Method guide · TPM and maintenance
Model area: a 90-day plan for each pillar, then expansion
Short answer
A model area is one line, machine or zone where an improvement pillar first proves its method with the people who work there, before the method spreads across the plant. The area is chosen from loss data, the pillar runs a 90-day plan there with a clear done-when for every step, and a day-90 gate decides whether it is ready to copy. After that the method spreads in waves, coached by the model area team, with each new area measured against its own baseline.
What a model area is, and how to choose one
Pillars such as safety, quality and maintenance do not start everywhere at once. Each pillar picks one area, runs its method there until it works on the floor, writes the standard and only then spreads it. Starting everywhere at once spreads the pillar team thin and produces activity without results, which is why our TPM launch guide starts with a single pilot area. The glossary calls the same idea a model line.
| Criterion | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Loss data | The area's real losses for this pillar: incidents, defects, breakdowns, waste or energy | Results on a real loss convince people; results on an easy area do not |
| Visibility | Leaders and visitors walk past it every day | People copy what they can see working |
| Team willingness | The supervisor and team want to do it, not only accept it | The model area team becomes the coaches for the next areas |
| Repeatability | The same machines, process or hazards run elsewhere | A standard that copies with little change spreads faster |
Score loss data first. On a tie, the higher loss data score wins.
The ten 90-day plans
Each plan has the same shape, so the pillar leads can review them side by side: a 13-week plan in three phases, a scoring table to choose the area, the team, a KPI board, a day-90 gate and an expansion plan for months 4 to 12. The method inside each one is the pillar's own.
| Pillar | Model area is usually | The 90 days cover | Free template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety | The area with the most incidents, near misses or highest-rated risks | Incident pyramid, safety cross, near-miss reporting, hazard hunt, risk assessment, hierarchy of controls, standards, observations, audit | Safety pillar 90-day plan |
| Quality control | The line or cell with the most scrap, rework or complaints | QA matrix, containment, defect mode analysis, restore conditions, countermeasures, conditions for zero defects, QM matrix | Quality control pillar 90-day plan |
| Autonomous maintenance | One machine with high breakdowns or minor stops | Steps 0 to 3: preparation, initial cleaning and tagging, sources of contamination and hard-to-access areas, provisional standards | Autonomous maintenance 90-day plan |
| Professional maintenance | One machine with high downtime or repeat failures | Breakdown analysis, restoration, weak points, component ranking, PM tasks, spares, PM calendar | Professional maintenance 90-day plan |
| Environment and energy | The area with the biggest waste streams or energy use | Waste and energy maps, legal register, aspects, energy losses, waste hierarchy, segregation, standards | Environment pillar 90-day plan |
| Focused improvement | The line with the biggest OEE losses | OEE and the six big losses, loss themes run with PDCA, standardize, quick kaizen, savings confirmed by finance | Focused improvement 90-day plan |
| Logistics and customer service | The value stream with the most shortages or late deliveries | Value stream map, point-of-use material, supermarket, kanban loops, water spider route, FIFO, shortage escalation | Logistics pillar 90-day plan |
| People development | The area with the most errors from skill gaps or single points of failure | Skills matrix, skill gaps from losses, job instruction trainers, breakdown sheets, training and sign-off | People development 90-day plan |
| Early equipment management | One coming equipment project | Lessons from current machines, design checklist, reviews, risk assessment, acceptance tests, start-up | Early equipment management 90-day plan |
| Cost deployment | The area with the largest share of conversion cost | Loss map, causal and resultant losses, loss costing, ranked projects, savings followed up with finance | Cost deployment 90-day plan |
Each template is a PDF to print and an Excel version that works out the dates, status, scores and gap closed.
How the pillars usually start
- 1
Loss data first
Before any pillar picks its model area, pull the plant's losses by area: incidents, defects, breakdowns, waste and energy. Each pillar chooses from its own losses, so two pillars can start in different areas.
- 2
Safety from day one
Many plants start the safety pillar first, because no other pillar's work should add hazards and its routines, near-miss reporting and risk assessment, cost little to start. The 8 pillars of TPM guide puts safety, health and environment in one pillar; many plants run safety and environment separately, as these templates do.
- 3
Autonomous and professional maintenance early
Our TPM launch guide starts both maintenance pillars in the first quarter, because they build the operator skill and the equipment data the later pillars depend on. Run them on the same machine and split the checks between operators and maintenance.
- 4
Quality control once there is condition data
Quality control traces defects to machine and process conditions. It works best once the maintenance pillars have restored the machines and there is defect and condition history to analyse.
- 5
Cost deployment, focused improvement and people development as the data and the work grow
A costed loss map helps every pillar choose where to work, so it pays to start cost deployment early. Focused improvement needs enough loss data first; our TPM launch guide puts it in the third quarter. People development runs alongside every pillar, since each one needs trained people, and early equipment management starts when the next equipment project does.
- 6
Environment when its losses are large
Environment and energy can start whenever its loss data shows a big loss, such as waste to landfill or compressed air. It often shares the model area with safety, since both start from a walk of the area.
