Who should be involved with Focused Improvement? Some companies make it the exclusive province of Autonomous Maintenance teams, but this is a big mistake. If there is any activity that should be spearheaded by managers, supervisors, and technical staff, it is Focused Improvement. It must also be done in such a way as to pursue maximum economic benefit and contribute to the company’s bottom line.
However, managers, supervisors, and technical staff each have their own responsibilities, as well as individual strengths and weaknesses, so the responsibility for Focused Improvement should be allocated along the lines indicated in Table Who Should Tackle What Type of Topic and Figure How Focused Improvement Responsibilities Should Be Allocated.
| People | Topics to be tackled |
| Department and area managers | Difficult individual topics: right-first-time rate, productivity, startup losses, speed losses |
| Supervisors | Moderately difficult topics: failures, quality defects, minor stops, changeover losses |
| Technical staff | Difficult topics requiring specialized knowledge and skills: achieving right-first-time startup, developing new manufacturing methods, prolonging the service life of cutting tools, eliminating startup losses |
| Special project teams | Difficult, broad-ranging topics encompassing an entire production line or work area: changing process sequences, layouts, or processing methods, or commissioning new equipment |
| Autonomous Maintenance teams | Easy topics: failures, quality defects, minor stops, changeovers, etc. |
4M Analysis Process
The purpose of this procedure is to define the steps to do a 4M …
