Maritime University of Szczecin
Akademia Morska w Szczecinie
2010, 24(96) pp. 48–52 2010, 24(96) s. 48–52
The identification and analysis of problems within a scope
of cooperation between traffic maintenance department
and production department
Identyfikacja i analiza problemów w zakresie współpracy
działu utrzymania ruchu z działami produkcyjnymi –
studium przypadku
Katarzyna Midor, Bartosz Szczęśniak, Michał Zasadzień
Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Organisation and Management Institute of Production Engineering
Politechnika Śląska w Gliwicach, Wydział Organizacji i Zarządzania, Instytut Inżynierii Produkcji 41-800 Zabrze, ul. Roosevelta 26, e-mail: roz3@polsl.pl
Key words: traffic maintenance staff, production department, time of machine‟s repair, factors influencing
time of repair
Abstract
This article focuses on the sources of conflicts between a traffic maintenance department and production department which are very often unidentified by managers of an organization. These conflicts lead to the reduction of affectivity of an enterprise thus, the authors of this article tried to indicate all causes which result in an inappropriate cooperation between them. The identification of these problems and their analysis will let the organization take actions, which will improve the cooperation between two closely cooperating departments which, in turn will result in bigger effectiveness. The analysis of the problem was conducted in one of production company in Silesia voivodeship.
Słowa kluczowe: służby utrzymania ruchu, dział produkcyjny, czas remontu maszyny, czynniki
wpływają-ce na czas remontu
Abstrakt
W artykule zwrócono uwagę na źródła konfliktów pomiędzy działem utrzymania ruchu a działem produkcji, które bardzo często są niezidentyfikowane lub nieuświadomione przez menadżerów organizacji. Konflikty te w swoich skutkach prowadzą do obniżenia końcowej efektywności przedsiębiorstwa, dlatego też autorzy ar-tykułu starali się pokazać jak ważna jest współpraca pomiędzy tymi dwoma działami i wskazać przyczyny, prowadzące do niewłaściwej współpracy między nimi. Identyfikacja tych problemów i ich analiza pozwoli organizacji podjąć działania mające na celu usprawnienie współpracy pomiędzy dwoma ściśle ze sobą współ-pracującymi działami w przedsiębiorstwie, co w konsekwencji doprowadzić ma do większej efektywności i znacznego polepszenia atmosfery w organizacji. Analiza problemu została przeprowadzona w jednym z przedsiębiorstw produkcyjnych w województwie śląskim.
Introduction
The constant production is a characteristic feature of any enterprise and the proper use of technical objects [1] which ensures a stable work of machines and devices is a significant matter. In production enterprises, work is more and more
supplied with machinery and the cost of mainte-nance of machines and devices as well as their depreciation exceed other costs several times. The proper functioning of management processes of fixed capital from economical and technical sides is a very important task due to minimizing production costs [2]. The maintenance of machines and devices
in a proper condition falls within traffic mainte-nance workers‟ duties.
Currently, many industrial enterprises decide to change the manner of traffic maintenance staff‟s work which is a result of available methods in this field, such as: TPM1 and also tools which are available , for example: CMMs2 as well as it is a consequence of the necessity of gaining and maintaining the established level of quality of use of technical systems [3]. It can be done in many different ways, for example: the founder of TPM concept, S.Nakajima defines it as an action realized by each worker who is a member of small team in order to increase the capacity of machines and devices [4]. Although all units or traffic maintenance staff or production departments being elements of the same organization aspire to gain the same, common superior aims for an enterprise within a scope of high level of use of technical use in practice, an everyday cooperation brings many problems and misunderstanding, and perception of them differs depending whether a production worker looks at them or traffic maintenance worker does it.
Identification of problems
On the basis of observations, the analysis of procedures and interviews with traffic maintenance and production department workers of the produc-tion enterprise based in Silesian voivodeship which produces pro-insulated pipes, the main problems within their cooperation have been identified.
Undoubtedly, these are the following most important areas of problems:
The extension of planned dates of repairs (over-hauls) and reaction to emergency situations, The lack of information flow between traffic
maintenance departments and the interested units, for example a production or planning department.
The extension of dates of repairs
The problem of extension of repairs, overhauls is perceived in all cooperating with each other units. They all claim that such a situation is caused by too much passive time participation in compa-rison with active time spent by traffic maintenance department. Figure 1 presents an example of such behaviour.
