Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences

Vol. 30, December 2023, pp. 882-890

DOI: 10.56042/ijems.v30i6.3158

Implementation of Total Productive Maintenance to Improve Productivity of

Rolling Mill
Sardar Singh Rathia,b,*, Mithilesh Kumar Sahua, Sanjeev Kumarb
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, OP Jindal University, Raigarh Chhattisgarh 496 001, India
a
Nalwa Steel and Power Limited, Raigarh Chhattisgarh 496 001, India

Received: 23 June 2023; Accepted: 12 November 2023

The main objective of this study is to improve productivity of the rolling mill of the steel plant by implementing Total
Productive Maintenance (TPM). Due to the increasing demand of steel products, it is necessary to improve productivity of
the rolling mill as various types of structural items are produced by rolling mills. Machine maintenance plays an important
role in achieving maximum production in steel industry. The TPM was implemented in an integrated steel plant and its
effect on production was observed. First, six months of data were collected, and then the breakdowns were analyzed using
TPM. Then, TPM was implemented for the next six months and the productivity of the rolling mill was analyzed. The
productivity of the rolling mill was enhanced by~10% by implementing TPM, and equipment availability was also improved
by ~14%. However, after the implementation of TPM, the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) reached about 80.19%, which
is close to the world steel OEE of 85%.

Keywords: Rolling mill, Equipment availability, OEE, TPM, Productivity

1 Introduction identifying and eliminating various forms of waste

During the last decade, steel industry has been from the production process, and improving business
under pressure due to the increasing global demand performance9. It is not a new technology, but it is still
for steel, so the manufacturing steel industry needs to widely used in manufacturing industries worldwide.
improve its production performance. Accelerated The most commonly used lean techniques in the
production meets the requirements of customers and steel industry to improve productivity are Total
also improves economic development of the Productive Maintenance (TPM)10, Value Stream
company1. However, in a competitive environment, Mapping (VSM) 11, 5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu
steel processing industry faces challenges due Shitsuke) 12, Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) 13,
to high demand and low productivity. Various factors and Kaizen14 etc. TPM is one of the Lean Manufacturing
such as equipment failures, breakdowns a lack of tools widely used in the manufacturing industry. The
adoption of new technologies, low performance of applications of TPM improve productivity by reducing
workers, and high cost of raw materials affect steel machine breakdowns. This technique aims to maximize
production. There are several ways to improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by improving
productivity of the rolling mill in steel plant, such as productivity and reducing maintenance costs. It was
the lean manufacturing (LM) methodologies. developed by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance
LM methodologies are widely used to improve the (Fig. 1). It is a unique Japanese maintenance system for
performance of manufacturing industries. increasing machine availability. TPM is a technique that
In the literature, many researchers have reported that brings together both production and maintenance with a
LM improves manufacturing productivity2-8. LM combination of practice, teamwork, and continuous
improves productivity by reducing or eliminating improvement15-16.
downtime in the production process. LM, also known Optimized production can be achieved by the TPM
as Lean Production System, originated from the methodologyas its application identifies and
Japanese company Toyota, which for decades set itself minimizes breakdowns and production losses
apart from global competition. Lean is an approach to throughout the production system. It is implemented
———————— by eight pillars: (1) Autonomous Maintenance, (2)
*Corresponding author (E-mail:ssrathi@nalwa.com) Focused Improvement, (3) Planned Maintenance, (4)
 RATHI et al.: IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY 883
OF ROLLING MILL

Fig. 1 — Eight-pillar approach for TPM implementation suggested by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance16.

