 Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 10 - 14 10 A Study on the Mode of Introducing Independent Maintenance into Traditional Industries That Rely on Manual Work Chi-Chih Shen * Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Taiwan Shou-Fu University, Tainan 721, Taiwan, ROC. Received 20 June 2015; received in revised form 17 July 2015; accept ed 31 July 2015 Abstract The vast majority of Taiwan's enterprises are small and mediu m-sized enterprises, which account for 98% and mostly are built up by the traditional industry. But along with the technical progress and development of production technology, the traditional industry is faced with survival bottleneck because of high cost and various competit ors. Therefore this research aims to explore the mode of intro- ducing independent maintenance to traditional industries, and to develop a suitable one for today's traditional indus- tries. Research results will be provided to the domestic traditional industries for reference in order to reduce the cost and difficulty they may have in importing independent maintenances. Keywor ds : Traditional industry, independent mainte- nance, competitive power 1. Introduction The economic construction of Taiwan is led by the development of industry, which mainly relies on manufa c- turing sector. In terms of the production specifications, manufacturing sector can be divided into traditional indus- tries, basic industries, science and technology-intensive industries. The vast majority of Taiwan's enterprises are small and mediu m-sized enterprises, which account for 98% and mostly are built up by the traditional industry. Nowadays with the rapid development of society, techno l- ogy and information communication, in order to protect the traditional industry from being impacted, and remain its role in the economic development, we must firstly understand the characteristics of the traditional industries and then take proper measures accordingly. In order to enable them fully play their roles, a joint cooperation between the industry, the official sector and academic institutions is required, so that the traditional industry can be led into a higher level of development. The whole staff’s awareness of and support for independent maintenance and their dedication is also important for the continuous development of enterprises’ operating structure. Only with these efforts can the trad i- tional industries of Taiwan can be transformed and the competitiveness of enterprises enhanced. The first system- atic concepts and methods of maintenance were developed in the late 1960s when airlines grew interested in equipment ma intenance because of the issue of improving the work efficiency of jetliner ma intenance. And then the method of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) was developed, which became widely used among the aviation community. In the early 1970s, the military also used this method in military aircraft and warships. RCM method is designed ma inly for diverse and comple x equipment ma intenance. It ma kes reliability as the core consideration and prioritizes the maintenance work coordinated with failure mode and effect analysis (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis FMEA) so as to make the reliability of the equipment system achieve the best state. There are six stages in the evolution of the TPM: 1. The Era of Break-down Maintenance. (Break-down Mainte- nance; before the BM-1950) [Gera1d J. Hahn, and Sa mual S. Shapiro]; the maintenance work begins after the equipment fails to work or the performance deteriorates. The maint e- nance features the ex-post rush repair of the repair personnel, who usually have no awareness of equipment management. 2. The Era of Preventive Maintenance (Preventive the Maintenance; PM-1951's) [Edward A, Si1ver and Claude-Nico1as Fiechter]; Periodic inspections and sched- uled checks for a variety of devices are carried out so that the poor operating condition of equipments, if any, can be discovered as soon as possible and so the failure can be prevented. (Routine maintenance, roving maintenance, periodic maintenance, preventive maintenance, and repair) therefore preventive maintenance is the inspection and check work conducted mainly by the maintenance person- nel. 3. The Era of Productive Maintenance (Productive the Maintenance; PM-1954): it is advocated by the U.S. Gen- eral Electric Company, which means that in consideration of the economic value of the equipments, the factory carries out scheduled checks, lubrication and minor repairs in order to reduce the cost caused by downtime and substantial ma intenance work. It is the integration of ex-post mainte- nance and preventive maintenance and aims to achieve the purpose of economic production. 