IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY OF MINING MACHINERY THROUGH

TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE

Dr. Bimal Samanta
Lecturer, HBITM, Raniganj ,

West Bengal, India

Sri Jayanta Banerjee

Deputy Director,
Directorate of Technical Education & Training
West Bengal, India
Abstract

The effective application of modern technology can only be achieved through people-starting with the operators of
that technology and not through technology alone. It is required to set and maintain the optimum symbiosis
relationship between people and machines for maximising capability of equipment. Total Productive Maintenance
(TPM), originated from Japan, is a very successful method for establishing qualitative maintenance programs and
combines the conventional practice of preventive maintenance with the concept of total employee involvement
through small group activities to maximise the overall equipment effectiveness(OEE) and quantity of production.
The companies that have introduced TPM, so far have been mostly manufacturing or process industry. The
application of TPM in mining machinery maintenance has been somewhat limited. In this paper TPM for mining
equipment has been highlighted. Impression has been given that it is all about a cultural change in the way people
care for equipment, i.e., equipment effectiveness, quality maintenance, people and culture. OEE has been presented
for mining equipment. TPM implementation and Indian culture have been outlined. OEE of dragline equipment has
been assessed.
Key words: maintenance, availability, OEE, Culture, implementation

1. Introduction
Maintenance was considered as a grey and neglected area in business management during recent
past when a very small part of total production cost went into maintenance due to low level of
mechanisation. Often maintenance is a secondary process in mining companies that have
production as their core business. The result is that maintenance does not receive enough
management attention. Another reason for the lack of management attention is the belief that
maintenance costs are not controllable. Management often looks at maintenance as a necessary
evil, not as a means to reduce cost. Now, there has been a sea change in coal mining
technology. Rapid advances in technology in manufacturing of mining machinery have led to
more opportunity for mining industry to procure and to use sophisticated, automated, higher
capacity, precise design, complex and capital intensive mining equipment in production system
for meeting energy demand, productivity, profitability and competitive threat. Due to
automation and mechanisation production processes of an organisation move from labour
oriented to machine oriented. But inefficient operation and deficient maintenance often prevent
utilisation of its full capacity. Interest in the maintenance and operational reliability of all
capital-intensive equipment has been stimulated by the current emphasis on reducing production
cost. The developments in mechanisation, automation and even of integration, and the resulting
complexity in design of the equipment involved, have made the reliability of the machines even
more important. This is especially true in the mining industry, characterised by expensive
specialised equipment and unstructured, stringent and somewhat hostile environment where the
1

position of the work piece or equipment is somewhat uncertain. That is as technical complexity
increases, the required level of maintenance expertise and quality of maintenance task done
increases, and the demand for maintenance, including preventive maintenance, increases. As a
result, in most mining operations today, maintenance-related costs for a typical surface mining
operation accounts for about 40-50% of operating cost. For an underground mining operation, it
is about 30-45%. An average 40-50% of operating budget is consumed by maintenance
expenditure in a mechanised mine. For low level of maintenance, more number of machines, are
required to meet the production target. More standby equipment increase the capital cost and
overall cost of production. Again, downtime cost or loss of production of such expensive
specialised equipment due to unnecessary machine downtime from poor machine design/
reliability/operation/maintenance plays an important role for profitability of the mine. Poor
availability of the machine is no longer affordable to mine management in the competitive and
dynamic business environment. Nowadays, profit margins are getting eroded. As mine
management demands better and greater performance of the machines, the machines also
demand more of them[1]. Therefore the need for adequate or appropriate maintenance strategy
becomes obvious to reduce the business risk. Maintenance should not be considered to be a "
necessary evil" but a "necessary hand for targeted coal production.
After the Second World War the Japanese companies realised, that they must have a higher
quality in the product to compete in the world market. The Japanese were acquiring
management, preventive and productive maintenance know-how during visits to the U.S.A. and
Europe, and tailored them to their needs. They are the leaders at the implementation of
technology. It was felt that organisation may be thought of as a socio-technical system derived
from the concepts that all work systems require both a technology ( hardware and software) and
a social group of people who use that technology[2]. During sixties it was felt by some world
class Japanese companies that the effective application of modern technology can only be
achieved through people-starting with the operators of that technology and not through
technology alone. It is required to set and maintain the optimum symbiosis relationship or
interface between people and machines for maximising equipment effectiveness. Ideally both
operations and maintenance people are responsible for upkeeping the equipment and should
jointly determine the best method to operate, maintain and support it. The attitude I operate,
you fix and I add value, you cost money should not persist. Hence a new machine
maintenance concept that is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), comes up in the picture[3-5].
In this paper a brief description of TPM for mining machineries has been outlined. OEE has
been presented for mining equipment. OEE of dragline equipment has been assessed.
2

