Jusco to be first service co to get TPM certification

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Jamshedpur, Jul 23 : Jamshedpur Utilities & Services Company Ltd (Jusco), a Tata Steel subsidiary, will soon become the first service-oriented company in the world to get a comprehensive 'A' category total productive maintenance (TPM) certification from the renowned Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM).

The certification has so far been sought mainly by manufacturing companies as total productive maintenance has been associated with shop floor workers and their dedicated upkeep of installed machinery in order to achieve increased productivity with minimal breakdowns and a 'zero defect' situation as far as output is concerned.

"TPM has so far been considered to be more applicable to manufacturing than to service industry," said a company source, adding that normally companies applied for 'B' category TPM certification, but Jusco has gone for 'A'.

The company has gone through a long three-year process of meeting the requirements of the eight TPM 'pillars', having sought help from Tata Steel, which already has TPM in place.

Jusco, which is into delivering a host of services like water supply, power supply, civil construction, fleet management, horticulture, etc, had launched its first TPM initiative in early 2005 by making small, continuous improvements at each of its 13 service centers, starting from its water services wing.

A three-member JIPM team recently made a two-day 'pre-assessment visit' to the company's various service centers and after observing satisfactory progress, listed out a few 'system-related tasks' to be put in place before the team's final inspection visit in December this year.

"If everything goes as planned, we would be handed over the certification in Japan in February 2009," added the source.

The 1,400-strong company is already ensuring an internal 'review mechanism' to see that TPM yardsticks being achieved by its various service wings continue to be in place for all times to come.