4. The Era of Corrective Maintenance (Corrective Maintenance; CM -1957~) [Von Alven, WH: It means upgrading the quality of equipments and relevant parts in order to improve their re liability and durability. 5. The Era of Maintenance Prevention (the Maintenance Prevention; MP-1960~) the [Sa mue1 S Shapiro, and A1an J. Gross]: improve the project plan so that the devices do not need maintenance or only requ ires minima l and simple ma intenance. 6. The Era of Total Pro- ductive Maintenance (Total Productive Maintenance; the TPM-1970~) [Seiichi NakaJima]: a co mprehensive and universal system which focuses on integrating in- ter-departmental and within-departmental communication and cooperation. That is, let all departments of a company from the management to operators; let all the staff take an active part in the plan and maintenance of equipment so as to establish a comprehensive production and maintenance system. Developed by Bin and others, the dynamic preventive ma intenance system (Fa ilure and Scheduled Maintenance Analysis --FASMA), which is human-centered, is designed for a manufacturing environment that is cellular based, system-oriented, and that emphasizes comprehensive qual *Corresponding aut hor, Email: chi-chih@tsu.edu.t w Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 10 - 14 11 Cop y right © TAETI ity management. This system adopts a deductive database with dynamic interface, and use foregoing RCM method to continuously improve preventive maintenance plan so as to minimize downtime. This system infers the category of fault and the time to maintain only from the historical data and fault knowledge, not including experiential maintenance knowledge and real-time status information of equipments. Okogbaa and others [OKogbaa, G., Hliarlg , J. and She11 R L.] ca me up with a preventive maintenance system (PPMS) for the automated manufacturing systems, stressing the concept of opportunistic maintenance. When imple menting preventive maintenance, this system tells the distribution of the failure based on statistical analysis of historical data collected by equipments and uses simulation analysis to predict failure and derives the best timing to maintain, which is very helpful for the reduction of production costs. McFadden [McFadder1, RH] e xplored the process of es- tablishing a database system with reliability, operability, and maintainability. He also analyzed in detail the data types, as well as the design of the database. The Pintelonm and Wassenhove [Pintelonm, L. and Wassenhove, LV] put forward a control panel that includes various performance indicators and detailed reports. The performance indicators include a comprehensive indicator for ma intenance ma n- agement. The range of measurement covers fields like cost, equipment, manpower, materials, and work. These perfo r- mance indicators help managers to evaluate maintenance effectiveness; while early warning information provided by CB and detailed information by DR is useful for dec i- sion-making. The above literature is the overview of prec- edented research on equipment maintenance. Because in the past years the maintenance management of equipment didn’t draw sufficient attention, there are few researches on equipment maintenance or TPM in Ta iwan. .[Shen Ji Zhi, Ling Ben Taro, Qiu Yuanxi, etc.]. In foreign countries, excepts Japan(Sasaki, Terumi, Ling Ben Taro, Marcelo Rodrigues, Kazuo Hatakeyama, Amir.Khanlari, Kaveh Mohammadi), researches in this field has also been valued in recent years.(the Bin Wu and Jonathan J M. Seddon, Edward A, Si1ver and Claude-Nico1as Fiechter, OKogbaa, G., Hliarlg, J ., and She11, R. L., Pintelonm, L. and Was- senhove, LV, Kristy O.Cua, Kathleen E.Mclone, Roger G.Schroeder, G. .. Chand, B. Shirvani) 2. Method 2.1. The Basic Concept of Independent Maintenance and Its Implementation Steps The so-called independent maintenance means that with the purpose of taking care of one’s own equipment, each staff me mber carries out routine point inspections on their own equipment, lubricate, replace parts, and detect abnor- ma lities early and correct precision so as to prevent a serious fault from happening. In order to imple ment the independ- ent maintenance, workers must be trained into masters in equipment. Equipped with operating skills, worke rs also must have the ability of detecting abnormalities, of im- proving them and then the ability of understanding the re- lationship between equipment with quality of products. It often thought that the failure or the deterioration of equip- ment function is due to human misconducts. So if this kind of ideas can be changed and people can have the concept of "zero defect" and "zero failure", gradually they will change the equipment and on-site. The systematic stimulation of the company will help ensure the full participation of the whole staff in the staged imp le mentation of independent mainte- nance. The steps of imple menting independent maintenance are as follows: 1.the initial cleaning: cleaning equipment is helpful for understanding the equipment and finding whether the device is normal or not. In other word, cleaning is point inspection. 