Quality Maintenance, (5) Education and Training, the OEE value of the plant increased from 39.76% to
(6) Safety, Health, and Environment, (7) Office TPM 51.22%. However, it was far from the world-class
and (8) Development Management which provide OEE value of 85%.Singh et al.23implemented TPM in
excellent planning, monitoring, and control of an Indian steel mill and reported that there is a need to
breakdowns16. In the manufacturing industry, amazing develop an indigenous action plan to promote TPM
productivity is achieved by adopting TPM implementation practices and procedures in the steel
applications17-20. industry. The authors point out that TPM also
Many researchers/technicians have implemented monitors plant performance and automates daily
the TPM applications in various manufacturing activities related to the entire workforce.In the
sectors such as automotive, textile, and steel literature, there are not many studies on the
industries and reported that production has improved application of TPM in rolling mills of steel plants.
after implementing TPM18-20. Arun et al. The aim of this study is to improve the productivity of
19
implemented TPM in textile industry to improve the rolling mill in an integrated steel plant by using
productivity and reported that OEE increased from the TPM methodologies. Based on the literature
61.14% to 65.68%. Dogra et al.20 implemented TPM review, the applications of TPM in rolling mill were
in a cold rolling mill and reported that the overall implemented.
equipment effectiveness was 80%, which is close to
the world-class OEE of 85-90%, and that the 2 Materials and Methods
number of accidents on the shop floor was reduced. This study was conducted in the rolling mill
Sethia et al.21used TPM in a rolling mill to improve department of an integrated steel plant in central
OEE and productivity. After the implementation of India to improve productivity by implementing the
TPM, the company's OEE improved by 60.33%, and TPM methodology, which is a proven lean
the availability, performance, and quality factors were manufacturing tool. The view of a rolling mill is
also achieved at 70.90%, 91.03%, and 93.48%, shown in Fig. 2. A double line rolling mill was set up
respectively. The OEE value was low compared to the in the integrated steel plant for mass production. The
world-class OEE, but productivity was improved by double line rolling process is shown in Fig. 3.
TPM. Ovedje et al.22 improved the OEE of plant Throughout the rolling process, billets are rolled
machinery by TPM in Premium Steel and Mines under 1-22 and 1-18 strands of line 1 and line 2,
Limited in Nigeria. After the implementation of TPM, respectively. In rolling, two billets are passed
884 INDIAN J ENG MATER SCI, DECEMBER 2023

Fig. 2 — View of rolling mill (a) Reheating furnace, (b) shear in between stands 6 and 7, (c) cooling bed (d) stockyard. S# showing rolling stand.

Fig. 3 —Flow diagram of the rolling mill process.

simultaneously through up to 14 strands, after which covering the current state of research. In the
they are rolled in two separate lines and placed on second phase, the required data on production delays
separate cooling beds to produce TMT bars with two in the rolling mill department for the six months of
different diameters. This is done by experienced April toSeptember 2022 were collected and analyzed
operating engineers who are familiar with the specific as shown in Table 1. Then, a Pareto chart was
requirements of the production process. developed to improve the 80/20 performance of the
The present experimental work is divided into three rolling mill. The Pareto chart was analyzed using
phases. In the first phase, a literature review was Table 2. The Pareto chart shows that planned,
conducted to determine the application of TPM in mechanical, and operational delays contributed
various manufacturing industries. The literature 80% of total delays, as shown in Fig. 4. However,
review was based on textbooks, articles, journal 20% of the delays are due to the rolling guide (R&G)
articles and case studies from different industries shop and electrical reasons.
 RATHI et al.: IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY 885
OF ROLLING MILL

Table 1 — List of delay times per day before the implementation of TPM
Month Planned delay (h/day) Mechanical (h/day) Operation (h/day) Electrical (h/day) R & G shop (h/day)
April-22 1.99 2.29 1.8 0.58 0.6
May-22 2.29 2.17 1.73 0.61 0.59
Jun-22 2.01 1.28 1.76 0.59 0.56
July-22 2.67 2.11 1.12 0.57 0.57
Aug-22 1.91 2.10 1.79 0.48 0.45
Sep-22 2.07 1.97 1.69 0.50 0.57
Average 2.15 1.98 1.65 0.56 0.55
Table 2 — Average delay time in April to September 2022 before implementation of TPM
Cause of delay Average production delay (h/day) Cumulative Cumulative (%)
Planned delay 2.15 2.15 31
Mechanical 1.98 4.13 60
Operation delay 1.65 5.78 84
Electrical breakdown 0.56 6.34 92
R & G shop breakdown 0.55 6.89 100