2. Attitude Towards Maintenance in Coal Industries

In coal industries, the attitude of operation-people towards maintenance department has
generally been found to be indifferent. The maintenance activity is generally not given due
importance as long as machines are running satisfactorily. Maintenance gets lowest priority. It is
the last to be considered in planning or budgeting, although actually, it should be the opposite.
This is why a tendency is found not to spend so much for maintenance and not to take a long
term financial burden the funds and resources for maintenance is also cut off. This tendency,
however, is an exaggeration of the fact and instead of helping profit it may incur loss. The need
for strict management control has never been so important in the area of machinery maintenance
and that too of mining machinery. Almost everyone appreciate that expensive machines will not
reach a productive design life without due attention, care and control. Control is considered here
to be a short -term in-house machine management. Care is regarded here as long term machine
management for improving machine design characteristics. Over the life cycle of the machine
the cost of this maintenance may be many times of the acquisition cost. Failing to adequately
maintenance for the machines will result in premature failure, reduced capacity or even the need
for untimely replacement. Again, in many cases, it seems to be a thankless job. There is a wide
difference of interest shown between the ways and means to achieve coal production and
machine maintenance goals. On many occasions, management is ready to purchase or invest for
new equipment rather than spares to keep the equipment readiness. Many of the huge investment
in machines are not protected by appropriate post management and engineering maintenance,
there is often just a hope that the equipment will fulfil its objectives and that it will remain
functional throughout its life cycle. From the point of view- both financial and material- this
tends to significant and costly waste. Operation people i.e. so-called mining people feel that
maintenance always creates a hurdle for fulfilling their goals as during maintenance the
production gets ceased. Again, whenever, there happens a breakdown in the system or
machine, blame is given on maintenance process or department and on contrary, failure-free
operation is credited to the ability of the operation / mining people. Phrase like they break em,
we fix em often heard in a maintenance workshop. On many occasions, maintenance activity
gets restricted to a patch-work due to pressure from operation department. The duration of
maintenance is reduced even by sacrificing the protective or safety device. It is a common belief
of the persons with responsibilities for financing the maintenance that instead of maintaining the
machine operative at present, the installation and operation of the machine will enormously help
in the matter of production. But still it can not be denied that under certain circumstances
maintenance of the present operative machine may also help the production. This is a fact which
3

however is ignored by those responsible persons and this is not desirable. The reason of such
misunderstandings is the lack of appreciation of maintenance and improper co-ordination
between operation and maintenance functions and departments[1].
3. Evaluation of Total Productive Maintenance( TPM)
The concept of Total Productive Maintenance(TPM) was introduced in Japan in the early 1970s.
TPM is promoted throughout the world by Secichi Nakajima,[4] the father of TPM, and Japan
Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM).
TPM was defined in 1971 by the Japan Institute of Plant Engineer(JIPE), the predecessor of the
JIPM, as follows:
TPM is designed to maximise equipment effectiveness(improving overall efficiency) by
establishing a comprehensive productive maintenance system covering the entire life of the
equipment, spanning all equipment related fields( planning, use, maintenance etc.) and , with the
participation of all employees from top management down to shop floor workers to promote
productive maintenance through motivation management or voluntary small group
activities.[5]
Therefore TPM can be thought of as an integral part of the just- in- time(JIT) philosophy, and is
strongly related to Total quality management(TQM). TPM uses many of the same process
improvement techniques as JIT and TQM. While TQM is to improve overall management
quality, TPM is directed towards equipment improvement. For this it is said that TQM is more
software oriented and TPM is more hardware oriented[6]. Some researchers argue that the
implementation level of TPM is closely related to the implementation level of JIT and TQM.
Companies that are higher levels of JIT and TQM implementation, also have higher levels of
TPM implementation.
The use of the word maintenance in the total productive maintenance(TPM) is misleading. It
has a much more embracing meaning than the word maintenance. It includes more than
maintenance, it addresses all aspects of production process. Actually TPM is all about a cultural
change in the way people care for equipment, that is, equipment effectiveness, quality
maintenance, people and Culture. In the traditional approach, maintenance is the responsibility
of a specialist function within the organisation, whereas in the, TPM philosophy maintenance is
the responsibility of the whole company, from senior manager to machine operators[7].
4. Main Pillar of TPM:
TPM is based upon five key elements as pillar as follows[3,8-12]:
(i)

Aims to maximise overall equipment effectiveness(OEE) by targeting the six

losses.
4

major

(ii)

Establishes a culture of autonomous (Jishu-Hozen) maintenance by operators working in

small group.