2. the solution for the source of failure and difficult parts: find the source of pollutants in equip- ments and working environment in order to prevent pollu- tion. As for those parts on which the daily maintenance work like cleaning, point inspection and lubrication is hard to carry out, measures also should be taken to improve them so that the maintenance work can be done easily.3. develop interim benchmarks for independent maintenance: base on experience gained from the first two steps, suggestions should be made on issues like which parts needs point in- spection, lubrication and cleaning, the corresponding methods and also the period.4. the overall inspection: In order to seek the highest efficiency of the device, workers must understand the structure, function, principles of equipments and should know the status of the equipment, so a comprehensive inspection is a must in order to find out the potential defects and restore the original status which the equipment is supposed to maintain.5. independent Inspec- tion: the purposes of the first four steps are to maintain the device and improve its degradation. If the reliability, ma intenance and quality of the equipment is about to be further improved, then the benchmark made previously for cleaning, lubrication and overall inspection must be re-e xa mined so as to improve the efficiency of point in- spection, making no inspection mistakes. A summary of the benchmarks of independent maintenance will then be achieved as a result. 6. Standardization: Step one to five center on devices, but a standardized set of practice is needed in order to administer and imp le ment such activities like the preparedness of the basic conditions and daily point inspection. The standardized practice will enable a person to do the job well alone no matter who the person is and where he is, achieving self-management. 7. the thorough imp le- mentation of self-management : this step is to summarize the activities promoted in the foregoing six steps, and show improved results by changing the equipment, personnel, and on-site, which brings more self-confidence and courage to challenge more ideal targets like zero defect, zero break- down, zero disasters and zero short-term downtime. 2.2. The basic concept of individual improvement The so-called individual improvement is the activity of exc luding the loss caused by personnel, materials and equipment (such as the loss brought about by the operating mistakes of workers, by the equipment failure or short downtime and by lost work time due to unbalanced pro- duction line). That is, to maximize productivity and aim at real effect. Before the improvement activities begin, per- sonnel, materia ls, equipment, and other various types of loss projects should be mastered along with corresponding data, so that benchmark values for each loss projects can be set to server as the comparison with the improved situation in the future. Following are the ten steps to carry out individual ma intenance: 1. select the equipment, production line and project for demons tration:(1) Those defective production lines and projects and equipments that wear a lot in the Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 10 - 14 Cop y right © TAETI 12 individual improvement plans, (2) Horizontally lay out those ones with great importance. (3) The equipment, pro- jects and equipments that are the same with those in inde- pendent maintenance activities. 2. form an ad hoc group: me mbers of the ad hoc group, in addition to the project they are in charge of, should also offer technical analysis and support for others’ loss projects, bringing into full play the role of interpersonal relationship. (1) The managers of d e- partments become leaders (leaders of demonstrative d e- partments become managers and leaders of demonstrative section become section supervisor). (2) Invite the assistant units of technology, design and produ ction to join in. Whenever loss occurs, it should be borne by the unit which is in charge for the corresponding loss unit and which causes the loss. (3) The promoting units designate members of the group and directs. 3. grasp information about the current loss: (1) Check and know about the loss. (2) When there is not enough information about loss, collect them. 4. set the theme and the goal of improvement:(1) Set the theme of improvement according to the findings of research on the current situation.(2) Set the goal and period of improvement based on the concept of zero-loss.