Consulting Assistance

Coaching and advice on the floor so that TPM actually takes root and is sustained.

Training tells a team what to do. What keeps a programme moving is someone returning to the floor at intervals. The consulting days are spent on the decisions where things are actually stuck: which machine should be the model line, whether the standard as written can really be followed, and why the activity in one department has stopped.

Most of the time here goes into coaching pillar leaders and internal trainers to do the work themselves. The goal is not a plant that depends on a consultant, but a team that carries on without one — which is why the owners and the audit system are named from the start.

What this step covers

• Coaching the management team on policy, teams and governance
• Coaching production through autonomous maintenance
• Coaching maintenance through planned maintenance
• Assessing overall TPM progress

What you receive

Progress reports, an interim report and a final report

What stalls a programme

A TPM programme rarely stops because the team does not know how. It stops at a decision nobody feels able to take — whether to stop a machine to restore its condition, what to do about a standard that cannot actually be followed, or how to handle one department racing ahead while another has not started.

Someone from outside who has seen the same situation in other plants makes those decisions much quicker. And most of the consultant’s work at this stage is not doing it for them, but coaching the pillar leaders so that next time they decide it themselves.

How to apply it on the floor

1. Fix the coaching visits in advance, so the team has deadlines
2. The internal team does the work; the consultant guides and checks
3. Always close with an interim report and a final report

The mistakes we see most

• Expecting the consultant to do the work, which leaves no capability behind
• Leaving too long between visits, so the activity stalls

Common questions