ABB is using Mindjet MindManager to conduct cause analyses or 'Loss Map' to identify production performance issues.
The global energy technology and automation group, ABB, has developed a particularly smart and successful method of enabling its customers to investigate falls in productivity and undertake cause analyses.
A 'Loss Map', based on visual collaboration and Mindjet MindManager productivity software, is used by factory managers to bring all the production performance factors together. This non-sector specific template is filled with a vast quantity of information: there are often more than 4 000 factors as well as detailed data.
The mind map provides a clear and visual representation of the production environment that makes it possible to carry out enhanced cause analysis and identify the sectors with the largest optimisation potential.
The success of this new method is impressive: one of the largest companies in New Zealand - the country of origin of the 'Loss Map' - increased its overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 22.4%. At the same time, maintenance costs fell, per piece of equipment, to 35% and employee satisfaction rose from 66% to 78%.
The cause analysis highlighted that projects to improve production procedures had no influence on the results or even reduced productivity. This enabled the management to stop the problematic procedures, release resources and concentrate on really important projects. This positive experience prompted ABB to use the 'Loss Map' worldwide.
As a passionate mindmapper, who also uses the productivity software as a dashboard for his daily work, Barry Kleine, Global Reliability Manager of ABB Group and an engineer at ABB Process Automation Service in Rotorua, New Zealand, developed the 'Loss Map'. He explained: “Originally I wanted to bring together and format our company knowledge in such a way that it could be presented clearly, and was easy for a customer to understand. Mindjet MindManager is ideally suited to this.”
The 'Loss Map' also simplifies co-operation between the ABB maintenance team and the customer's production staff. Every participant can input into the map, assess procedures, set priorities as well as add, change or select components. In doing so, the teams can establish a consensus more easily and can draw up a joint plan of action.
The new 'Loss Map' has already made life easier for several ABB customers. It enables them to know exactly what is going on in the factory and find out which factors are precisely responsible for declines in performance, maintenance and operational plans, which are based on teamwork and cooperation.
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