Process reengineering and total productive maintenance

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The printers Mysore Ltd. the leading Printing and Publishing house in Karnataka. We want to sustain our leadership in the present competitive market and it is felt imperative to search for a way to realise more benefits by systems improvement so that we align our business processes to the dynamic environment. ISSUE CONCERNED: With Total Revenue increasing from period 1995-96 to 1996-97 the Advertisemet Revenue (the main source of the Revenue -around 80% share of the total Revenue) has come down. Advertiser's requirement could not be satisfied all the time because of rigid policies. Also We couldn't meet our deadline of the Product some of the days due to Editorial or production delay. This fuelled me the thought of how best we could able to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our processes continuously, so that we could satisfy the Customer needs to the fullest. OBJECTIVES: To decrease the lead time of the product /services to the customer i.e. to create a "Fast and better service cycle" in our operations. To improve the throughput efficieny of the Processes and build enough flexibility in the process. To understand various customer Needs to improvise our operations for doing better service to them. For better understanding of underlying problems and linkages involved. METHODOLOGY: "Competitive Advertisement Monitoring" Report was used for finding out various types of customer feedback for understanding why we could not garner the share of our competitors in the market. "Walk-in Audit" was done initially to understand the various Processes and the categorisation of the Value Added Activities, Non value added activities inspection activities, delay activities, Storage activities and Waiting or Moving activities was made. Bottleneck operations were found out. Process charting was made to trace out various Non-value added Activities and how much delay each attributes to the cycle time. Then it was thought ofhow to eliminate or obliterate the NVA. and improve the Cycle time. Improving the efficiency of value added activities is also of another important concern. This gave the idea of making TPM initiative at the Press. For TPM implementation in the Production department , UB-30 machine was taken for the pilot study. D.H. Edition printing details were taken for a month and various breakdown details were analysed. The breakdown time and corresponding stoppage losses (no. of pages wasted while restart) were calculated for each stoppages and the reasons for stoppages were found out and categorised under any one of the six Major losses. DATA ANALYSIS: Advertisement space performance was taken for the month of October and comparitive study made with competitors which revealed a close threat of Times of India in most of the categories. From Process Mapping various activities of the Advertisement Department the Limitations were identified and the ways to overcome were found out. Ways and means to reduce the "cycle time'* of various activities by removing some of the non-value added activies were found out. The extent of value added activities made to increase PLANNED SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS: In case of Classified Advertisements the Proof-reading which is being done currently at the fourth floor will be eliminated and a soft view of the Advertisements were shown to the clients at the booking office itself. Another major changes envisaged is the typesetting of the classified Advertisement in the front-office instead of doing at the composing section. In case of Display Advertisements the Release order entry will be done in the integrated system at the front-office so that all the corrections, clarifications and Scrutinizing of the Ad Materials will be done at the entry point itself. The 'Dummy chart(a plan which shows the position of various Advertisements on the publication) will be prepared in the system which will minimise the corrections and errors like wrong entry of Release orders. The deadline for releasing dummy chart to the Prodn. will be post-poned thereby reducing the cancellations and replacements. TPM IMPLEMENTATION: On daily basis the "Overall effectiveness of all the Printing Machines" will be calculated and the causes of Major losses will be identified and eliminated for improving the Machine Utilisation and performance efficiency. Quality Assurance Team will be formed for resolving the inter-departmental issues (Editorial, production and Circulation) by sharing views which could ultimately increase the efficiency and result in early delivery of the final product-Newspaper provided the Process study extended to the Distribulion/Circulation Department for early reach to the Readers.