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 learnings 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, Indias 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 countrys single largest integrated steel works in the
private sector. It has a stature of being the lowest cost producer of Steel globally.
Though the Companys 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 countrys single largest integrated steel works in the private sector
and exemplifies Indias 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 companys 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

High
Carbon
Wire Rods

Railways,
Automotive
and
Construction

Low
Carbon
Wire Rods

Electrodes

Rebars Retail

Rebars Projects

Housing
Construction

Infrastructure,
Commercial
and industrial
Complexes

Some Key
Customers
Wire Division,
Miki, RIC,
UIC, Bansal,
Raj Ratan,
Gustav
ESAB, ADOR,
SHAKUNT,
ANAND ARC

Key Product
Requirements
Chemical Composition
and drawability,
Consistent Mechanical
Properties
Consistency in
Chemistry, Drawability

Individual
house builders,
Builder
Promoters

Higher Strength re-bars,

BIS compliance,
Negative tolerance,

HCC,
Gammon,
LandT

Higher Strength re-bars,

BIS compliance,
Negative tolerance

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Key Service Requirements

Delivery Compliance, New
product
Development,
Inventory Management.
Delivery Compliance, New
product
Development,
Inventory Management.
Recommended Consumer
Price,
right
weight,
authorized sales outlets,
sales
by
length,
Replenishment
and
complete SKU availability.
Delivery Commitment and
Compliance,
variable
lengths, cut and bent bars,
OE finance, Reliable and
Complete SKU availability.

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.

5.2

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

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 organizations decision to implement TPM

included:
Remaining competitive in market by maintaining lowest price wire rod and rebars (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 57
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.

180

181

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
Overall equipment loss
% / year
75
50.1
Availability loss
% /year
75
62.4
Delays
Hours/year
100
195.4
Trimming loss
%/ Month
2.0
2.84
Rejections
% Monthly
0.5
0.85
Interruption loss (minor)
Hours/month
100
362
Accident Loss (minor)
No. / Month
4.28
4
Customer Complaints
No. / Month
10
22
5.4

Target
80
80
120
2.14
70
0.5
56.8
50
0.02
3.5
01
3.5

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 didnt 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 2nd 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
185

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.

186

Figure 5.13 Reduction in Inspection time in Jishu Hozen Activities

Nos.

[[

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

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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
Step-1: Initial thorough
cleaning

Planned Maintenance Support

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
Step-2: Countermeasures
against the sources
contamination and Hard to
access areas
Step-3: Preparation of
tentative C, L, I, T standards

Step-4: General Inspection

Planned Maintenance Support

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
Guidance and Help in preparation of Cleaning, Lubrication,
Inspection, Retightening standards, its frequency, methods of
doing
Help in implementing visual control
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 officers 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 Chiefs 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

191

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.

192

Figure 5.21 Process Flow chart of Quality Maintenance methodology followed at

WRM

193

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 (b) Monthly Trend of Customer Complaint at

WRM

5.23 (a) Monthly Trend of rejection 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, nonevaluation 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

S. No.

3
4

Table 5.5 Need for a revised Training and Education System

Drawbacks of Old System
Changes Required
Focus of Training on just number of Need Based Training to be imparted
Training man-days / man / year.
with monitoring on a Skill Gap Matrix
Repeated Employees were sending
for the same training, even though the Strictly need
based,
with
no
person was already acquainted with unnecessary repeatability.
the same.
No Evaluation of the training Each Training imparted to be judged for
effectiveness.
its effectiveness with each trainee
Skills and Training needs to be
Competency levels / Skill needs not
identified and monitored for each
being identified for all employees.
employee separately.
Proper planning of training material,
No standard structure for imparting
trainers / mentors, trainees and training
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.

196

 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
Superiors 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 learnings 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

197

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

198

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

199

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.
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Characteristics
Noise
Emission
chimney

from

Hazardous
waste
generation
Waste Oil Sludge
Auto Emission
Smoke
Specific Energy

Frequency
6 Months

6 Months
1 Year
Monthly

6 Months

Monthly

Maintained by
EMS
Co-ordinator
Process
Manager
Rolling
Process Manager
Rolling and Sec.
head Mechanical
Supply
Management
All concerned

200

Protection
Use of ear plugs and ear muffs
if noise level > 80 db.
Keep emission within 150
mg/Nm3. Milligrams per cubic
meter (at normal conditions)

Follow laid down procedure

for handling hazardous waste.
Maintain within specified
limits
Monitor trend and introduce
appliances like V/F Drive to
reduce power consumption

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-theart 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

201

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.