(iii)

Establishes and improves the maintenance strategy( level and type of planned and predictive
maintenance and maintenance prevention) for the entire life cycle of the equipment by expert
engineers.

(iv)

A training programme for increasing the skill, knowledge and motivation level of operators
and engineers by individual and group cultural development.

(v)

Initiate a method of maintenance for continuous improvement (Kiezen) including improved

equipment design and procurement.

However, in recent time it has been expanded to 8 pillar with the focus on (1) Development
Management (2) Safety, Health and Environment( SHE) and (3) TPM in Office.
(i)

Overall equipment effectiveness and six big losses

TPM requires the operation term to improve machinery utilisation and production cost by the
systematic study and the elimination of the major problems/factors to efficiency. To improve
operating time, these factors, known in TPM as the six big losses must be reduced. These are
attributed to
(i)

Breakdown and planned shutdown losses

(ii)

Set up and adjustment

(iii)

Minor stoppage or delay

(iv)

Reduced speed

(v)

Idle time

(vi)

Reduced yield or machine/system transition losses

The key measure used in TPM with respect to the above factors is overall equipment
effectiveness which is the product of three efficiency measures:
Availability, Performance rate and Quality.
The companies that have introduced TPM, so far have been mostly manufacturing or process
industry. It can determine the quality rate of the product. What is meant that quality rate can be
used as criteria for OEE. The application of TPM in mining machinery maintenance has been
somewhat limited. Most of the mining equipment engaged mainly for production are either
cutting/excavating or loading/transporting. For calculating the OEE we have replaced here the
quality rate with utilisation rate and Paraszczak2000 and Beasley'91 also confirm this. So for
mining machinery, then OEE will be
Overall equipment effectiveness = availability performance rate utilisation rate
Where

Total available time total downtime

Total up time
Availability =

=
Total available/ planned time

Total available/ planned time

Total available time refers to the total available shift/ planned time for production and downtime
refers to stoppages resulting from breakdown, maintenance actions, set up and adjustments etc.
Actual output from a machine ( when meet the required quality standard)

The performance rate =

Rated output ( during the time machine is operating)
Performance rate is used for assessment of losses arising due to the operation of the mining
machine at reduced performance levels. These may be due to reduced machine speed or delay in
cycle time and losses in operational efficiency resulting from the loss of optimum machine
performance e.g. shovel bucket not taking full load, taking more loading time etc.
Used/ worked time

Utilisation =
Total planned time
These three efficiency measures with six big losses and performance indicator are graphically
presented in Fig.1. OEE is not only measure the performance of the maintenance department
activities but also the design and commission as well as how well the maintenance and operation
improvement activities are doing. To better understand how well a machine is performing and to
identify what is limiting higher effectiveness, OEE brings into one common metric. OEE has an
unleashing power. As per Japanese" to discover the mountain of possibilities". It is recognised
that the adoption and practice of TPM is a key step to achieving the desired OEE improvement.
The analysis of OEE metric can be used as a basis of information for improvements in
individual machine. It is imperative to measure the effectiveness of machine in order to monitor
how the strategies/ systems are delivering the expected competitive advantage. If it can not be
measured there is hardly controlling the abnormality of the equipment. Measurement is an
important requisite of the continuous improvement process of the equipment. Peter Drucker, a
leading expert on management stated " The measurement used determines what one pays
attention to." With this in mind, one can see that when he measures the right things, he identifies
where he is and what he needs to do to get him where he wants to be. As F.W. Taylor once said
"if it can't be measured it can't be managed." Measurement of OEE is required for proper
management the equipment. The advantage of using OEE as a measure is that it clearly
identifies causes of losses in machine effectiveness, and allows the continuous monitoring of the
most critical factors which influence machine performance. A little improvement on the OEE

