Autonomous maintenance is also called by other popular names such as self-initiated maintenance or Jishu Hozen. Key theme of this programme is that the person who is operating the machine maintains the basic condition of the machine such as
- Cleaning
- Oiling /lubrication,
- Tightness
- Inspects the machine.
The maintenance activity carried out by the operations and production department instead of fully relying on maintenance department as companywide initiative.
For the autonomous maintenance to be started, it is important that the operator needs to be equipped with knowledge of the machine, its functions, basic day to day maintenance needs and ability to foresee any potential issues and initiate corrections and corrective actions to restore the machine in good working condition. A person who possesses both the operating skill and maintenance skill can be termed as the Qualified or certified operator.
Common questions that are asked while initiating Autonomous maintenance is
- Can the person who is operating the machine can take charge of the equipment maintenance?
- What are the skills needed for the operators?
- Who gives training to operators on Autonomous maintenance?
- Will the operators have time to do the tasks that are expected out of the operators
- What happens to maintenance team’s role in maintaining the equipment?
- What is the role of management and how they support in Autonomous maintenance activities.
In order to implement Autonomous maintenance, Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance, the forerunner of TPM programmes has given a step by step method which has very clearly laid out activities to implement in a step by step method.
As part of the preliminary stage to implement Autonomous maintenance, it is necessary to provide the operators with capabilities necessary to have strong hold on the machine. They are:
- To have capabilities of judging an abnormality
- To correct measures to be implemented quickly
- Measurable fixation for determining standards
- Follow the procedures/sops diligently.
These capabilities are acquired in four stages:
- To restore or improve the abnormality identified by oneself.
- Understanding the function and structure of equipment and detect the cause for abnormality through root cause analysis, 4L5W OR 4L5Y methodologies.
- Able to corelate the abnormality on quality
- Ability to restore or repair the equipment.
There are Seven Steps of Autonomous maintenance implementation
Step1: Initial Cleaning
It is necessary to have the machine in perfectly clean condition before initiating any maintenance activity. Cleaning activity of Autonomous maintenance goes beyond simple cleaning. It is called cleaning with meaning. Cleaning is to identify the existing or potential abnormality. Through this step, the bond between operator and machine improves.
Step 2: Countermeasure against the source of contamination and difficult to access or detect spots
In this step, action is taken to identify the source of dust, grime, leakage and taking actions to minimize its impact on functioning and day to day maintenance. This helps in reducing the time taken for cleaning and lubrication and helps further in good functioning of the equipment.
Step 3: Preparation of Standards for cleaning and lubrication
The first two steps work as foundation for this step. The experience will help in preparation of tentative JH standards for Cleaning, Oiling /lubrication based on his/her own experience. Where needed, help is taken from the circle.
Step 4: Overall inspection
In this step, mechanisms and functions of the machine are learned apart from the determining standards of right operating conditions. Further inspection techniques are learned by doing mode. While inspecting, restoration is also done. To minimize the recurrence of the problems, easy of inspection methods such as see through guards and visual management systems are parallelly worked out.
Related Article- Implementing Visual Management to complement Operational Excellence
Step 5: Self initiated inspection
In this step, learnings from Step 4 is carried forward and added to the cleaning and lubrication standards created in Step 3. With this, complete standardisation which can be sustained is carried out in this step.
Step 6: Reorganisation and maintenance
In this step, the scope of maintenance is extended to surroundings of the equipment by implementing 5S or workplace organization. As part of this, all the tools. Lubricants that are needed for cleaning and maintenance of the machine is arranged with ease of access and in orderly way.
Related Article- How to implement 5S and safety improvements in organisations
Step 7: Self-initiated maintenance- Thorough implementation
In this step, sustenance of steps implemented so far are institutionalized through the help of small group activities. Target management is applied at this step and ongoing improvements are initiated.
Seven Steps Business Transformation system is member of Seven Steps Group company and we have experienced TPM consultants who have wide experience in implementing Total Productive Maintenance in various industry sectors such as Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, FMCG, Continuous Process plants, Food production automated equipment etc., As Top Total Productive Maintenance consulting companies operating from India, UAE, SriLanka, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Africa our TPM Consultants can help in effective implementation of TPM programme in your organisation.
Related Article– Implementing Total Productive Maintenance in Manufacturing, Fabrication, Pharmaceutical, FMCG, Oil field and other process Industries.
We have our customers all over India in multiple cities and we support locations including Mumbai, Calcutta, Nashik, Pune, Neemrana, Gurugram, Pant Nagar, Mysore, Hosur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruchi, Belgaum, Nellore, Vishakapatnam, Vizianagaram, Madurai, Cochin, Trivendram
Through our group Company, Seven Steps Academy of Excellence, we also help in conducting both public and inhouse training programmes to support TPM such as.
- Training on Jishu Hozen, Autonomous Maintenance,
- Training on Focussed improvement
- Training on Total Productive Maintenance
- Training on Early Equipment Management
- Training on 5S
