True Downtime Cost (TDC), A Leaner Lean
Manufacturing...
TDC Action Plan - How To Reduce
Production Cost
Top Down:
For change to succeed, you must start from the
top, down. Start by asking your plant manager or corporate manager
to review a copy of this book. Letting the manager know you would
like to put together a team to create an action plan best suited for
your facilities situation. Also mention you would like the manager’s
input and welcome involvement.
Select a Team:
If you are an individual company, select a team
size that is right for your particular situation. As it is well
known in world class establishments, you want at least a machine
operator, a maintenance person and some one from management.
If you are a corporation implementing this action
plan, you will need “a reasonable sample” of employees from the
companies under you. You should start your plan and team building
with one of your companies as test.
Then have a corporate team analyze the process of
implementing TDC, the results and refine the SOP. Then you would
implement the new action plan on all companies within your
corporation.
Set a Goal:
The team’s first assignment is to set a goal that
is right for your company. My advice is “it is better to have a goal
that is too high, than one that is too low”. Remember to insure
solid monetary methods of measuring success as one of your goals.
Also the fact that you are implementing a
methodology that will enable you to better monitor monetary value,
sets you up for success too. As an example, if your goal was to your
two most costly lines and automate True Down Time cost for them, you
should see the displayed downtime cost go down, or equipment be down
less, indicating a dollar value saved to report to all involved.
With goals in place, your can develop a roadmap to profit from TDC
knowledge.
Develop a Plan:
Next you need to create a plan to reach your goal.
As with any solid plan, it needs a time line and contingencies.
Also, don’t forget to “Plan to Plan”, a time to analyze progress,
address issue and plan accordingly. What ever level you chose, your
plan will be two parts, the first being the
TDC implementation plan
and the second half being the
TDC Utilization plan. Both
are equally important to your over all success.
Below I will recommend a plan for minimum
implementation and utilization. Below the plan template is an
example plan. You can always start out small and let the success be
the drive for further implementation throughout your facility.
Goal
o
Area of implementation
o
Method of implementation
o
Time to be completed
Define technical steps and targets
o
Evaluate area of implementation
defined in the goal.
o
Determine steps
o
Place steps in time line template
o
Apply methods of
implementation in accordance with time line
Determine roles and resources
o
Request from the different groups,
department or individuals, what need be done of them.
o
At the same time, brain storm on
methods for your organization to benefit from the TDC knowledge
gained by reaching your implementation plan.
Once the
TDC implementation plan
has succeeded, record benchmark base line of TDC, and move on to
TDC Utilization plan
below.
Implement you reaction plan based on
the new TDC tools available.
o
This may be as simple as managers
making better decisions.
o
Every week or month, survey those
involved and reports to assess the current monetary value that has
been earned/saved by utilization of the new TDC knowledge.
After 3,6 or 12 months, interview all
above to summarize report on much how money the TDC knowledge has
saved your company.
o
Make this known to all, from the top
down.
Example of a Plan:
Goal
o
Area of implementation
– One assembly machine
o
Method of implementation
– Write program to utilize existing HMI
to display TDC, “money saved in last month” and “money saved year to
date”.
o
Time to be completed
– 1 Month
Define technical steps and targets
o
Evaluate area of implementation
defined in the goal.
§
Evaluate
each TDC cost metric as it relates to assembly machine.
·
Scrap
parts cost, start up cost, man-hour cost, etc.
·
Hourly
wage of operators, maintenance, QC, management, etc.
·
The TDC
per minute arrived at will need re-evaluated at a later date because
you will have learned during the first implementation project.
(After you are experienced, it is important to stay with the
original TDC value calculated, else it loses it’s value as a
benchmark tool.)
o
Determine steps
§
Define TDC
cost per minute for assembly machine.
§
Define
what is to be displayed on HMI for all to see.
§
Request
maintenance/engineering add to existing machine program.
§
Define how
each plant personnel will use TDC data displayed
·
Operator
motivated to reduce scrap, keep the machine running, so all can see
the savings.
·
The same
will hold true for maintenance. Scheduled downtime that does not
conflict with scheduled production will not affect the TDC, and be
preferred by maintenance.
·
When cost
justifying repairs or improvements, maintenance will use the TDC
value for effected area.
·
Management
will base their decisions on the TDC, not just man-hours of
operators.
