Whirled Class

When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician.

Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.

In the mid-1990s, the maintenance leadership at Findlay decided there was a better, more progressive way. It planted the seeds that bear fruit today as the Total Productive Manufacturing and Reliability-Centered Maintenance components of the facility's overall Maximized Manufacturing initiative.

In one sentence, TPM and RCM at Whirlpool mean: "We are all responsible for the equipment."

That means . . .

Operators do maintenance work, some of it technical in nature.
Skilled tradespeople train operators in various maintenance subjects, including the use of predictive technologies.
Maintenance and operations employees work together in teams to uncover the root cause of problems that hinder overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
"When you're in maintenance and see a need for change, you have to take the lead sometimes," says senior reliability engineer Richard Word.

It's not always comfortable to do so, but the results can be huge.

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