To be successfully managed, every change process requires someone to coordinate it, monitor it, and take ownership of the results achieved. In TPM, this role is filled by the Coordinator.
Having defined what motivates starting the transformation projectOnce the goals to be achieved and the timeframe for achieving them have been clarified, it is time to choose someone to coordinate the implementation.
While we focus here on TPM as a Comprehensive Management System, what we say is valid for any organizational change process, any management system, including ISO.
What is a TPM Coordinator for?
A General or Plant Manager will rely heavily on the TPM Coordinator to achieve implementation success.
The Coordinator must closely monitor the implementation project. He or she must be an expert in the methodology and have the ability to anticipate problems. TPM is prevention…!
You must be skilled at imagining ways to move forward more quickly without violating the method. And, crucially, you must ensure that the PGAs receive the resources and answers they need to move forward.
Once the direction has been defined, the company must ensure that the coordinator is chosen by someone competent and empowered.
It is not enough to possess only one of these characteristics. For a effective delegation Both are required. If you're competent but lack power, you'll become frustrated and give up before achieving your goals. If you have power but are incompetent, you'll be unable to guide the Pillars and PGAs correctly.
The Role of Management is to Facilitate
Management can facilitate or hinder any change process. Therefore, it's difficult to find the right words to express how incredibly important it is. do not tolerate poor performance of a TPM Coordinator. Perhaps the accompanying quote from Thomas Sowell expresses it most clearly and forcefully.
It's hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way to make decisions than to put those decisions in the hands of people who don't pay the price for their mistakes.
Thomas Sowell
Coordination should be understood as a service. Its mission is to facilitate and simplify implementation. It must always ensure that the eight views (Pillars) be present in every decision.
This requires the Coordinator to have a special disposition (Attitude), a specific set of competencies to develop (Skills), and a systemic and critical view of the organizational status quo (Knowledge).
Your Skills Matrix (or rather, Competencies Matrix), including the triple set of required Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes, will be vital to success.
What is expected of the Coordinator?
We have spoken on other occasions about Role of the TPM Coordinator, we now want to emphasize the importance of your continued presence in genba. Your role requires being where the events happen.
Constantly keeping your feet firmly in the sand, you must identify each and every opportunity for improvement, both in the company and in the implementation itself.
By constantly walking the plant floor and actively listening to what the plant demands through its equipment, processes, and people, you can gain insight into the implementation process. This way, you'll be able to provide an active service that helps ensure implementation occurs at the right speed and in the desired direction.
We don't look for Superman because he doesn't exist, except in Hollywood movies. We need a competent and powerful person with the desire and attitude to serve, who, with the leadership of the Pillars, can guide the process of change until the goals are achieved.