While the first element of passive time, that is an administration delay (Fig. 1) is an element
1 Total Productive Maintenance.
2 Computerized Maintenance Management systems.
whose minimization is connected with decision-taking and organization-like actions and it does not imply any costs, the reduction of time of the rest elements, that is: expectation time for staff or expectation time for spare parts are deeply dependable on political and economic situation of an enterprise. In this case, administration also includes delays being a consequence of a tight production schedule where the beginning of overhaul or removal of defect is translated into the time of finishing production of important contract. It is especially common phenomena in case of seasonal production when a period of increased work or period of stagnation take place. A machine, which is left without control, gradually loses its parameters and breaks down, very often due to trivial reasons. In such a case, the cost of its repair is higher than the cost of its overhaul. The above described phenomenon could not happen if periodical inspections were conducted with higher care and awareness or at least if they were appointed for periods of less increased production.
The basis reasons of a long time expectation for spare parts are insufficient funds which goes along with solutions used within a scope of storing spare parts. The philosophy of a company regarding management of parts assumes almost a complete elimination of them, everywhere it is possible. It is a consequence of avoiding freezing the capital and lack of room for a warehouse. Such an attitude is also used in case of storing of – in fact, lack of it – spare parts during repairs of devices used in production processes. Thus, spare parts are not ordered or bought until the demand appears so in the moment, the problem turns up. Such a solution is far from ideal as there is a limited access of some kinds of spare parts. Many of them are produced on
Fig. 1. Time in a repair process [5]
Rys. 1. Czas w procesie naprawy [5]
Administration delay Expectation time for staff and technical reserves
Defect location Expectation time for spare parts
Repair Time of resting
order therefore, time of their availability is sometimes very limited. There is awareness of significance of this problem in the company. In order to limit this problem, the analysis of availability of separate spare parts on the market are conducted so as to identify these elements which despite restricted attitude to the matter of storing, should be on the warehouse. The use of reliability theory can be an improvement of this situation as it may help in predicting time of proper work time of a machine or technical device.
The impediments of quick obtaining necessary materials for repairs also result from the use of very inflexible purchasing procedures. Even small orders after exciding defined value require a supervisor‟s approval. Orders of bigger value require requests for proposal procedures. The time of purchasing procedure according to binding procedures can be also a cause of delays of obtaining a given element. The condition of machinery park is the last identified cause of limitation of fast obtaining spare parts. Some of the machines are obsolete therefore, obtaining an appropriate sub-assembly at produ-cer‟s is sometimes difficult.
Some of the problems may appear when repairing the machine what additionally may influence on the prompt completion of repair. The study of standardization possibilities of some of parts for existing machinery park as well as analy-zing orders with respect to this idea and according to TPM rule – Early equipment Management, that is a plan of building machines which are easy to operate, are attempts of managing the above mentioned problems.
Insufficient financial resources directly influ-ence the appearance of problems with staff (expectation time for staff – Fig. 1). The lack of appropriate number of workers often results in their low availability. Traffic maintenance workers‟ duties involve not only doing current repairs or overhauls but also providing themselves with necessary tools and materials which is connected with leaving their work place so as to purchase necessary things and this also limit their availability in emergency situations. Very often, at least two workers are required during the repair due to the industrial safety regulations and other procedures which in turn, reduce not sufficient human resources of traffic maintenance department. There are very often situations in which there are not available workers who could react on current failures due to the above mentioned circumstances.
Workers do not often have proper qualifications which do not allow to conduct the repairs quickly, effectively and what‟s the most important,
according to the plan. Employing a highly qualified worker is very difficult due to financial limitations and low availability of workers of that type on the work market. Thus, employees with low qualifica-tions or without any are employed and than they are subjected to appropriate trainings. Such a procedure does not guarantee a complete success. When employing a young, unqualified worker with unknown abilities and attitude to work, there is a probability that despite having been trained, his usefulness can be lower than in case of employing well qualified worker with experience. The enter-prise can minimize these inconveniences by means of the introduction of visualization inspections in a form of work record and visualization of machi-nes and their components. Precise descriptions and photos of separate components make the unassisted work easier for workers with insufficient work experience in this case.
Information flow
The issue of delay of repair works is directly connected with the problem of scarcity of proper information provided to all interested units of the organization. After all, the relations between traffic maintenance department and production department are a classic example of an inside provider-inside client relation where as Cusack3 said: “You won‟t gain quality outside unless you create it inside” [6]. It seems obvious that an inside client‟s satisfaction can influence on work quality of an enterprise which will result in quality of products and promptness of their delivery and this in turn, will influence in an outside client‟s satisfaction.
As much as the problem of meeting the deadline is observed by both traffic maintenance department and production department, the insufficient information about it, is perceived as inconvenience by the latter department. The traffic maintenance department is convinced that such information is not necessary for production department workers. Whereas, according to production workers, such information would be very helpful and would allow for better work organization. Lack of proper information increases frustration with prolonging terms of repairs and results in an inside client‟s lack of understanding for problems which traffic maintenance department have to face.
