Concepts of Total Productive Maintenance - Topic - 6 : Steps of Jishu- Hozen (JH Pillar) -Part 1

Steps of Jishu Hozen (JH Pillar) - Part 1

A descriptive details of  of Jishu Hozen Pillar (popularly known as JH pillar) of "Total Productive Maintenance"is given in my last blog, "8 Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance" (to know more, plz click on : 8 pillars of TPM). As we already know, that under the Jishu-Hozen pillar the operator is made responsible to take care of the maintenance work of the machine and he is trained to do it . 

The operator has to do a self-initiated maintenance of the machine concentrating on the basic cleaning of the machine parts, lubricating and oiling of the parts that rubs against each other during operation, tightening of the nuts and bolts, checking oil level/ temperature level and other important parameters, before running the machine and / or monitoring important parameters during machine running conditions, inspecting and diagnosing for potential problems and taking relabvent actions that increases the productive life of the machines or equipments, that are ran by him.  In simple terms Jishu- Hozen is comparable to our daily maintenance activities that we do to keep our self and our body fit to perform on daily basis, such as -brushing teeth, taking bath, eating, exercising etc.

Fig. 1. Why Jishu-Hozen is important

Jishu Hozen or autonomous maintenance as a concept, eliminates the boundaries of traditional distinction in terms of role of machine operators and shop floor maintenance personnel's. Traditional belief system was that the machine operators role is only to take care of the production through a machine or equipment and checking the machine health and keeping it ready for regular production is the responsibility of the maintenance personnel. But Jishu- Hozen has not only over ruled the idea but also has changed over the mind set from "I operate, you maintain", to "I operate, I own and I maintain". 

Fig. 2. Shift in mindset of  production and maintenance personnel, before and after implementation of JH

To perform Jishu - Hozen effectively the operator should have following basic abilities : 

• The operator should be proficient in equipment operations and maintenance. The operator must have through knowledge of his machine, for which he may be prepared by continuous trainings.
• The operator should have the ability to sense abnormality, and should also have the ability to find out the source or location of the abnormality in the machine or equipment. He should be able to feel the suspicious behaviour of the machine looking at machine parameters or looking at the effect on the machined component/product. 
• The operator should have adequate knowledge and ability to understand the co-relation between machine / equipment performance and product quality, so that he is able to predict the root causes by looking at the abnormal quality of the product.
• The operator should have knowledge and understanding of  the equipment mechanism and functionalities to locate the possible causes if some trouble occurs.

Fig.3. Operator Takes care of their own machines / equipments

Above competencies are obvious result of experience and rigorous training. The basic objectives of Jishu Hozen or autonomous maintenance are : 

1. Creating flexibility in the operators, to operate and maintain the equipments / machines run by themselves.
2. Increasing the skill level of the operators, may be by rigorous trainings and awareness sessions.
3. Elimination of defects or root causes of defects at the source level.
4. Preventing the quality defects form recurring.
5. Establishing the process of daily check for deterioration of the machine and doing quick restorations. 
6. Keeping the performance of the machine or equipment at optimum level for a longer duration of life cycle of operation. 
7. Step wise implementation of JH activities 
8. Prevention of forced deterioration of vital components. 

Note :-  Here two terms needs to be understood : 

1. Natural Deterioration : Deterioration or reduction in functional performance level of the machine/ equipment due to the ending of machines / equipments service life.Natural deterioration can be restricted and machine life can be increased by ontime inspection and repairs and Planned Maintenance. Hence, Natural Deterioration is ageing under standard operating conditions.
2. Forced Deterioration :  Deterioration or reduction in functional performance level of the machine/ equipment due to improper usage by the operator. These deteriorations are attributable to poor handling and inferior working/environmental conditions caused by human beings i.e these deteriorations are artificially induced and accelerated because of non-standard working conditions.  In particular, an extremely poor human-created environment results in to rust, stains, oil leakage, dust, paint peal-off etc. and these intern accelerates forced deterioration of machine / equipment causing failures. 

Fig. 4. Explanation of Natural Deterioration and Forced Deterioration

So in both the cases i.e. in case of natural deterioration and and forced deterioration we need a zero break down strategy, which more or less will look like as detailed below :

Fig. 5. Zero breakdown strategy for both natural and forced deterioration

Elimination of the chances of forced deterioration of machine and rigorous execution of  cleaning, oiling tightening, maintenance and control etc. are the practices that are necessary to enhance machine working life and improvements brought through the above mentioned daily practices are termed as basic condition restoration activities. These basic condition restoration activities in Jishu-Hozen pillar are been brought under 7 Steps and these are popularly known as 7 Steps of JH. 

But, before going to the steps of Jishu- Hozen, we will talk about some support that are expected from Maintenance team to be offered to the production team: 

1. Elastrative training must be given to the production team members on 

• Names of the machine parts and their functioning
• Structure and fitment of the parts 
• Machine disassembling or dismantling and reassembling
• Do s and don't s of assembling and disassembling process 

2. Guidance on cleaning process in terms of 

• Important points to be taken care during cleaning
• Points of dust accumulation and chocking
• Wiping methods 
• Opening and closing methods of  covers, leads to remove dust and dirt
• Safety instructions and electrical and mechanical connections

3. Guidance on Lubrication process in terms of 

• Classification of lubricants and oil types and their usage
• Oiling locations, oiling quantity and oiling frequency or periods

4. Technical guidance on control of sources of contaminations and other defects, taking countermeasures and taking improvement measures on hard to clean and hard to access areas, improving efficiency of operations and doing KAIZENs. 

5. Guidance on basic condition /ideal condition of machine, machine malfunctions, abnormality detection and quick deterioration restoration methods.

Below are the details of seven steps of Jishu-Hozen or autonomous maintenance : Before the seven step begins, there is a preparatory step which is called Step 0 which is preliminary step or initial step. This step includes activities like employee training, collection of basic history of machine, preparation of cleaning map and area ownership. The staire structure of the steps looks as below:

Fig. 6. Seven Steps of Jishu- Hozen Pillar

The details of each step is given in the detailed link below: 

• Step - 0 : Preliminary step or preparatory step (to know more click on the link : Steps of Jishu- Hozen (JH Pillar) -Part 2)
• Step - 1 : Initial cleaning , inspection (to know more click on the link : Steps of Jishu- Hozen (JH Pillar) -Part 3)
• Step - 2 : Countermeasures against sources of contamination and difficult to access areas (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)
• Step - 3 : Formation of tentative standards (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)
• Step - 4 : Overall Inspection (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)
• Step - 5 : Autonomous inspection (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)
• Step - 6 : Standardization (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)
• Step - 7 : Autonomous management (to know more click on the link : Link Under Preparation)

To understand the implementation method and details of each of the seven steps of Jishu-Hozen (Autonomous Maintenance Pillar) please refer to my next blog post. (Link : Steps of JH Pillar - Part2). Thank you very much for your support and affection. 

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