Fig. 4 — Pareto chart for production delays in a rolling mill

In the third phase, the TPM applications were MTTR = Total repair time / Number of failures
implemented to reduce various breakdowns. For the MTBF = Total operating time / Number of failures
implementation of TPM, a roadmap was developed to
identify the various outages of the rolling mill. OEE ൌ Rate of quality ൈ Equipment availability
Then, from October 2022 to February 2023, the four ൈ Productivity
pillars of TPM - autonomous maintenance, targeted The average value of the results of the first three
improvement, planned maintenance, and education and months is compared with the average value of the last
training program were implemented. Responsibility for two months and recorded. The OEE value was also
the implementation and follow-up of TPM activities at compared with the OEE value of world-class steel.
each stage of the plant was assigned to operators,
supervisors and engineers belonging to the respective 3 Results and Discussion
production area. Following the implementation of The application of TPM was implemented for
TPM, data were again collected and the impact on planned delay and operation breakdown to improve
mean time to repair (MTTR) and mean time between availability. A total of four TPM pillars were
failure (MTBF), plant availability, productivity, and implemented: (1) autonomous maintenance, (2)
overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) was examined. focused maintenance, (3) planned maintenance, and
The values for MTTR, MTBF and OEE were (4) education and training to improve productivity.
calculated using the following formula: Production improved after the implementation of
886 INDIAN J ENG MATER SCI, DECEMBER 2023

TPM, and machines operated safer and more In addition, following the Pareto analysis, we
efficiently/cost-effectively. considered a benchmark time for planned,
(i) Autonomous maintenance: Autonomous mechanical, and operation delays (Fig. 6). After
maintenance is one of the main pillars of TPM considering the benchmarks, the number of
and a key point to improve production. The main breakdowns was reduced and the mill uptime was
daily routine activities are listed in Table 3.After improved. The reduction in the production delay after
the implementation of TPM, these activities were the implementation of TPM is shown in Table 4.
maintained during the production of the mill. The main focus was on mass production with
(ii) Focused maintenance: A Fish-Bone diagram was good quality and zero rejection. Through the
used to identify the causes and their effects on operation and maintenance skills, benchmark
production delays. The Fish-Bone diagram is values were achieved and mill uptime was improved,
shown in Fig. 5. as shown in Table 4.
Table 3 — Checklist of the main daily routine activities of a rolling mill.
S. No. Activity Checkpoints
1. Check the blower motor Housekeeping, bearing temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
2. Check the Billet ejector motor Temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
3. Check to pull out the roll motor Temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
4. Check temperature transmitters & display Temperature monitor
5. Check the gearbox of all stand Housekeeping, oil level, bearing, temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
6. Check Roller alignment Alignment check
7. Check the pinch rolls The load current, oil pressure, vibration, abnormal sound, temperature
8. Check the high and slow speed shear Oil pressure, motor current, temperature
9. Check the pump house motor Temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
10. Check the status of the furnace Oil tank heater, temperature
11. Check the looper scanner Cleaning
12. Roll pass temperature Temperature monitoring and recording every 4 hrs.
13. Stand A and B power pack Oil pressure, temperature, vibration, abnormal sound
14. Stand 11-16 power pack Oil pressure, temperature, vibration, abnormal sound

Fig. 5 — Fish bones diagram to determine the reason for the production delay.
 RATHI et al.: IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY 887
OF ROLLING MILL

