Management process had resulted in the following benefits to WRM:

(a) Only few and important policy items are tracked at various levels.

(b) Regular and effective tracking is done through traffic lights (exception

reporting).

(c) Means and policies are reviewed leading to a better understanding of cause and

effects.

The tracking of the Policy Management system is now done through the 4

Student model and its performance is shown in Figure – 5.35 below. There has been

an increase in Student A over the last three quarters in FY‘06 indicating improvement

in Policy Management system.

213

Figure – 5.35 Quarter wise Tracking of Policy Management in FY06 as per 4

Students model

Interpretation of Student A, B, C and D

Student A: Both Policy and Means achieved

Student B: Policy achieved but Means not achieved

Student C: Policy not achieved but Means achieved

Student D: Both Policy and Means not achieved

5.7.1.2 Daily Management

In the past period daily management activities at WRM was confined to

monitoring of output / lag Process Capability Indicators (KPIs) in the periodic

Management Review Meetings. The roles and responsibilities of each individual in

the department were not clearly articulated hence performance was assessed at the

year-end during the annual performance review. The Daily Management vehicle has

helped us to identify lead (in process) parameters.

Visual displays have been put at the shop floor / sections and escalation

mechanism of Process Capability Measures (KPMs) or Policy Measures have been

put in place. An important aspect in which Daily Management has played a big role is

to identify interface KPMs (between one department and the other) and regular

monitoring of the same has the improved the cross functional working at WRM. Key

Performance Indicators are documented in Daily Management Control Plan/KPI

Tracker in which the details of its specifications and monitoring responsibility are

clearly articulated. These KPIs are monitored at identified intervals and whenever, its

performance goes beyond desired limits, reasons for special causes are captured and

214

necessary actions are initiated as per Standard Operating Procedures or action

standards. In case of repetitive or chronic problems, root cause analysis is done and

PDCA is rotated to bring it back within desired limits. By this systematic approach,

performances of KPIs of WRM have shown consistency and improvement with

respect to Process Stability and Capability.

Some of the difficulties faced in implementing the above were - Cascading

daily management across various departments or even horizontal deployment across

sections. This was successfully handled by creating competition and also involving

the union by making them part of the Audit committee helped in seeking involvement

of down the level people in each department. One of the biggest challenges that WRM

came across in service functions was to identify check points and control limits

against managing points. This was resolved by making a start through intuition. The

simultaneous monitoring of check points and managing points helped in identifying

the right check points. For daily management activity each department is audited by

Joint Works Quality Council (JWQC) and areas for improvement are identified. The

maturity of daily management system is measured by the audit scores of JWQC as

shown in Figure – 5.36.

Figure – 5.36 Daily Management score by JWQC for FY06

215

5.7.1.3 SGA (Small Group Activities)

Employees are involved in improvement activities through Quality Circles,

Suggestion Management, and TQM Circles. It is ensured that there is maximum

participation from employee in the improvement activities. Training, rewards and

recognition for the employees are explained in corporate to TQM programmes.

Employee‘s participation in improvement activities through SGA has been improved

over the years due to greater management focus, training and reward and recognition.

As a result, KPMs like percentage of employee involvement, percentage of active

team and percentage of Super-active team has improved over the years as shown in

Figure – 5.37 and Figure – 5.38 respectively. Active teams are those who have done

kaizen during the years, while super-active teams are those who do kaizen on regular

basis and also mentor other SGA teams.

Figure – 5.37 Total employee involvements at WRM

Figure – 5.38 Percentage of active team and Percentage of Super-active team

216

5.8 TQM Effects: Comparison of achievements accrued through TPM alone

Initiatives and TQM-TPM Initiatives

At the end of FY06 a change in customer requirement for wire rod segment

were emerging in terms of better drawability/ packaging as wire drawing machine

speeds were going up from 5-6 meter/sec to 20 meters /sec. So the wire rod quality in

terms of its dimensional accuracy/packaging and UTS variation requirement was

anticipated to be more stringent for the days to come. Based on this background and

the increasing demand of steel in the market place, WRM focused its attention on

improving the quality to cater to the further future requirement.

Finally, a comparison of achievements accrued through various TQM and

TPM initiatives has been documented to evolve the consensus on strategic potential of

these programs in building and enhancing organizational competencies for meeting

challenges posed by the highly competitive environment. In this regard,

organizational performance measures adopted by the organizations, as explained

earlier, have been deployed for highlighting the contributions of TQM and TPM

initiatives in the organizations. The achievements of these quality initiatives have

been classified into seven categories, namely, Organizational Achievements,

Productivity (P), Quality (Q), Cost (C), Delivery (D), Safety (S) and Motivation (M),

as described in the literature review.as described in the literature review.

As shown in Table – 5.10 the final results of TQM implementation at the end

of FY06 (financial year) have been compared with the results obtained by TPM in the

FY03. The data also includes the overall impact of TPM alone initiatives and TQM-

TPM combined approach on the organizational performance based on the survey

conducted through ‗TQM-TPM Questionnaire‘ involving 94 manufacturing

organizations. The study reveals that the holistic approach of combining TPM with

TQM implementation has resulted in host of benefits for the manufacturing

organizations. A brief account of benefits realized by making proactive investments in

these initiatives have been presented in Figure – 5.39 (a-p) to highlight the

contributions made by TQM in TPM initiatives for enhancing the manufacturing

performance of the Indian Manufacturing Industries. The remaining problems and

future plans for WRM plant has been described in Table – 5.11.

