TECHNICAL BRIEF Total Productive Maintenance in RMG Sector Jo urnal o f Me c hanic al Eng ine e ring , vol. ME37, June 2007 Tra nsa c tio n o f the Me c h. Eng . Div., The Institutio n o f Eng ine e rs, Ba ng la de sh 62 TO TA L PRO DUC TIVE M A INTENA NC E IN RM G SEC TO R A C A SE: BURLING TO NS LIM ITED, BA NG LA DESH A.K.M. Masud, Abdullah-Al-Khaled, Seratun Jannat, A.K.M. Sajedul Arefin Khan & Kingshuk Jubaer Islam Department of Industrial & Production Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. INTRODUCTION Until now the Ready Made Garments industry is considered as “The Engine of Growth” for the economy in Bangladesh in so many ways including development of women and society as a whole. The journey of export oriented Ready Made Garments industry started in the 80s with some favorable policy support from the Government of Bangladesh and preferential treatment of major apparel importing countries of the world through guaranteed share of their market. The entrepreneurs of apparel export of Bangladesh exposed mainly with “low value, low price, low quality products” with the objective of using expensive labor force of the country. But in course of time the structure and direction of world trade in RMG has changed fast. Again the scenario in trade and business is about to change due to globalization and trade liberalities under the world trade organization. It is anticipated that Bangladesh is going to face stiff competition from large number of apparel producing countries notably China, India and Pakistan. It has now become a severe challenge to the economy of Bangladesh as maximum number of garment factories go out of business throwing 10 million direct and indirect workers out of jobs which certainly brings about a socio-economic havoc. It is now essential to bring dynamism in this sector by taking some realistic steps. Such steps can be categorized as improving productivity and standard of workers, development of product design capability, quality improvement, strengthening marketing and promotion ability, improving management skills and techniques, fabric developments, increasing overall equipment efficiency etc. Burlingtons Limited, a Ready Made Garments industry in Bangladesh, was experiencing low productivity and less profit. The reasons of low productivity and possible means of improvement were then investigated by applying Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program, which involves a newly defined concept for maintaining plants and equipment. All sections of the factory have been studied to identify and reduce equipment losses to maximize overall equipment efficiency (OEE) by using the techniques of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Finally, the most significant losses were indicated and eliminated and the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) was improved. The detail of the study is reported in this paper. TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE TPM brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and vitally important part of the business. Downtime for maintenance is scheduled as a part of the manufacturing day and, in some cases, as an integral part of the manufacturing process. The goal is to hold emergency and unscheduled maintenance to a minimum. The details of this technique are available in Srivasatava 1 . CASE STUDY Methodology: Firstly, all sections of the garments factory have been pointed out for assessment. It is observed that the goal of all factory improvement activity is to increase productivity by minimizing input and maximizing output. Equipment and machinery are the crucial factors in increasing output. Productivity, quality, cost and delivery, as well as safety, hygiene, environment, and morale are all influenced significantly by equipment conditions. The goal of maintenance management is to enhance equipment effectiveness and maximize output. It strives to attain and maintain optimal equipment conditions in order to event unexpected breakdowns, speed losses, and quality defects in process. Overall efficiency including economic efficiency is achieved by minimizing the cost of upkeep and maintaining optimal equipment conditions throughout the life of equipment. So the steps that were followed are 2 a. Identification of major losses. b. Identification of significant losses by Pareto analysis. c. Calculation of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE). d. Reduction of losses with analytical techniques. Steps in introducing TPM in an organization 3 Stage A – Preparatory stage Step1: General announcement by management about TPM introduction in the organization Step2: Initial education and propaganda for TPM Step3: Setting up TPM and departmental committees Step4: Establishing the TPM working system and target Step5: A master plan for institutionalizing Stage B – Introduction Stage Stage C – Implementation Stage D – Institutionalizing Stage. TPM 5S (Sort, Systematic, Shine the workplace, Standardization, Self discipline) JISHU HOZEN (Autonomous Maintenance) KOBETSU KAIZEN (Focused Improvement) Planned Maintenance Quality Maintenance Education and Training Office TPM Safety, Health and Environment Figure 1: Eight pillars of TPM TPM stands on 8 pillars 4 as shown in figure 1. Among these, the third pillar KAIZEN is used in this study. This pillar is aimed at reducing losses in the workplace that affect the efficiencies. It is possible to eliminate losses in a systematic method using various Kaizen tools such as: PM analysis, Why - Why analysis, Summary of losses, Kaizen register and Kaizen summary sheet. As one of the pillars of TPM activities, Kaizen pursues efficient equipment, operator and material and energy utilization. Kaizen activities try to thoroughly eliminate 16 major losses shown in Table 1.