3 Tips to Make a GREAT TPM Inspection Checklist!

Sustainability relies on the importance of checklists. Although simple, checklists work! Even the most specialized professionals like pilots and doctors can rely on this simple tool to improve their performance and reduce risk. While vital, not all checklists are created equal:

“There are good checklists and bad… Bad checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed”

“Good checklists, on the other hand, are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations.”

I’m sure those of you who have attempted to utilize checklists have experienced this. One area within LEAN that makes regular use of checklists is TPM (Total Productive Management). In essence, an inspection is simply a checklist, and like any checklist there are good ones and bad ones. Today we’ll explore three tips to help you make sure your TPM inspection checklists are GREAT!

Tip 1: Know your goal

As mentioned, good checklists are precise. This means that we need to know the exact goal of the inspection before creating the form. It sounds so simple it should go without saying. But often, we’re so eager to get to the task at hand that we skip over the step where we stop to determine WHY we are doing this in the first place. Determining your goal can take some research on the front end.

The goal with TPM is that we want to leverage our operator's knowledge to help early detect a potential problem and have it rectified before it becomes bigger and shuts down our process. Your checklist should be dynamic, every time you experience a break down we need to ask the operator "what should we have checked that could have prevented this downtime?

Many companies incorporate cleaning and review the status of operating supplies within their TPM Checklists. Since we "Clean to Inspect" we want to make sure an operator's hand has touched every square inch of the machines at least once per week. For operating supplies we should insure that we have enough to support the operator needs for at least one shift.

If you don’t take the time to determine your goal before writing your checklist, you may end up with a list that’s either too specific or too vague for your purposes.

Knowing your goal before creating a checklist will help you be more precise because your overall goal will dictate the level of urgency and detail that need to go into your checklist. For example if your goal is compliance with a strict regulation, you’ll need to ask more pointed and specific questions than if your goal is a more general sweep of the facility. You may find that you need to do both of these things at your facility from time to time.

Adopting a methodology of using precise checklists with clear goals would mean you’d create a separate checklist for each goal, one to check compliance with the regulation you need to meet, and another for your more general observations. Keeping each checklist distinct will help you quickly identify and fix issues in a more targeted way, it will also help those reviewing inspection reports prioritize any corrective actions required.

Tip 2: Use Binary Questions

Just as we want our checklist of inspection questions to be focused and precise, we also want our method of answering those questions to be quick and to-the-point. An inspection checklist is not the place for open-ended questions or long essay-like responses. There are several different ways to create a scoring system; the one that works best for you will depend on the overall goal of your inspection.

Some good binary methods for measuring inspections include:

• Yes/ No

• Pass/ Fail/ Warning

• In Compliance/ Not In Compliance

• Rating compliance

If you’re checking to make sure you’re in compliance with a strict regulation, a more binary system like yes/no or pass/ fail might be a good choice for you. If you have some room for interpretation or are looking to catch things proactively, a rating system or options with a warning in addition to pass/ fail may better suit your needs.

A binary method makes it easy for the inspector to answer the question. They can select a response and move on. The overall answer can be added quickly and, importantly, is not open to interpretation.

The distinctness of a binary method vs. open ended answers also makes it easier for those reviewing inspection documentation. They should be able to quickly scan the inspection and see where issues are without having to dive into additional documentation.

Tip 3: Provide Thoughtful Context

We want our inspection checklists to be precise and simple. However, we don’t want them to be so stripped down that our inspectors are left scratching their heads wondering why they are asking a particular question, or what the impact of a failed response is.

A simple way to do this is to provide a citation if the question is related to a particular regulation, or some points to remind the inspector of the regulatory or corporate guidelines. What we’d want to avoid here is quoting an entire regulation in all of its legalese glory into the checklist.

Having that context right there with the question helps those answering and those reviewing the inspection determine the urgency of any corrective actions that need to take place.

Taking checklists from good to GREAT!

Reading through these tips may give you some ideas for where your inspection checklists are hitting the mark, and where they could maybe be made over to make them more helpful for your team.

We’d love to help! At Kunst Solutions Corp, we are happy to review the contents of your proposed checklists and provide feedback.

Ready for help, coaching or verification? Click here to book a virtual appointment with us. We'll be in happy to answer your questions