Achieving vertical startup of new machines, equipment and facilities

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is the model of excellence that I have been practicing for the longest time. With TPM, in addition to the transformation of processes and people, I cultivated extraordinary results, going through a substantial increase in OEE and productivity, reduction of defects and waste of materials, more optimized use of energy sources and neutralization of work safety and environmental risks.

One of the pillars of the TPM is EEM (Early Equipment Management). Many of the practices that I have been adopting among the countless initiatives and projects that I led have been influenced by the TPM and, in particular, by the EEM pillar.

EEM pillar is aimed at capital projects, with a methodology of principles and techniques that allow for a “vertical start-up” and the optimization of the “Life Cycle Cost” (LCC).

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for capital projects to have a ROI (Return On Investment) below expected, with a more extended payback than projected in the decision phase.

In practical terms, what I saw due to failures in the development of the capital projects were situations such as:

- Equipment that never reaches nominal speed;

- Lines that rarely exceed the target efficiency contemplated in the project requirements;

- Commissioning scheduled to last a few days or weeks that actually last for many months;

- Machines with excessive MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) due to: difficult access for maintenance, lack of standardization of spare parts with other equipment, improper training, etc.;

- Processes with excess variability, reflecting in the capability indexes (CpK / PpK) below the minimum required, generating a high defect rate;

- Ergonomic issues, lack of lighting and increased risk of accidents at work due to the lack of prior analysis of these conditions;

- Unexpected changes during the test at the machine manufacturer or during/ after installation, generating additional costs;

- Layout poorly designed in terms of material flow, generating excessive movement of people, materials and means of transport, property damage and risk of accidents;

- Equipment that is not very flexible in terms of configuration of the manufactured product, making frequent changeovers unfeasible and making adaptation costs extremely high when changing the product design;

- Requirement for an additional investment project to complete the production capacity that was not achieved in the original project;

- Need detected at the last minute to "break" a wall to be able to place the equipment in the factory shed;

- Equipment that only works well in “normal temperature and pressure”, that is, excessively sensitive to small variations in raw material specifications, for example;

- Documents in a foreign language, making operational and technical interventions difficult: maintenance and operation manuals, diagrams, flows and identification on the equipment (buttons, pipes, safety signs);

- Delays that compromise Time To Market (TTM), pulverizing a potential competitive advantage, when not making the business unfeasible by blocking the generation of greater EBITDA in a pioneering phase of the product on the market;

- Endless disputes between the machine manufacturer and the customer about the responsibility for not achieving the expected performance. Besides internal disputes and a “culture of guilt” among the areas of Purchasing, Engineering, Production, Maintenance, Finance, Quality, etc.

Throughout my career I applied the concepts of EEM, improving and adding to other approaches of Project and Product Management and, fortunately, I got rid of many of these problems.

I share some practical aspects in the application of EEM:

- Contemplate the LCC (Life Cycle Cost): When the decision criterion is based solely and exclusively on the Cost of Acquisition, the risk of obtaining a poor result is huge. Life Cycle Cost estimate must be made, contemplating the acquisition, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and disposal of the equipment.

- Awareness that “problems” must appear in the initial phases: There is a curious aspect, there is often little or insufficient discussion in the initial phases when the project is still on paper and when the costs of alteration would be lower. On the other hand, in advanced phases, in which the impact on cost and time will be more relevant, it is usually where there is greater disagreement, major conflicts and, consequently, major changes in the project, generating considerable deviations. The "early" in EEM refers exactly to the indication that "problems" should be detected as early as possible during the project, being cheaper to be solved.

Remember, about 70% of the total cost is impacted by decisions made (or poorly made) in the initial phase of the project.

- Involve the right team: Capital project is usually an initiative that might involve many areas and that has multidisciplinary aspects. Having the humility to include the appropriate experts and consider their experience and vision is essential.

A common mistake of the person in charge of the project is to try to make the decisions alone or with few stakeholders involved, without involving people who can help with contributions based on the practical experience they have acquired. Many of these people are professionals from the field, from the “factory floor”, from the Gemba (Japanese term meaning “the actual place”).

Examples: listen to the mechanic who will maintain the installation; involve the quality analyst and process engineer who have already noticed a condition in the equipment that generates less variability in the product dimension; understand with the import analyst and buyer what the impacts of buying from supplier A or B are; invite the utility supervisor to give an opinion on the need for steam, compressed air, energy; involve the person responsible for the environment to discuss waste treatment and emission into the atmosphere; call on the occupational safety technician to consider aspects of safety, health, ergonomics and fire prevention; call the logistics leader to participate in discussions on material flows (inbound and outbound); understand from operators what ideas they suggest to have a good operation and facilitate the exchange of tools, changeovers, etc.