The 90 days in three phases
| Phase | Weeks | Aim | Ends with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30 | 1 to 4 | Set up, measure the baseline, see the real condition | A team, a baseline on the KPI board and the area's real problems on paper |
| Days 31 to 60 | 5 to 9 | Find causes and fix them | The main causes found and countermeasures in place or scheduled |
| Days 61 to 90 | 10 to 13 | Write the standard, hold it, pass the gate | A standard the team follows without help, and the day-90 gate |
Week 13 ends on day 91; the phase limits are rounded to whole weeks.
The day-90 gate is a short checklist signed by the sponsor and the pillar lead: the method's own checks (for example, every task risk-assessed, or steps 1 to 3 passing the autonomous maintenance step audit), 13 weeks of KPI data against the baseline, and the standard and lessons written up so another team can copy them. If a check is not met, the team fixes it before any other area starts.
How expansion works after day 90
| Wave | Months | Which areas | Who coaches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wave 1 | 4 to 6 | The areas most like the model area: same machine type, process or hazards | Model area team members, one per new area |
| Wave 2 | 7 to 9 | The next areas by size of loss for this pillar | People trained in wave 1, checked by the pillar lead |
| Wave 3 | 10 to 12 | The remaining priority areas, including support areas such as stores, utilities and workshops | Coaches from waves 1 and 2 |
- Copy the method, not only the paperwork. Each new area runs its own 13 weeks against its own baseline, often faster with a coach who has done it. This is yokoten: someone owns the adaptation in each receiving area, and its results are measured and compared with the model area.
- The model area team trains the next area. A team member coaches each wave 1 area at the gemba, wave 1 people coach wave 2, and the pillar lead checks each new coach before they coach alone.
- Each wave has a gate: the new area passed the same day-90 gate, its KPIs are measured against its own baseline, the copy is recorded, the next coaches are named, and the model area still holds its standard. The yokoten tracker keeps the record of what was copied where.
- Agree the resources before each wave: coach hours each week, maintenance or engineering time, and a budget for the fixes the new areas will need.
Go deeper
This page is the short version. These guides cover each part in full.
- TPM Launch: Year One Deployment GuideChoosing and staffing the pilot, the quarter-by-quarter first year, and when to expand beyond the pilot.
- The 8 Pillars of TPM ExplainedWhat each pillar covers, how they depend on each other, and which to start with.
- 7 Steps of Autonomous Maintenance: The TPM Pillar ExplainedAll seven autonomous maintenance steps, including the four that come after the model area's first 90 days.
- Yokoten: Horizontal Deployment of Kaizen Best PracticesHow a proven practice is shared and adapted across areas and plants.
- Near Miss Reporting That Actually Prevents Future IncidentsThe near-miss routine the safety model area starts in its first month.
All our articles on this subject are in the tpm and maintenance topic.
Free templates and tools
- Safety pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the incident pyramid to safety standards on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Quality control pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the QA matrix to the QM matrix on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Autonomous maintenance 90-day model area planAM steps 0 to 3 on one model machine in 13 weeks, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves for months 4 to 12.
- Professional maintenance (PM) 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from breakdown analysis to a running PM calendar on one model machine, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Environment and energy pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from waste and energy maps to area standards on one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Focused improvement 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the loss Pareto to standardized fixes on one model line, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Logistics and customer service pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the current-state map to pull on one model value stream, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- People development pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the skills matrix to trained cover on critical tasks in one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Early equipment management 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from lessons on current machines to a tracked start-up on one model equipment project, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Cost deployment pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the loss map to costed, ranked projects in one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Yokoten tracker (horizontal deployment)Copy a proven improvement line by line: the source result, each candidate's own before and after, its share of the source's improvement and the standard updated.
- Autonomous maintenance step auditCriteria for each of the seven autonomous maintenance steps, scored 0 to 2, with the step result and the decision to move on.
- OEE calculatorOverall equipment effectiveness from shift time, downtime, ideal cycle time and part counts.
- MTBF and MTTR calculatorMean time between failures, mean time to repair and availability from operating time, failures and repair time.
Doing this in LeanSuite
Autonomous Maintenance
Rolls out visual CILR (clean, inspect, lube, retighten) checklists so operators catch small abnormalities before they cause downtime.
See Autonomous MaintenanceYokoten
Captures local improvement wins and turns them into standards across every plant in your network.
See YokotenKPI Dashboards
Turns raw shop floor data into dashboards anyone can read, so everyone from operators to the plant manager can act on performance.
See KPI DashboardsSafety Improvement
Keeps employees alert to hazards and gives leaders the visibility to drive safety improvements.
See Safety Improvement
See it on your own lines
Try the interactive demo in your browser with sample data, or pilot LeanSuite on your own lines for 90 days, with the setup done by our team.
FAQ
Questions about model area 90-day plans
More method guides
Or browse the topics, the full library and the lean glossary.
Rather see it on your own problem?
Bring the problem you are stuck on, and we will show you on a call how LeanSuite handles it.