Integration of six sigma and maintenance applications: An industrial implementation

Six Sigma and Total Productive Maintenance philosophies as two ways to influence the profitability of companies by focusing on production management can now influence the profitability of companies by increasing the efficiency of maintenance management. Six Sigma is a concept developed in Motorola in the 80's that uses data to reach better solutions. TPM, on the other hand, is a concept that aims to lift productivity losses through the life of the production system, with the active participation of employees from all levels. Maintenance management is a concept that production companies have been trying to address for many years. The combination of Six Sigma and TPM applications in maintenance management is not a very common occurrence in the literature. By combining these philosophies, it will be possible to establish a maintenance system that will result in less costly and less errors in the maintenance practices of industrial companies. In this study, the feasibility of the Six Sigma Maintenance (SSM) philosophy in the Turkish industry has been examined. There are few studies on Six Sigma Maintenance practices in the world. In Turkey, the application of the SSM system is not found in both the literature and the industry. With this application, it is aimed to show that the Six Sigma philosophy can be used besides TPM applications in maintenance management processes and aimed to guide the sector with the implementation. In addition, a performance measurement system was established to evaluate the performance of the developed model. It has been tried to determine whether the integrated system implemented with the created performance measurement system really increases the effectiveness of the maintenance management. As a result of the study, the model developed for maintenance management was implemented as proposed in the maintenance section of the company and its performance measured. As a result of the implementation of the SSM model and the measurement of the performance level of this model, it has been determined that the sigma level of the maintenance applications in company has increased. It was determined that this increase was not due to the separate effects of the applications of the Six Sigma and the TPM but to the effect of the integrated structure created by these two philosophies.