The second important problem which occurs in the cooperation of these departments is an insufficiently quick reaction to the appearance of
3 Ken Cusack, the president of Bristish computer
mechanical failures. Also, in this case, the main cause of this situation can be problems with properly qualified staff and difficulties in obtaining necessary sub-assemblies quickly. Additionally, production department draws attention to the fact of low availability of workers form second and third shift. Three means of communications are used to exchange information during mechanical failures. It can be reported by means of a phone, mail or ARETICs system where all problems of this kind are recorded. Additionally, paper form is used, where all information register in ARETICS, is written down and extended with information about confirmation of reporting failure, work acceptance along with date of events. Despite using above mention solutions which should theoretically ensure
a quick contact with appropriate people and they also ensure a proper documentation concerning each and every mechanical failure, a real time of appearance of traffic maintenance worker at the place of failure arise reservations.
Other problems
Apart from already mentioned two main problems, according to interviews with production department workers, a problem with tidiness of workplace and problem of necessity of conducting single-minute exchange of die by production workers have been identified. The problem of tidiness concerns work places which are left after conducting repairs by traffic maintenance workers. Although this problem is important for an inside
Extender terms of repairs and overhauls Expectation time for staff Insufficient number of workers Staff policy Financial policy
Doing additional duties (supply) Work distribution Administration delay Financial policy Tight schedule Seasonal work Expectation time for spare parts
Purchase procedure Lack of warehouse Financial policy Difficult Access to parts Low unification of parts Obsolete equipment A wide diversity of devices Staff Low qualifications Lack of training Insufficient remuneration Low involvement Dead end job
High staff turnover Motivation system Lack of use of workers‟ qualifications
Fig. 2. Reasons and sources of delays in repairs and removing mechanical failures. Source: authors‟ own study Rys. 2. Przyczyny i źródła opóźnień w wykonywaniu remontów i usuwaniu awarii
client which means that its influence on his satisfaction with cooperation, it is completely unnoticed by the supplier. There is a conviction in traffic maintenance department that the assessment given by production department does not have any sense and will not have any influence on the cooperation between units. The need to do single- -minute exchange of die by the production department is the last of identified problems. According to them, this should be done by traffic maintenance workers who should do training in this scope. Letting production workers do this, may result in often mechanical failures what may additionally finder the cooperation between them.
Summary
On the basis of the above deliberations, it can be observed that the biggest element of all problems in functioning traffic maintenance department and its cooperation with production department is the delays in doing repairs, overhauls and removing mechanical failures. Figure 2, which is a summary of these deliberations, presents the most important causes of this phenomenon in a form of Ishikawa‟s diagram where its divisions corresponds to divisions proposed by Mikler.
It is clear that the most frequently repeating reason is finance which is to be spent on traffic maintenance department. It appears in all four “branches‟ of diagram. The authors do not analyse the board‟s financial decisions however it can be presumed that they can be result of information scarcity and negligence in justifying expenses and that „s why decision-makers are not completely aware of , for example: financial consequences of appearance of failures in case of prolonging overhauls or repairs or sometimes expectation for spare parts. Such a situation occurs despite not being in conformity with currently biding concepts of managing an enterprise.
It can be noticed that there are two kinds of problem which fall with a scope of cooperation between traffic maintenance department and production department. The first kind involves problems which are identified and accepted by both sides. The second kind involves problems which are only perceived by one of the department. What seems to be interesting is that this kind of problem is mostly noticed by inside client.
It can prove the fact that rules which are obvious for cooperation realized on the free market are still understood and used enough within an inside cooperation. The inside supplier‟s awareness in the scope of necessity and identification and meeting inside client‟s needs is far from satisfactory. The changes in this scope are unavoidable as this kind of attitude mostly can assure that products and services, which are provided as a part of inside services, thanks to an appropriate quality, will result in inside client‟s satisfaction and in the end will help to achieve establish aims. Owing to the observation of workers‟ of both departments high involvement, it can be presumed that the current situation is not a result of ill will but rather lack of communication between departments. The actions whose aim is to analyse the identified problems and propose methods and tools which can help improving the current situation will be studied in other research. According to the authors, the use of 5S method can help improving this situation –the application of the theory of reliability so as to forecast the possibilities of mechanical failures occurrence and to identify the availability of spare parts. What seems to be also a good solution is to monitor the level of quality of traffic maintenance workers‟ work and conditions in which their work is done.
References
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4. NAKAJIMA S.: Introduction to TPM, Portland, Productivity Press, 1988.
5. MIKLER J.: Strategies of Traffic maintenance: review and analysis. Seminary documentation Protech. Warszawa 2005.
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Recenzent: dr hab. inż. Edward Michlowicz, prof. AGH Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza w Krakowie