(iii) Planned maintenance: We have documented of time and also caused downtime. We made
several activities that cause downtime during several changes to these activities. After the
production, such as guide changes, stitch and change, we saved time in these activities as shown
roll changes, and section changes that delay in Table 6. Every day, guide, pass change, and role
production and are related to the planned delay change after two shifts are required, although the
activities (see Table 5).These activities took a lot section changes after two days. These activities
have a greater impact on production. It can be seen
that after the change, about 90 minutes were saved
for the section change.
(iv) Education and training program: The objective of
this pillar was to develop multi-competence in
employees who have high self-confidence and
work with enthusiasm, and perform all required
tasks effectively and independently. Cross-training
on technical skills was provided for operators and
engineers. The performance of the rolling mill is
also improved by the training program and the
availability of the mill is increased.
The main causes of breakdowns in operation were
due to cobble, stock size of billets, alignment of rough
dies, twisters, guides, and delivery pipes, water
hammering, etc. However, the main causes of
breakdowns in mechanical were due to the spindle
which is attached to the roll, and cold shear.
Therefore, we replaced the spindle with a cardan
shaft. The spindles were often worn and damaged, so
Fig. 6 — A chart for counting the number of breakdowns with TPM. the mill was often shut down. We replaced the
Table 4 — List of delay times per day after implementation of TPM.
Month Planned delay (h/day) Operation (h/day) Mechanical (h/day) Electrical (h/day) R & G shop (h/day)
Oct-22 1.80 1.57 0.91 0.35 0.35
Nov-22 1.79 1.58 0.96 0.35 0.35
Dec-22 1.79 1.55 0.95 0.40 0.32
Jan-23 1.41 1.32 0.75 0.35 0.28
Feb-23 1.29 1.45 0.75 0.39 0.32
Table 5 — List of changes made to planned activities.
Activity Modification
Guide changing 1. The service life of the guides was improved by changing the model of the guides in stands 14, 10 and 6; it was
changed from the simple guide (0845) to the guides DR -3, DR -4 and DR -6, respectively.
Pass change 1. Technical skills improved the frequency of work of the operators.
2. The material of the roller (ductile iron) was replaced by cast-in carbide. Due to this the life of the roller was
improved by 5 times.
Roll change 1. The roll removal technique was changed.
Section change 1. The displacement technique of shears 6.1 and 6.2 is changed from manual to hydraulic, which saves time.
2. The displacement technique of the block roller is changed from manual to motorized (electric), which saves
time.
3. The shifting technique of the shear 10 is also changed from manual to hydraulic, which saves time.
Table 6 — Influence of TPM on planned delay activities.
S. No. Activity Before TPM (minute) After TPM (minute) Save time (minute) Team Team size
1 Guide changing 25 15 10 Operation 4
2 Pass change 90 60 30 Operation 4
3 Roll change 180 120 60 Operation 8
4 Section change 210 120 90 Operation /Electrical/ 12
Mechanical
888 INDIAN J ENG MATER SCI, DECEMBER 2023

rotating device, guide, and delivery pipe which the manual techniques used before TPM. Therefore
were the cause of the breakdown. Carbide cast iron time taken to solve the problem was also long
rollers were used instead spheroidal cast iron er. After six months, the TPM methodology was
because they have a longer life than spheroidal cast implemented and we were able to save the time
iron. These changes reduced the frequency of required to perform these activities as shown in
failures and improved the mill's performance. For Table 6. These activities play a dynamic role in
electrical retardation, we used a blower in the improving the productivity of the rolling mill. The
mill strand to avoid motor breakdown, as shown implementation of TPM was decided according to the
in Fig. 2b. After implementing TPM, we reduced
many breakdowns and improved the runtime
of the mill by about two hours. It was observed that
MTTR decreased by ~23% and MTBF increased by
~41% because breakdowns were reduced after
implementation of TPM (Table 7). Equipment
availability, productivity and overall equipment
efficiency (OEE) were also analyzed after the
implementation of TPM (Fig. 7). The average
productivity of the rolling mill was improved by
~10% (MT/h) after the implementation of TPM.
Equipment availability and OEE were also improved
by ~14% and ~42.52%, respectively, after the
implementation of TPM.