- Structuring a “Project Visioning”: Defining the stages, deliverables for each stage and the criteria for validation in each “stage gate review” is very important.

Here, the internal resources needed to develop the project are also consolidated, mapping the participating areas and defining roles and responsibilities in more detail.

It is from this activity that a detailed project schedule will be developed.

- Ensuring a systematic way of conducting the project: Stipulating governance and information sharing routines, criteria for triggering a help chain for problems and visual management for monitoring the project are important aspects.

It is an excellent practice to have a project management environment, some call it the Control Room, others call it the War Room, others call it Oobeya (Japanese term we translate as “Large Room”). It is an environment where information is concentrated, where meetings and workshop sessions are frequently held.

- Use prototypes and mockups for simulation: CAD software is a resource always used to evaluate possibilities, define plant layout configurations and details. However, in many cases the application of a full-scale simulation will be extremely enriching. In many projects, we have used wood, cardboard, plastic and tools to assemble life-size simulations, and, I can say, that we have realized a huge variety of important aspects related to better material flow, ergonomics, agility in operation, among others, that would go unnoticed if we limited ourselves to AutoCad or similar software.

- Contemplate Maintenance Prevention and Poka-Yoke: Sometimes I saw new equipment in which moving parts were subject to dirt and process residues, generating accelerated wear. In many situations, subtle considerations in the design phase would preserve the component of this kind of accelerated deterioration, increasing its useful life.

I have also seen situations where important and expensive pieces were vulnerable to damage due to lack of application of the approach "error proofing" during the macro design and detailing phases. Similarly, this “error proofing” view must be considered to avoid accidents, quality issues and operational errors.

- Previous definition of the operation and maintenance skills: Within the context of the EEM, the mapping of the skills required during the life cycle of the equipment must be contemplated. There will be a demand for operational skills, process techniques, maintenance techniques, etc.

- Add visual controls and visual management: Here we should start from a 5S culture from the concept. Define which materials will be in the work environment, in which locations, in what quantities and how the visual identity will be. Whether for positioning WIP, tools, material handling equipment, changeover trolleys, it is important to define how it will be identified, whether adhesives, “shadow boards”, floor markings, etc. will be used.

Visual controls to facilitate inspections, such as oil level in the hydraulic unit, pressure range in manometers, direction of rotation, etc. they must also be considered and defined during the project.

Visual management must also be included from the start with regard to tools such as hour by hour board, KPI board, autonomous maintenance tags management, etc.

- Define the planned maintenance routines: In the commissioning phase, a planned maintenance plan should already be structured, covering the activities of lubrication, inspection, wear measurement, predictive analyzes, autonomous maintenance, etc.

Before that, during the machine design phases, a spare parts plan must be defined: quantities to be kept in stock, suppliers, replenishment lead time, etc.

Organizations that seek standardization of parts in their equipment and facilities, and include these specifications in the purchase contract, enjoy an advantage in the management of spare parts.

- Project Manual: In many companies, in order to replicate best practices in capital projects, we have created a project manual. This type of manual includes the flow, detailing the steps and criteria for the gates, templates of important documents such as Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RACI), guidelines for defining spare parts requirements, standards and legislation that must be met, documents that must be provided by the manufacturer, value engineering principles, list of service providers, etc.

Within this context of “Knowledge Management”, it is common to create a web wiki and other resources that allow interaction and constant updating of information among project participants in an organization. Having a “Lessons Learned” base is important. Sometimes weaknesses from previous projects will be input for “Maintenance Prevention” in the new project.

 Conclusion

EEM is a valuable approach to ensure that new equipment, installation, machine, etc. is put into operation in an agile way, with optimized cost and meeting the specified requirements.

This approach is applied even in other situations: tooling change, revamping, retrofitting, etc.

Through EEM there will be greater robustness in guaranteeing the following characteristics for the equipment, installation or machine:

- Safe;

- Reliable (MTBF);

- Easy to maintain (MTTR);

- User-friendly;

- Able to meet the specifications of the final product (Cpk, FTQ);

- With adequate yield of tools and raw materials;

- With optimized consumption of energy sources and not harmful to the environment;

- That works at the projected speed and productivity;

- With optimized LCC, that is, the combination of all costs: specification, acquisition, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and disposal.

In addition, EEM is an approach that provides integration between people, harmony between areas and fosters corporate learning and the culture of Continuous Improvement.