Unplanned shutdown losses

( no production etc)
Downtim
e losses

Breakdown losses
( equipment failure/ break
down)

Availability

Set up and adjustment

Minor stops or delay

Speed
losses

Control
Performance Rate

Reduced speed

Metre

Idle time

Use
loss
es

Total effective
available time
on equipment

Utilisation Rate

Reduced yield at start

or process transition
losses
Six big losses

Overall equip. Effectiveness

Fig. 1 OEE and Six big losses

Overall
Equipment
Effectiveness

represents a significant contribution to mine productivity, profitability and capabilities. Then it

may assume an improvement below the tip of an iceberg[7].
(ii)
Autonomous Maintenance
Another key element of TPM is operator- performed maintenance or operator centred
maintenance or autonomous maintenance. In Japanese language, it is Jishu-Hozen. The culture
of autonomous maintenance is to encourage operators to take care for their equipment by
performing housekeeping such as daily cleaning, checks, lubrication, adjustment, simple repairs,
size changes and the early detection of abnormalities. In many cases, operator awareness is an
excellent form of diagnosis and can lead to successful early fault isolation or prevention.
Operators are aware of minor faults, unsuitable working conditions, faulty procedures and lapse
in the regular attention required by PM schedules.
Crucial steps to TPM are order and tidiness in the work environment. TPM organises the
workplace along five dimensions known as 5S, which focuses on effective work place
organisation and standardized work procedure. 5S simplifies work environment, reduces waste
and non-value activity while improving efficiency, quality and safety. The terms 5S is derived
from the five Japanese words listed below:
(i) Seiri(Sort) organisation. It focuses on eliminating unnecessary items from work area.
(ii) Seiton (Set in order) orderliness. It emphasises on efficient and effective storage methods.
(iii)Seiso(Shine) - attention to details, cleaning( the act of ).it focuses on cleaning the work
area. Daily follow-up cleaning is important in order to sustain the improvement.
(iv) Seiketsu(Standardized) - cleanliness ( the state of ). It concentrates on standardizing best
practice in the work place.
(v) Shitsuke( Sustain)

discipline ( the practice of ). It focuses on practicing a new status quo

and standard of work organisation.

There is a belief that in TPM you do not need experienced maintenance man or maintenance
engineer and all maintenance is done by operators. This is not true. Operators are encouraged to
maintain normal preventive maintenance, to inspect their machine daily, to clean the equipment
routinewise and to engage basic repair. This relieves the maintenance department to respond
only the time consuming process of catastrophic problems. Maintenance personnel can then
engage more diagnostic and analytic work to counter potential problems and improve machine
effectiveness e.g. car owner and mechanic in garage.
(iii)

Planned maintenance:

Planned and productive maintenance are the foundation stone of TPM. TPM promotes the use
of preventive and predictive maintenance techniques. In TPM programme, trained and skilled
8

operator executes a good proportion of planned maintenance activities. So the maintenance

personnel are ultimately held responsible for maintenance planning and the state of operational
readiness of the equipment. There are two objectives for planned or quality maintenance: to
produce more through effective utilisation of equipment to ensure that no production losses are
caused by faulty equipment and to build a reliable mine production system( zero failure). For
this, data is collected, analysed, and made available to take timely corrective actions to
preventive recurrence of breakdown, and to improve the equipment.
(iv)

Training

Training is essential for effective maintenance programme. A well defined training programme
not only creates a positive and necessary ingredient for employee motivation, but also improves
the equipment effectiveness. Success of TPM strongly depends on a well-structured training
programme. The best way of learning and understanding the equipment and maintenance is
generally attained through experience. Training is given to operators to upgrade their
knowledge- both tacit and explicit knowledge. It is not sufficient to know only " Know-how or
tacit knowledge" but they should also learn " Know-why or know-what or explicit
knowledge"[15]. So training should be on and off the job.
(v)

Equipment improvement and maintenance prevention:

While a great progress can be made in reducing downtime with autonomous and planned
maintenance, zero breakdowns can only be achieved by maintenance prevention or design-out
maintenance or engaging KAIZEN activities. Equipment improvement and maintenance
prevention should be implemented through KAIZEN, cross-functional small group activities.
For this engineer, designers of the equipment, supplier of equipment, finance, operations and
maintenance department should work concurrently to achieve a system of maintenance
prevention for maximising the OEE by eliminating many of the reasons for poor reliability,
availability and maintainability( RAM) at initial stage. For achievement it requires cultural
change, equipment i.e. productive maintenance and proprietary technology, quality maintenance
and people. So culture, method and strategy of asset management should take care at the same
time for effective TPM achievement. The success of TPM comes from the synergy of all the
above elements working together[7]. This is presented by a fault tree in Fig. 2.
So TPM is a low cost, quality and autonomous maintenance system for maximising
equipment effectiveness by involving all of a companys functions and departments in a
preventive maintenance system. TPM brings together production and maintenance to improve
overall equipment effectiveness(OEE) by eliminating equipment related losses. It makes
maintenance function much more responsive to the requirements of operation equipment and
9

worker. Empowerment of people in TPM environment cultivates commitment, innovation,

knowledge and flexibility which leads to improve production. With the implementation of TPM,
many organisations enjoy steady increases in productivity. TPM is a strategy for improving
productivity through quality maintenance, management and related practices. A considerable
number of Japanese manufacturing companies now practise the TPM. Recently in Japan, there
are about 800 companies or company units using the TPM. American and European companies
have also started to apply TPM. It is reported that companies that adopt TPM are seeing 50%
reduction in breakdown labour rates, 70% reduction in lost production, 50-90 % reductions in
set ups, 25-40 % increases in capacity, 50 % increases in manpower productivity, and 60 %
reductions in costs per maintenance units[16]. TPM has been adopted with some measure of
success in a major cement and tyre manufacturing group in India, including application to mine
equipment.
5.

TPM Organisation in Mine

It is now clear that TPM involves all employees from top management down to workers, and

covers all departments such as planning, the users and the maintenance department, and
promotes improved maintenance through small group autonomous activities. Again, the
different aspects of TPM is specially emphasised by different level of employee such as six big
losses and planned maintenance for middle management, autonomous maintenance for
operators, and maintenance prevention for senior management. The total involvement is
achieved by establishing TPM work committees or groups. As per Japanese perceptions,
management has two major components: maintenance and improvement. Maintenance means
maintaining the current techno-managerial standards through training and discipline, whereas
improvement( KAIZEN) refers to improving the current standards. In TPM, everyone works
together as part of the improvement process. Group activities are the catalyst for changes. As the
manager is higher up, he or she is more concerned with the improvement.[ Imai,91]. With this
objective, a TPM organisation along with job function is presented by an illustration in Fig.3.
6. Implementation of TPM:
TPM should be implemented in stages and systematically. Companies implementing TPM are
normally using JIPM basic concept, but they are adapting it to their own company, and to its
goal-setting and problems. For installation of TPM, requires proper understanding of the total
effort, full hearted support of management, sufficient TPM staff, enough and good training
programme, development of a good installation strategy, choosing right approach, proper step to
overcome union resistance. Nakajima outlines 12 steps involved in developing and
implementing a TPM programme. Hartmann[10] also prescribes a 12 staged Western approach
10

Total Productive Maintenance

Knowledge &
Culture

Workforce
1. Training &
education
2.Attitude
3. Involvement

System

Autonomous
maintenance
( Jishu-Hozen)

Equipment
Efectiveness

Continuous
improvement
of total process
(Kaizen)

Equipment
improvement
by targeting
the major
losses.

Quality
Maintenance

Planned,
Predictive and
preventive
maintenance

Maintenance
prevention

Fig. 2 Total Productive Maintenance

Company TPM
committee
`

Six big losses and planned

maintenance

Autonomous
maintenance

MAINTENANCE

IMPROVEMENT

Maintenance
Prevention

Technical director
Area TPM
committee
Area engineer/
General manager
Colliery TPM
committee
Mine manager/
Engineer
Line TPM
committee
Supervisor /
Overman
TPM
circle
Workers

Fig 3 TPM organization and job function

11

to successfully installing TPM. Willmott(1994) has also developed a 8 step approach for TPM
implementation route. Companies should tailor the TPM implementation plan according to their
cultures, issues and conditions. The main points for TPM implementation of mining industry
should be as follows:

The mine management leading the effort must understand what TPM is, how it works, the
proper installation sequence, what it can do for mine, the amount of effort that will be
required, how long it will take etc.

TPM requires leadership to be effective from introduction. That is part of the meaning of
total in total productive maintenance. Without effective leadership equipment performance
and reliability will continue to decline and TPM initiatives will be short lived.