(3) Determine the person in charge of the countermeasures for loss. 5. work out plans for improve ment:(1) Complete a plan including analysis, countermeasures and procedures of improvemen t. Make a schedule to promote imple mentation of the plan.(2) Carry out high-end diagnosis. 6. analyze and develop strategies and assessment:(1) utilize a ll the skills and methods like analysis, investigation and experiments. Establish the im- provement case and develop the assessment method.(2) Make efforts continuously until the goal is achieved.(3) Carry out high-end diagnosis (looking for better ways in the form of announcement campaign) for the purpose of e n- richment. 7. put into to effect measures for improvement t: imple ment necessary budget management, and make i m- provements. 8. confirm the effect: to confirm the effect of improving various loss projects. 9. standardiza- tion:(1)Standardize the standards for the manufacturing, operating, material-choosing and maintenance and make countermeasures for the prevention of the recurrence of loss.(2) Make the manual for horizontal imple mentation..(3) Make high-end diagnosis.10.horizontal lay-out: lay out the same production lines, projects, equipment horizontally . 3. The process of introducing independent maintenance into traditional industries 3.1. The Plan of Importing Independent Maintenance Pilla r The master plan is a rough plan, so when the industry is about to promote the independent maintenance compre- hensively, it should develop a more detailed overall plan of importing the pillar based on the benchmark of master plan, and then import the overall plan to make a three -year schedule and a promotion plan for the current year. The promotion plan should be more detailed than the three-year plan. Although there are many plans during the promotion process, a complete plan is needed in order to carry out all works smoothly. The following is about how make the plan of importing the pillar of independent maintenance: this s tudy divides the independent maintenance plan into two parts for illustration. The first part is the overall plan of importing the pillar of independent maintenance, whose content is as shown in Table 1. The second part is the plan of importing the four steps of independent maintenance, whose main work item and order are as shown in Table 2. A Gantt chart, namely the plan for the importation of each steps, can be made according to the items and order listed in Table 2. Table 1 Overa ll plan of import ing independent mainte- nance pillar It em Abst ract Explanat ion 1 Members and managers of t he organizat ion for plan promotion ‧The struct ure of independent maint e- nance branches, members doing vari- ous jobs and the units they belong to. ‧T he manager of each position 2 Object ive ‧T he overall goal for the coming three years and the goal for the current year should be included.(choose from the project s of efficiency measurement indicat ors) 3 P roject s ‧List all the project s t o be accom- plished in the current year and next three years. Each project should have a manager. 4 schedule ‧Every important project should be in- cluded in the schedule of promotion in order to facilitate the management. The schedule should specify the beginning date and finishing date of every project t hrough Gantt chart. 5 P lan of promot ion for each st ep ‧Express each st ep in order through Gantt chart , making t he plan of promotion. 6 St at ist ic dat a of various achievement indicators ‧ Every clique, group, sect ions and department should have it s own st a- t ist ic data and collect , analyze and renew t hem monthly. 7 List of all cliques ‧T he name of each clique and the unit s t hey belong t o. (Concluded by this research) After the overall plan is done, the goal values should be allocated to all departments. Each department should make its own plan of promoting independent maintenance ac- cording to the goal and the activities in the overall plan. The finished plan then will be further imple mented in sections and cliques. Every unit should have its own plan for im- plementation. Table 2 Plan of each step in importing independent maintenance Implement at ion order Major work in t he first st ep Major work in t he sec- ond st ep Major work in t he t hird st ep Major work in t he fourt h st ep 1 t he first st ep Educat ion t raining t he second st ep Educa- t ion t raining t he t hird st ep Educat ion t raining t he fourt h st ep Educat ion t raining 2 t he first st ep Make im- port at ion plan t he second st ep Make im- port at ion plan t he t hird st ep Make impor- t at ion plan t he fourt h st ep Make impor- t at ion plan 3 clean equip- ment s T hor- oughly make t em- porary benchmarks for cleaning, lubricat ion and point inspect ion make check- ing form for overall in- spect ion set bench- marks for reflect ions on cleaning, lubricat ion and point inspect ion 4 marking out defect ive part s wit h t ags