Excellent operating infrastructure
The Villingen plant received the 2012 TPM Award
In 2012, the Villingen plant was named "Best TPM Factory of the Year" for improvements made within the framework of the TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) methodology. The permanent improvements increase not only productivity but also occupational safety and employee satisfaction.
The Villingen site has been working with lean management methods since 2004. Two years later, the plant became a pilot user for the TPM system. TPM means either "Total Productive Maintenance" or "Total Productive Manufacturing". The aim of the principle developed by the International TPM Institute in Allison, USA, is to increase plant availability, stabilize production processes, and improve occupational safety.
In a step-by-step model, factors such as "order and cleanliness" are optimized or system operators are enabled to take care of the maintenance of their machines largely independently within the framework of "autonomous maintenance" - ideally as a preventive or anticipatory measure.
After the introduction of TPM in 2004 and its successive further development, the considerable financial and organizational efforts at the Villingen plant were rewarded not only by production improvements, but also by a significantly higher level of employee identification with the systems, products, and ultimately the company.
In 2012, participants in the "TPM Forum" visited the Villingen plant and, as auditor, the Senior Vice President of the "International TPM Institute". The visitors were shown and explained individual measures as part of extensive factory tours, and they were just as impressed by the authentic and pragmatic implementation of the five TPM stages as was the auditor.
What's more, the Wieland site in Villingen was named "Best TPM Factory of the Year 2012" and the winning certificate presented at a TPM conference in November 2012.
For the winners, the award is an incentive for further optimisation. Especially since continuous improvement is an integral part of the TPM concept. Representatives of other companies regularly visit to be shown the literally award-winning methodology in Villingen as an operational reference. And, of course, TPM is now also being used successfully in other plants of the Wieland Group.
In November 2012, the Villingen plant receives the Factory of the Year award from the TPM Institute.
The exchange of experiences is part of the TPM method. Visitors to the Villingen plant are always impressed by the pragmatic implementation of the TPM principles.
Factory tours give an insight into TPM practice. Other Wieland sites also can inform themselves in Villingen about possible improvements in product quality and process stability.