3.1 Discussion
TPM was successfully implemented from October
2022 to February 2023, followed by six months of
data collection from April to September 2022. A
brainstorming technique was used to identify
possible causes of breakdown. A Pareto chart was
also used to determine which activity contributed to
80% of the delays, and planned, mechanical and
operational delays were found to have a greater
impact on the number of breakdowns. A Fish-Bone
diagram was also used to identify the cause of delays.
The data collected also revealed that other causes of
material production delays were cooling bed jams,
poor roll lubrication and maintenance, pinch roll Fig. 7 — (a) Productivity, (b) Equipment availability, and (c)
change, cold shear cutting, scale removal, lack of OEE of the rolling mill per month before and after
operator training, etc. Another main reason was also implementation of the TPM methodology.
Table 7 — Rolling mill performance indicator
Month Production delay (h/day) MTTR (minutes) MTBF (minutes) Mill running (h/month)
April-22 6.15 52.97 139.23 485.0
May-22 6.81 60.32 137.14 480.0
Jun-22 6.21 53.0 138.7 487.7
July-22 7.04 56.1 145.6 274.3
Aug-22 6.73 59.9 142.5 496.3
Sep-22 6.80 59.7 147.5 504.0
Oct-22 4.98 47.5 178.3 579.6
Nov-22 5.03 46.2 171.2 559.1
Dec-22 5.01 45.2 168.6 578.7
Jan-23 4.11 48.6 206.0 614.6
Feb-23 4.20 44.2 194.1 527.4
 RATHI et al.: IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY 889
OF ROLLING MILL

requirements of marketing. The applications of improve, OEE will also improve. Almeanazel25 has
TPM were implemented with work scheduling, reported an improvement in OEE through the
photography and videography. Many changes and application of TPM in the manufacturing industry.
technical skills are used to reduce downtime. OEE is an important process indicator that is
Implementation of TPM methodology increases expected to improve industry performance by
productivity of the manufacturing industry23. After the reducing equipment downtime26. The adoption of lean
implementation of the TPM, it was found that the manufacturing techniques reduces manufacturing
average productivity of the rolling mill increased machine setup time and tool change time, which
from 45.5 to 50 MT per hour, as shown in Fig. 7(a). ultimately leads to higher productivity27, 28.
This improvement is due to the elimination of The step-by-step implementation of the work
breakdowns. It is confirmed that production can be process can improve productivity in the industry20.
improved by planning the work and reducing the The equipment availability of the rolling mill also
waste of setup time in the industry24. Equipment improved after the implementation of the TPM
availability improved by ~14% (Fig. 7b). It can also method, as the operating time of the rolling
be seen that OEE improved from 55.57% to 80.19% mill was increased by ~3 h/day. The total operating
in the February month using the TPM methodology time before and after TPM is shown in Fig. 8.
(Fig. 7c). The improvement in OEE in the existing It was divided into two parts, planned operating
integrated steel mill is not far from 85% of the global time and the total delay time (before TPM). Also, the
steel OEE. The value of OEE was calculated based on total delay time was split between unplanned and
the nominal capacity of the mill. The nominal planned shutdown. This split was very helpful in
capacity of the mill was 1000 MT/day. OEE depends improving the productivity of the mill. TPM not only
on quality, equipment availability and productivity solved the equipment problem, but also reduced the
parameters. As mentioned earlier, TPM improve maintenance cost of the mill. Along with the
productivity and plant availability by reducing reduction in downtime, our maintenance expenses
downtime. When productivity and plant availability also decreased.

Fig. 8 — Time distribution for operation.

890 INDIAN J ENG MATER SCI, DECEMBER 2023

4 Conclusion 9 Bhadu J, Bhamu J & Singh D, Indian J Eng Mater Sci, 28

In this study, the TPM methodology was (2021) 271.
10 CheongA Y P, Nur A F & Nik E M, J Clean Prod, 352
implemented in a rolling mill in an integrated steel (2022) 131608.
plant in central India. Production time was increased 11 Salwin M, GołdaI J, Banka M, Varanchuk D & Gavina A,
by 3h/day after the implementation of TPM. Energ, 14(2021) 3527.
Productivity, equipment availability, and OEE 12 Ahmad K I, Shrivastav R L & Sohail P, J Mech Civil Eng, 6
improved by ~10% (MT/h), ~14%, and 42.52%, (2014) 06.
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4 (2022) 100075.
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from 55.57 to 80.19%, which is close to World Steel's 16 IrelandF, &DaleB G, J Qual Maint Eng, 7 (3)(2001) 183.
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18 RibeiroI M, Godina R, PimentelC, Silva F J G &
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