implement independent diagnosis Implement overall in- spect ion and mark out defect ive point s make inde- pendent maint enance benchmarks Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 10 - 14 13 Cop y right © TAETI Table 2 Plan of each step in importing independent maintenance (continued) 5 t ake off t he t ags aft er t he first -t ime improvement is done implement depart - ment al diagnosis or high-end diagnosis analyze and improve t he defect ive project s make t he schedule for independent maint enance 6 add lubricant t o equip- ment s and t ight en screws make t em- porary benchmarks for overall inspect ion implement independent maint e- nance(cleani ng, lubricat - ing and point inspect ion) 7 confirm t he source of problems and t he difficult part s, mark t hem out and draw coun- t ermeas- ures(at t ach t ags t o t he problemat ic part s) Implement independent diagnosis Implement independent diagnosis 8 improve t he source of problems and t he difficult part s(remove t he t ags where t he improvement job is done) implement depart mental diagnosis or high-end diagnosis 9 confirm and record t he part s t hat have been cleaned, lubricat ed and point -inspect ed(includes t he bench- mark met h- od, dealing met hod, period, t ime and t he managers) 10 implement independent diagnosis 11 implement depart mental diagnosis or high-end diagnosis (Concluded by this research) 3.2. The Steps of Introducing Pillar of Independent Maintenance into Traditional Industries that Mainly Rely on Manual Work Because the products and industrial characteristics of each industry are different, they rely on equipment to dif- ferent degrees. For exa mple, traditional industries that op- erate artificia lly have low re liance on equipments. Some industries use simple equipments, which don’t break down easily and can restore from failure quickly even if a break down happens. This kind of industries includes assembly industry, electronic plug-in industry, woodwork and bam- boo wares manufacturing industry, all of wh ich are based on manual labor. What this kind of industries wants to pursue is how to reduce the loss of manpower and increas e work efficiency is. The following is to elaborate the steps of in- troducing independent maintenance into traditional indus- tries. 1. initial cleaning and improvement of sources of problems: the ma jor activities take place at on -site. All redundant items will be d isposed; the original material, semi-finished products, parts and smelting moulds will be cleared up; a thorough and comprehensive cleaning of on-site will be done in order to remove all dust and dirt: strategies will be made to solve problems regarding need- less items, source of dust and parts that fail cleaning and point inspections. This belongs to the first stage and the estimated time needed is six months to one year. 2. make the contemporary benchmark for the imp le mentation of 5 S: ma ke action benchmark for effective ma intenance and cleaning carried out in short time. The imp rovement should be easy for the imp le mentation of point inspection and visual management. This belongs to the first stage and the needed time is estimated to be six months to one year. 3. overall inspection and the improvement of the problematic points: understand the structures and functions of products and provisions about quality assurance, find out the loss projects that lower efficiency of the personnel and improve them. (Loss projects include loss caused by operating mis- takes of workers, by operation, by logistics, by testing ad- justment and so on). Inspect and confirm the condition of moulds, smelting equipments and measuring instruments. Set interim benchmarks for the daily overall inspection. This belongs to the second stage and the needed time is estimated to be six months to one year. 4. independent point inspection and standardized operations: review and revise the contemporary benchmarks for the imple mentation of 5 S and the interim benchmarks for the daily overall inspection in order to improve efficiency. Train versatile workers and ensure the same quality and output even when there are changes in the operating staff. Set operation standards and let it guide operations. This is to belong to the second stage and estimate import time six months to a year. 3.2. Individual Improvement of Steps of Importing Pillar Maintenance and the Explanation for Activities The purpose of individual improvement is to thoroughly eliminate the 16 kinds of loss caused by equipment, per- sonnel and the raw materia l in order to ma ximize the productivity, and improve and make use of the technical and analysis ability of relevant personnel through the activity. Eliminate losses. For e xa mple, for industries which rely on equipments, to eliminate losses is to bring down to zero the eight kinds of losses that lower the efficiency of equipments; and for those relying on artificial operation, that is to erad- icate the loss that reduces workers’ efficiency. Table 3 is the illustration for individual improvement of steps of intro- ducing pillar ma intenance into traditional industries and the activities. Table 3 The steps and activities of the indiv idual i m- provement of the pillar import St eps Names Main act ivit ies 1 Select t he equipment , and project for demonst ration: ‧Demonst rat ive equipment should mainly be chosen from those bott leneck project s in oper- at ion, equipment that wear a lot, important equipment and equipment or product ion lines t hat have bad horizontal expansion effect. Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 10 - 14 Cop y right © TAETI 14 Table 3 The steps and activities of the indiv idual i m- provement of the pillar import (continued) 2 Form an ad hoc group ‧The manager of the depart ment t hat this im- provement case belongs to become the leader. The larger the case is, the higher the level should be ‧T he group should consist of managers, techn i- cians or designers and indirect personnel. ‧T he special case should get regist ered and reflect on the job schedule periodically 3 Check and know about the current loss ‧Affirm and mast er t he loss project s of the equipment and some relevant informat ion. When there is not enough informat ion, make the best effort s to collect them. (Loss project s includes16 kinds of loss like failure, t emporary halt , replacement of mould and lines, amen d- ment of defect ive product s, loss caused by op- erat ing mist akes of workers, by operat ion, and by t est ing adjust ment. 4 Set the t heme of improvement and t he goal ‧Set t he t heme of improvement according to the findings of analysis (greater loss project s should get improved first ). ‧Set the goal and period of improvement based on t he concept of zero-loss 5 work out plans for improvement ‧Complet e a plan including analysis, count er- measures and procedures of improvement . Designat e managers of every operation 6 Analyze prob- lems and draw up count ermeasures ‧Use every analyt ical method t o find out t he real reason t hat cause various kinds of losses and t hen draw up feasible resolut ion. 7 P ut int o effect improvement plans and check t he result s ‧Carry out indispensable budge management and improve it. ‧Aft er the improvement , check t he result s. Keep improving those met hods that fail to work out well unt il t he goal is achieved. 8 St andardize the pract ice of im- provement ‧St andardize the st andards for the manufact ur- ing, operat ing, material-choosing and mainte- nance and make countermeasures for t he pre- vent ion of the recurrence of loss. Make the manual for horizontal implementation. (Concluded by this research) 4. Conclusions This study draws up the mode of introducing inde- pendent maintenance into the traditional industries, which nowadays mainly rely on manual work. The mode includes contents like importing the pillar of independent maint e- nance, imple mentation steps, estimated schedule, indicators for performance measurement, managers of organizations for promoting independent maintenance, training courses needed, the production of import plan for independent ma intenance, the way of propaganda, diagnostic procedures of independent maintenance, the form summarizing the collected data and matters that should be noted in the im- porting process. Research results will be provided to the domestic traditional industries for reference in order to reduce the cost and difficulty they have in importing inde- pendent maintenance and help them import TPM smoothly. So that the industrial structure of traditional industries in Taiwan can be upgraded with improved competitiveness and profitability. With the researching results, this study hopes to achieve the following objectives: Firstly, ma ke the traditional in- dustries understand the definition, philosophy and obje c- tives of independent maintenance. Secondly, make the traditional industries understand the theory and practice of independent maintenance. Thirdly, understand the current situation of the domestic traditional industries, and analyze their bottlenecks and the plight they are facing. Fourthly, analyze the feasibility of introducing independent maint e- nance into domestic traditional industries and develop the import mode. Fifth, analyze the estimated results of intro- ducing independent maintenance into domestic traditional industries and the bottlenecks that may appear in the process. Finally, it is hoped that the independent main tenance can be successfully imported into traditional industries, improving the struggling situation they have nowadays in the compet- itive environment. References [1] A. M. 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