The Problem
Lean improvements weren't enough.
CFP's Old Fort facility began a lean manufacturing journey in 2005 to move from firefighting mode to improve production, enhance maintenance workflow, and drive out non-value-added costs.
Despite three successful years of lean maintenance and achieving great outcomes (process-efficiency improvements, cost reductions), continued equipment failures kept them from meeting production targets. To reduce failures and improve uptime, CFP realized lean process improvements were only one step in its journey; they needed to address equipment reliability.
The Solution
TPM, built on a foundation of culture and ownership.
CFP was familiar with the concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) but needed guidance and support to ensure the cultural and process changes were successful in improving equipment reliability. They chose Marshall Institute as their partner.
CFP's objectives included:
- Reduce unplanned downtime
- Improve response time
- Improve PM program and compliance
- Increase work order completion
- Increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and measurement
- And more…
Step one was to assess the current state and performance of CFP's maintenance systems and practices. We identified strengths, weaknesses, and improvement areas. With the assessment recommendations we guided plant leadership, along with hourly and salaried maintenance and production staff, to create their vision, mission, and expectations.
From here CFP developed their improvement strategy.
A TPM Steering Committee was formed to build the improvement strategy. This cross-functional group was responsible for driving TPM initiatives, adoption, and desired outcomes.
TPM education and awareness communication was delivered to ensure all levels of the organization are aware of the elements of TPM, their role in implementing TPM, and the outcomes that are meaningful to them.
Building on this increased understanding and belief, equipment restoration efforts called Basic Equipment Care Workshops were rolled out. Not only did these workshops return equipment to as-close-to-new condition as possible, they also increased equipment ownership at the operator level and strengthened partnership between operations, maintenance, engineering, purchasing, and others.
“If we didn't implement TPM, we'd be struggling to survive.”
The Outcome
Reliability gains and a culture that owns them.
Although improvement is a continuous journey, CFP achieved significant behavior and reliability changes. Less than two years into the reliability piece of their improvement journey, CFP noted considerable advances in key reliability improvement areas.
Columbia Forest Products achieved:
Conclusion
A real culture change on the plant floor.
In addition to the quantitative measures above, CFP observed that operators and maintenance personnel began working effectively in partnership, with a true feeling of ownership over their equipment and process. The plant is running more efficiently, and CFP achieved real culture change.