202

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

203

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

204

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

205

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

206

5.6

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

FY04)
Earlier days 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 days 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

207

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
TPM-TQM Activities
Purpose
Formulation of Vision
Economic Value Addition (EVA)
Focus, Integration of quality with
manufacturing
TOP (Total Operational
Accelerate
continuous
Performance)
in
improvement
Operations
Ensure quality at each step for
end customer satisfaction
Internal
customer
concept
TOP
(Total
Operational
FY05
Increase
Efficiency
and
Performance) in Marketing
Effectiveness of the Channel
RVM (Retail Value
Network
Management)
Win -Win relationship with key
customers
CVM
(Customer
Value Management)
Integration
of
all
Improvement
ASPIRE
Initiatives
TPM
Employee
Involvement,
Kaizens,
Autonomous Maintenance
Academic Support Program Increased Customer Focus, Supply
FY06
Renaissance Chain Improvements and Global
onwards Inspiring
Educators ASPIRE (TQM & Competitiveness,
Understand
the
TQC TECHNOLOGY)
evolving needs of customer
Year
FY04

5.6.1

TPM-TQM Objectives at LP Division

In the past FY01-03, 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.
208

In the current period (FY04-06) 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 (FY01-03)
TPM ALONE
Business
Objective

Serve the Individual

House Building
customer(IHB)

Become EVA Positive

TQM
Objective

Enhance
Customer
Satisfaction
Create Value and
Build
Relationship
with Customers
De-commoditize
Rebars
through
Branding
Stretch
propel
ideas

Targets to
innovative

Create specialists in
problem solving

Current (FY04-06)
TPM-TQM
Enhance brand image of
Re-bars to the Individual
House Building segment
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
Improve margin in line
with
Company
Objectives
Improve frequency rate to
World Benchmark of 0.8
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

209

Reason for Change

Enhanced Consumer Focus

New segment
Customers

Direct

Migrate from Sustenance to

Growth
Concerted Effort on Safety
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

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.

210

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

211

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

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%

FY05
(Target)
--------------

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 FY06 indicating improvement
in Policy Management system.

212

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
213

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

214

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.
Employees 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

215

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 TQMTPM 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.

216

Table 5.10 Comparison of achievements accrued through TPM alone

Initiatives and TQM-TPM Initiatives

Category

PARAMETER

Bench
Mark
FY01

Unit

Tons / year

285550

325545

62.4

70.2

88.1

Hrs / month

186

72

60

No. / month

316

62

50

Tons / man /
yr

722

877

1345

Performance Rate %

73.2

77.5

92.3

Overall
Efficiency

50.1

60.1

86.4

22

14

150

36

Production

Availability
%
(Calendar Hours)

Breakdown/
Failures
Productivity

Plant

Customer
Complaints

%
Numbers
month

Ton / month
Q

TPM
TPM Alone supported by Achievements depicted
though
FY03
TQM
TQM-TPM
FY06
Questionnaire
FY03
FY06
480000

Process Rejection
(cobble
and %
scraps)

1.45

Rejection
(Monthly)

0.85

0.78

0.36

Quality Rate

90.3

91.7

97.2

Conversion Cost

Rs / Ton

Overall Despatch
%
Compliance

1.1

1550

1520

50

69

0.32

1325

96

Major

Minor

22

12

Safety/ Accidents

Suggestions /
Numbers
Kaizens/ Morale

407

623

217

1432

0.450

0.813

3.601

3.761

<0.001

<0.001

0.583

0.729

3.406

3.870

<0.001

<0.001

0.443

0.496

3.431

3.566

<0.001

0.001

0.494

0.728

3.888

6.549

<0.001

<0.000

0.625

0.761

2.646

3.021

<0.011

<0.005

0.331

0.722

2.239

3.314

<0.030

0.002

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

218

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

219

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

220

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

221

Table 5.11 Remaining Problems and Future Plans

Category
Quality
Production

Cost

Safety

Morale

5.9

Remaining Problems
1. Variation in UTS in High
Carbon Wire Rods.
2. Plant utilization not increasing
beyond 81%.
3. Inability to run the mill at
speed of 100m/s due to
entanglements over, Stelmor
Conveyor.
4. Section changing delays.
5. Reduce power consumption.
6. Improve yield.

Future Plan
1.
Use
problem
solving
techniques to reduce variability.
2and3.Stabilize operating and
maintenance practices of Laying
Head and Stelmor Conveyor
through new control logics.

4.Installation of RSM (Reducing

Sizing Mill)
5. Develop practices to reduce
fixed power consumption.
6. Reduce trimming loss by
minimizing uncooled length.
7. Procedural violations.
7. Repeated training on safe
working
procedures
and
standards.
8. Low problem solving skills in 8. Training on advanced Q.C.
workforce.
Tools.

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

222

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, customersupplier 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.

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