·
Overall,
the facility will be cost driven, more so
than the typical production driven facility of the past.
·
On all
levels above, percentages of improvement or comparison should also
be used. This will help when comparing effects of TDC methodology to
the bottom line.
§
Educate
operators, maintenance, management, etc. on how to use new TDC
display.
·
Brain
storm with operators and department heads on ways they can change
their day to day decision making process based on the new TDC
information available to them.
§
Set dates
to present progress reports showing the change brought about by the
TDC knowledge.
·
1 month
after implantation is complete (look for change)
·
2nd
month after complete (look for improvements in utilization from
previous month)
·
6 months
after complete
o
Place steps in time line template
§
1 week, develop plan
§
2nd
week, educate all involved
§
3rd
week, implement physical changes (modify program)
§
4th
week, educate all involved and show physical changes.
o
Apply methods of
implementation in accordance with time line
Determine roles and resources
o
Request from the different groups,
department or individuals, what need be done of them.
§
Operator
will provide typical numbers related to assembly machine.
·
current
scrap rate
·
recent
down times
·
process
details (raw material delivered by forklift operator, etc.
·
Any repeat
problems, set up time, breaks, number of shifts ran, etc.
§
Maintenance will provide estimate to have program changed,
feasibility study and recommendations.
·
Also
provides any additional machine history info.
§
QC
provides test procedures and time related to machine, so cost
analysis can be down for QC metric.
§
Engineering does the same.
§
Management
will provide scheduling and other details about the machine and
process.
·
Personnel
involvement when the machine goes down, reports, rescheduling, etc.
·
How many
people are involved when machine goes down, maintenance, QC, plant
manager, etc.
o
At the same time, brain storm on
methods for your organization to benefit from the TDC knowledge
gained by reaching your implementation plan.
§
As well as
better informed decisions, other changes that might be brought
about.
§
Set up
reward systems, that actually put money back in the pockets of those
involved. (It’s all about money, that is our true bottom line)
§
Don’t
forget to mention the improvements in process brought about by the
knowledge gained while implementing the TDC project.
·
Example,
maintenance never realized (or could cost justify) a new plant air
compressor until they learned the cost when it goes down is three
times what it would cost to replace it with the best on the market.
Once the
TDC implementation plan
has succeeded, record benchmark base line of TDC, and move on to
TDC Utilization plan
below.
o
Assembly
machine cost $15.56 per minute down, $933.60 per hour, $14,937.60
per day (2 shifts normally ran) based on studies above.
o
Last week
it was down for 2.5 hours during normally scheduled production.
o
Last month
it was down for a total of 8.3 hours
o
In the
last year, it was down for 4.5 days (16 hour days for two shift
operation.)
Note:
The benchmark step is another built in success factor to TDC
methodology. By focusing those involved on cost, and displaying it
on the machine for all to see, a cost driven social environment will
be created. When dollars being lost are seen by all, someone will be
held accountable for every minute. The initial bench mark above will
only be based on info those involved though important enough to
record. not every minute of downtime. If you are using automated
data collection system like we are in this example, every minute
will be accounted for. Over a years time, the numbers above could be
doubled with un reported downtime, a few minute here, a few minute
there.
Implement you reaction plan based on
the new TDC tools available.
o
This may be as simple as managers
making better decisions.
o
Every week or month, survey those
people involved and the reports to assess the current monetary value
that has been earned/saved by utilization of the new TDC knowledge.
After 3, 6 or 12 months, interview
all above to summarize report on much money the TDC knowledge has
saved your company.
o
Make this known to all, from the top
down.
Repeat this process with other machines, lines,
areas in your facility or with companies in your corporation. The
example above is not complete, but enough to get you started on the
road to success. Implementing the hardware part of the TDC project
is actually the least time consuming. It will take about a couple
hours for additional rungs of ladder logic to be written, and HMI
program to be modified. I used an Allen Bradley PanelView in this
example.
Planning takes a little longer, extracting all the
cost metrics from your facility and individuals will be the most
time consuming. But these numbers will not change and most of them
can be used again on your next TDC project. So the more times you
implement this, the less time consuming and costly it becomes./p>
You may choose to use the TDC
methodology on even a smaller scale, such as cost justifying a new
piece of equipment. In that case, implementation would be just doing
the cost analysis using the TDC metrics (cost centers).
Don
Fitchett
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