Individual improvement — improving production efficiency, one of the eight pillars — is the direct responsibility of the production department, with the other departments supporting it, and it runs alongside the operators’ own autonomous maintenance work. It is carried out on a model machine first, and only then extended to the other machines across the plant.
Individual improvement means reducing each type of loss in turn, beginning with the loss that has the greatest effect on OEE — because that is where the change shows most clearly.
Its result is measured by OEE. Put another way, individual improvement is the improvement of OEE by a dedicated team working together with the operator of that machine.
Improving production efficiency
Improving efficiency means getting the most output from the production system while using fewer resources — making the fullest use of what you have, which is productivity improvement itself. It divides into three:
- Getting the most from the machine — improving the operating rate
- Getting the most from the working method — improving operating efficiency
- Getting the most from the material — improving the quality rate
Each rate attacks a different group of losses
Improving the operating rate reduces the losses that stop the machine. Improving operating efficiency reduces the losses that rob it of speed. Improving the quality rate reduces the losses that produce defects.
Improving production efficiency is the main duty of production engineering, the operators and the maintenance department — divided respectively into individual improvement, autonomous maintenance, and planned maintenance.
How the three activities overlap
From the diagram it can be seen that the duty of improving production efficiency, across all three activities, is in part separate and in part work that must be done jointly, according to the region.
Region 1 is improvement in the part that is individual improvement alone. Region 2 is improvement in the part that is autonomous maintenance alone. And region 3 is improvement in the part that is planned maintenance alone.
Region 4 is improvement that must be done jointly between individual improvement and autonomous maintenance. Region 5 is improvement that must be done jointly between autonomous maintenance and planned maintenance. And region 6 is improvement that must be done jointly between individual improvement and planned maintenance.
Region 7 is improvement that must be done jointly by all of them — individual improvement, autonomous maintenance and planned maintenance alike. Region 8 is improvement in the other parts, which are none of the three, such as the activity of the administrative departments or of sales.
Read next
- OEE and Maintenance KPIs: Why Most Plants Fail to Improve Them
- Individual Improvement (Kobetsu Kaizen): Building CI Teams That Last
Reference
- ธานี อ่วมอ้อ. การบำรุงรักษาด้วยตนเอง. กรุงเทพฯ: สถาบันเพิ่มผลผลิตแห่งชาติ, 2547.
- ธานี อ่วมอ้อ. การบำรุงรักษาทวีผลแบบทุกคนมีส่วนร่วม. พิมพ์ครั้งที่ 2. กรุงเทพฯ: สถาบันเพิ่มผลผลิตแห่งชาติ, 2546.
- Development Program: Implementing Total Productive Maintenance. Tokyo: Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance, 1996.