There is also a strong focus on the team, with each TPM team generating their own three-year business plan and they then manage their TPM board to help
communicate the progress made. The teams also have an improvement
engineer who, if a member of staff identifies an improvement, will assist with
its development. An indication of the commitment to the workforce is that 300
operators were sent to Japan for three months to work with their counterparts.
Company C has also focussed on flattening its organisational structure and
currently has four layers: operators; improvement engineers/assistant; team
leaders; and factory director.
TPM is not only utilised on the factory floor, but also in the office
environment, where 30 per cent of the administrative activities have been
removed.