217

Table – 5.10 Comparison of achievements accrued through TPM alone

Initiatives and TQM-TPM Initiatives

Category PARAMETER Unit

Bench

Mark

FY01

TPM Alone

FY03

TPM

supported by

TQM

FY06

Achievements depicted

though

‘TQM-TPM

Questionnaire’

FY03 FY06

P

Production Tons / year 285550 325545 480000

r 0.450 0.813

t 3.601 3.761

p <0.001 <0.001

Availability

(Calendar Hours) % 62.4 70.2 88.1

Breakdown/

Failures

Hrs / month 186 72 60

No. / month 316 62 50

Productivity Tons / man /

yr 722 877 1345

Performance Rate % 73.2 77.5 92.3

Overall Plant

Efficiency % 50.1 60.1 86.4

Q

Customer

Complaints

Numbers /

month 22 14 1

r 0.583 0.729

t 3.406 3.870

p <0.001 <0.001

Ton / month 150 36 0

Process Rejection

(cobble and

scraps)

% 1.45 1.1 0.32

Rejection

(Monthly) % 0.85 0.78 0.36

Quality Rate % 90.3 91.7 97.2

C Conversion Cost Rs / Ton 1550 1520 1325

r 0.443 0.496

t 3.431 3.566

p <0.001 0.001

D Overall Despatch

Compliance % 50 69 96

r 0.494 0.728

t 3.888 6.549

p <0.001 <0.000

S Safety/ Accidents

Major 5 2 1

r 0.625 0.761

t 2.646 3.021

p <0.011 <0.005 Minor 22 12 2

M Suggestions /

Kaizens/ Morale Numbers 407 623 1432

r 0.331 0.722

t 2.239 3.314

p <0.030 0.002

218

Figure – 5.39 (a) Production at WRM Figure – 5.39 (b) Availability of Suggestions at WRM

Figure – 5.39 (c) Productivity at WRM Figure – 5.39 (d) Performance Rate at WRM

219

Figure – 5.39 (e) Over all Plant Efficiency at WRM Figure – 5.39 (f) Monthly customer complaint trend at WRM

Figure – 5.39 (g) Reduction in Cobbles and Scraps at WRM Figure – 5.39 (h) Monthly rejection trend at WRM

220

Figure – 5.39 (i) Quality Rate at WRM Figure – 5.39 (j) Conversion Cost at WRM

Figure – 5.39 (k) Number of Major Accidents at WRM Figure – 5.39 (l) Number of Minor Accidents at WRM

221

Figure – 5.39 (m) Number of suggestions made at WRM Figure – 5.39 (n) Overall Dispatch Compliance at WRM

Figure – 5.39 (o) Trend of Minor Interruptions at WRM Figure – 5.39 (p) Trend of Minor Interruptions at WRM

222

Table – 5.11 Remaining Problems and Future Plans

Category Remaining Problems Future Plan

Quality 1. Variation in UTS in High

Carbon Wire Rods.

1. Use problem solving

techniques to reduce variability.

Production 2. Plant utilization not increasing

beyond 81%.

3. Inability to run the mill at

speed of 100m/s due to

entanglements over, Stelmor

Conveyor.

2and3.Stabilize operating and

maintenance practices of Laying

Head and Stelmor Conveyor

through new control logics.

Cost 4. Section changing delays.

5. Reduce power consumption.

6. Improve yield.

4.Installation of RSM (Reducing

Sizing Mill)

5. Develop practices to reduce

fixed power consumption.

6. Reduce trimming loss by

minimizing uncooled length.

Safety 7. Procedural violations.

7. Repeated training on safe

working procedures and

standards.

Morale 8. Low problem solving skills in

workforce.

8. Training on advanced Q.C.

Tools.

5.9 Concluding Remarks

A manufacturing facility has been studied and analyzed to study TPM as well as

TQM-TPM implementation issues, the roadmap followed and the key benefits achieved

from Overall Plant Effectiveness (OPE) as a result of implementing these quality drives.

Through TPM process focus, the cost and quality were improved significantly by

reducing and minimizing equipment deterioration and failures. Cost of rework and

repairs has been reduced due to very limited products rejected due to equipment failure,

as a result of which Number of Major and Minor Accidents has also been reduced and

various other factors along with above has been shown in Figure – 5.32 (a-p). Thus, the

overall effectiveness at WRM plant improved significantly as shown in Figure – 5.32

(e). As a result overall productivity of WRM also increased as shown in Figure – 5.32

(c).

Later on TPM has been supported by TQM which embraces the philosophy,

principles, procedures, and practices necessary for providing customer satisfaction as

well as achieving productivity and business performance in the manufacturing industry.

The above approach of combining TQM with TPM implementation has resulted in host

223

of benefits for the organization. A brief account of tangible benefits realized by making

proactive investments in these initiatives has been presented in Figure – 5.39 (a-p). The

tangible benefits also include reduction in quality, costs, better employee job satisfaction

because they do not need to attend to defects and client complaints, recognition by

clients, work carried out correctly right from the start, subcontractors with proper

quality management systems, and closer relationships with subcontractors and suppliers.

Intangible TQM-TPM performance measures have been reflected through top

management commitment, customer involvement and satisfaction, employee

involvement and empowerment, customer–supplier relationships, and better process

improvement and management. Also change in attitude of the employees, ‗can do it‘

spirit, clean and green plant, improved tool management, visual material inventory,

proud to show plant to outsiders, fun and joy to work with visual controls and improved

level of communication.

Further, the organization has also developed vision of 21st century and

implications for TQM-TPM in pursuit at the work place and have decided to continue to

adopt TQM-TPM as a management strategy for companywide system. Under this

strategy, the organization plans to continuously implement strategies / mechanisms for

addressing all losses affecting production system, improving OEE beyond 90 % in

future, realizing and sustaining zero defects, ensuring lowest cost producer with highest

quality and realizing best operating margins.