U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

TPM Project Reduces Maintenance Downtime

With the help of: CONNSTEP

About

Metallurgical Processing Incorporated (MPI) is a family-run business that has been providing metal treating and surface solutions for precision parts and tooling since 1957. The daughter of the original owners is now president of the company, making MPI the only heat treating company in the country owned and operated by a woman. MPI provides a wide range of metal treating services to area manufacturers including hardening and softening of parts for both wear resistance and machinability, as well as PVD coating, heat treating, brazing, plasma nitriding, cold treating, and variety of support services.

The Challenge

MPI was looking to make changes to the maintenance operations at the facility. The overall goal was to be able to decrease the downtime on the furnaces due to maintenance issues allowing a greater number of loads to be completed per day per furnace. Current losses on the furnaces averaged 34% to 41% resulting in over 44 days of lost production over a four-month period.  MPI engaged the services of CONNSTEP, part of the MEP National Network™, to assist in reaching their stated goals.
Not only have the PRIME projects yielded increased sales and cost savings it has led to the hiring of four new employees who will be involved in Lean implementation initiatives in an effort to establish a sustainable continuous improvement.
— Dennis Perry, Customer Service Manager

MEP's Role

CONNSTEP subject matter expert Bill Caplan worked in conjunction with manufacturing service provider Fuss & O’Neill on this project to align MPI plans to improve overall equipment effectiveness and to ensure that future plans are in place to support a positive and proactive maintenance plan. A PRIME Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) focused improvement event was conducted to help MPI reach their furnace maintenance goals.

The project included analyzing equipment condition, identifying two main causes for 80% of equipment failures, evaluating equipment 5S’s and understanding how 5S’s tie directly into improved quality, set-up reduction, mistake proofing, etc.

Created July 21, 2020, Updated July 12, 2021