It’s happened … the announcement that a major portion of your facility is being closed for the foreseeable future. What do you do next?

There’s lots more than purchase price to consider when replacing pump parts. Can your operations afford the risk of simply buying on the cheap?

Thinking back about the initial resistance to TPM, Don Russell laughs and says, “At first a lot of folks here defined TPM as ‘Totally Painted Machines’. Now I can say we all define TPM as ‘Taking Pride in our Machines’.”

After a couple of decades of testing, Lean business practices are now widely accepted as a major contributor to extraordinary customer service and profitable operations. But with this acceptance has come a new leveling of the playing field in many industries. The preemptive competitive advantages enjoyed by early Lean adopters have dissipated as more and more companies are “converted” to techniques that reduce waste and slash lead times. We have also come to the realization that only the most effective operations can position a company to compete with competitors who source off shore to suppliers in low cost labor markets.

I am from an automotive parts supplier in mid-western United States. Implementing TPM in a company is not easy. The philosophies of TPM are not that difficult to understand but are a some what difficult task to implement.

So you have a plan, now what? It is now time to execute. Hopefully, you are using some great CI methodologies founded in Six Sigma and the Toyota Production System. Each of the items on your plan may need some additional analysis to see exactly what is involved in the improvement of those items.

All Maintenance Technology Reader Panelists agree that training is important. The need for it is ongoing, and it is a part of routine strategy for most operations. Today, its value is heightened as manufacturing operations face growing departures of experienced workers.

The “breakthrough strategy” really works. Equipment becomes more reliable, costs go down, and behaviors change along the way. The key is focusing on results-the kind of results that will get people’s attention on the plant floor as well as in the key decision makers’ offices. Select the equipment that, if it ran better and was more reliable, would generate sizeable savings. But more importantly, choose equipment that would generate more throughput and revenue.