Analyse existing conditions such as operational processes, about equipment( type, capacity,
operational behaviour), maintenance operations etc. and set goals.

Employee total participation i.e. teamwork, awareness, commitment and motivation.

Launching training and education for employee and TPM teams. Forming special committee
at every level to promote TPM.

Developing (i) equipment improvement programme (ii) autonomous maintenance

programme(iii) scheduled maintenance programme for maintenance department(iv) training
programme to improve operation and maintenance skills(vi) initial equipment management
programme.

The above for the objective of

(i) Improving equipment to its highest desired level of performance and availability.
(ii) Maintaining equipment at its highest desired level of effectiveness.
(iii) Procuring new equipment with a desired level of high effectiveness and low life cycle cost.
7. TPM-a critic in Indian context:
A systematic and long-term work with the TPM has a positive influence on the following
elements in an organisation.

The cost is lowered because the losses are reduced.

Productivity or output per man-shift improves through few losses

Environment and safety are better, because proper cares of the equipment are taken.

Motivation is higher, because the duties and responsibilities and rights are delegated and
enough training is given.

TPM reduces equipment losses by taking care and control. In TPM, reducing equipment
breakdown without increasing the total cost of maintenance is possible. Again, TPM helps to
increase the organisations capability by improving the problem-solving skill of individuals and
12

enabling learning across various areas. In many cases, operator awareness is an excellent form
of diagnosis and can lead to successful early intervention. Operators can awake of minor faults,
unsuitable operating conditions, defective procedures and lapse in regular attention required by
preventive maintenance schedules. Furthermore, there is a difference between mining and other
industries. Mining machines have to work in outdoor environment. The position and time of
breakdown of a piece of equipment in mining particularly surface mining is sometimes
uncertain. So hostile mining environment may create different delay, usually related to
administration, response time and logistics, which may reduce uptime.
Though the concept of TPM is simple and obvious, there are some reported shortcomings.
Managers of non- Japanese particularly Indian companies are more oriented towards early result
rather than process oriented approach to improve processes for the objective of reducing losses
at long- run [Imae91].
We are inclined to appreciate those who respond quickly to crises and aim at their solution. On
the other hand, We are prompted to ignore those who simply " do a good job". Culture is the
biggest factor in implementation.
Continuous improvement requires detail data analysis. It is often heard from system manager in
mine level that we are collecting and recording enormous data for machine operation but
management are reluctant to take initiative to analyse the data for decision making for machine
improvement. Sometimes data are collected only for record- keeping purposes nothing else.
While the philosophy of TPM is sound, its implementation lacks focus, and a system approach
that is compatible with different environment. About 50% of the TPM initiatives introduced in
America since 1986 have failed to produce the desired results and have been abandoned-not
because of its systems or engineering techniques or the inherent concepts of TPM but rather
because of its attention to the management of human factors or the lack of using all the key
elements of TPM in ways that are connected to the business and focused on results. There is a
much cultural different between the Japanese and the Indian. Japanese have more affinity for
small groups and consensus decisions.
The work ethic in Japan is found to be very strong and comes before self and family. This is
what is conformed by Willmott[1994]. Whereas in India, employees are more interested on self,
rather than company and thus it is egoism, not altruism is considered to be the ideal. They don't
bother about work. Indian mines generally strive for instant results rather than for long-term
machine improvement. On many occasions, maintenance activity gets restricted to a patchwork
for short-term gain. So cultural change and people participation is the main factor for success for
TPM implementation.
13

We do not mean however that TPM faces overly serious impediments, or it is an ineffective
technique in Indian plants. On the other hand, we mean that when the leaders of an organisation
have given the impression that the success of the individual is less important than that of the
organisation, then a team oriented corporate culture can develop and can lead to success. In fact,
it is the personal history, nature, socialisation, experiences attitude, belief and perception of the
leaders and their realisation of the factors that make room for success in the particular fields that
have prompted them to create the core culture- consciously or unconsciously and this also
proves that India has given birth to a large number of effective organisational leaders. Of course,
management commitment is a precondition of taking initiative for implementation of TPM
method. The commitment of the employee is also a precondition, for the obvious reason that it is
the employee who particularly take steps for such implementation. "All organisations are
basically living, social organisms. Culture is more powerful than anything else in the
organisation."[17] In fact, it is so powerful that its impact supersedes all other factors
particularly when it comes to economic and organisational performance. So it can be definitely
said that TPM concept, can work in practice only when culture is compatible with it. So it
follows that any organisation can have the most superb strategy, but it will either hamper the
progress or will lead to failure if culture is conducive to that strategy. This is why, every
organisation must have its own culture, character, nature, and identity. Organisations are
comprised of communities of people with a mission, because the organisations are not mere
machines. This is why many plants throughout the world including India have applied TPM
effectively, and most plants have of tremendous need for improved communication and
teamwork which could pave the way for the application of the TPM methodology.
8.

Assessment of Overall Effectiveness of Mining Equipment:

Overall equipment effectiveness = availability(A) performance rate(P) utilisation(U)

We here calculate the OEE of a dragline machine. The hourly rate capacity/ output of the
machine is 750 cu.m /hour. Nine months from April to December data of dragline are taken for
study. From the data and using the above equation we calculate the availability(A),
utilization(U), performance rate(P) and OEE ( Table-1). For calculating OEE, A, U and P have
been given the equal weights whereas in actual practice in mining industry this may not be case.
So we assume some weight as follows: availability : 0.3, utilisation: 0.5 and performance rate:
0.2. This weight has been taken after considering the relative importance of the above using
Analytic Hierarchy process(AHP)[18-20]
So using the above we have OEE= (A).3(U).5(P).2
14

It found the OEE assessment table and figure 4 for dragline as follows: OEE is above 0.4 in
June, August, September, November and December; within 0.2 0.4 in April, July and October
and below 0.2 in May.
Table 1 Assessment of Overall Equipment Effectiveness(OEE) for dragline machine
Shift H Work H
720
720
720
744
744
720
744
720
744

397.6
219.4
541.6
497.3
621.5
604.5
352.5
500.8
603.1

Idle H

Mt H

164.5
262.2
11.9
160.5
26.5
23.5
284
116
28

129.3
218.4
120.5
54.4
45.8
56
76.5
53.7
31.8

28.6
20
46
31.8
50.2
36
31
49.5
81.1

Prod.(000) Availability Utilization

t
242
0.7318
0.5522
137
0.6081
0.3047
312
0.9196
0.7522
242
0.7415
0.6684
327
0.8969
0.8353
322
0.9174
0.8396
206
0.5766
0.4738
300
0.7701
0.6956
371
0.8534
0.8106

Per.rate

O.E.E

OEE(proposed)

0.8115
0.8326
0.7681
0.6488
0.7015
0.7102
0.7792
0.7987
0.8202

0.3280
0.1543
0.5313
0.3216
0.5256
0.5470
0.2129
0.4279
0.5674

0.648989
0.458374
0.802294
0.685471
0.824077
0.833823
0.555121
0.737252
0.825149

Fig 4 OEE for dragline machine April to Dec.

Efficiency

April
May
June
July
August
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec

B/D H

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0

Availability

4
5
6
7
Month[April-Dec]

Utilization

Performance rate

10

OEE

Concluding Remarks
A systematic and long-term work with the TPM has a positive influence on the following
elements in an organization.

The cost is lowered because the losses are reduced.

Productivity or output per man-shift improves through few losses

Environment and safety are better, because proper cares of the equipment are taken.

Motivation is higher, because the duty and responsibility and rights are delegated and
enough training are given.

TPM reduces equipment losses by taking care and control. In TPM, reducing equipment
breakdown without increasing the total cost of maintenance is possible. TPM helps to increase
the organization's capability by improving the problem-solving skill of individuals and enabling
15

learning across various area.

In many cases, operator awareness is an excellent form of

diagnosis and can lead to successful early intervention. TPM is a very efficient system to apply
in mining industry as a whole. TPM is a possible approach to reach better overall equipment
effectiveness. It can be said that it is company-wide continuous improvement programme with
particular emphasis on changing the culture of the mine level through improved attitude and
skills. TPM progress is measured by the stages of autonomous maintenance completed, and
visible progress is also seen in the higher reliability of equipment, reduction of waste and
improvements in safety in mine. OEEs of dragline machines have been assessed. It is found that
OEE of machines are not satisfactorily. There is a room for improvement.
Acknowledgements
The author is thankful to the mine management for providing data and necessary facilities for
carrying out the study.
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