Ross Kenneth Kennedy Author of Evaluating Organization Development
FEATURED AUTHOR

Ross Kenneth Kennedy

President & Founder
CTPM - The Centre for Australasian TPM & Lean

After 20 years of manufacturing experience covering maintenance, operations and executive roles along with 5 years of international consulting experience, Ross founded The Centre for TPM (Australasia) or CTPM in 1996 and developed an Australasian version of TPM & Lean so as to assist manufacturing, mining, process and service industries throughout Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia and China to engage and develop their people whiling striving for Operational Excellence.

Biography

A fitter and turner by trade, Ross has a part-time Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of New South Wales / Wollongong University College and a Commerce degree in Management from the University of Wollongong.

Ross commenced his working career in 1970 at the Port Kembla Steelworks (12 yrs); followed by Cable Makers Australia (5 yrs) and David Brown Gear Industries (3 yrs). Over these 20 years he gained hands-on manufacturing and operational experience covering maintenance (14 years), production, operations and executive roles before moving into management consulting.

In 1985 Ross developed his passion for Lean Production following his involvement in the Value Added Management (JIT) initiative by the NSW Government. Ross quickly and effectively applied the new Lean principles and practices firstly at the CMA Foam Group Lullaby Bedding Factory while Factory Manager, then CMA’s Cable Accessories Factory as Site Manager before moving to David Brown Gear Industries as Manufacturing Manger to establish and oversee the relocation of the company from Sydney to Wollongong to a new facility set up on Lean principles and practices.

In 1989 after the new facility was well established and recognised for its leading edge improvements based on Lean, Ross was invited to join the new JIT / Lean practice being established by the Manufacturing and Operations Group of Coopers & Lybrand's International Management Consulting Practice based in Sydney.

Over the next 5 years Ross had the opportunity to work on major assignments with some of the firm’s leading Lean practitioners from USA, Canada and the UK. It was also during this time that he first came across TPM (a critical missing link in the Lean tool kit) in 1990 when he led one of the first implementations of TPM in Australasia under the guidance of John Campbell who was Partner-in-Charge of Coopers & Lybrand’s Global Centre for Maintenance Excellence based in Canada and author of the internationally recognised maintenance book – Uptime.

In August 1994 Ross established his own consulting practice specialising in TPM. He organised and chaired Australasia’s first TPM conference in 1995 and, at the request of the delegates at the conference, Ross with several colleagues founded The Centre for TPM (Australasia) in January 1996 to provide a membership-based organisation to support Australasian industry and academia.

After extensive research including a trip to Paris in 1997 to attend Europe’s first World-Class Manufacturing & JIPM-TPM Conference and associated workshops with leading TPM practitioners from throughout the world, The Centre for TPM (Australasia) launched its TPM3 methodology in January 1998, which is an enhanced and expanded Australasian version of the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) 3rd Generation TPM embracing the Toyota Production System and spanning the entire Supply Chain.

Since then CTPM has been involved with a wide range of leading manufacturing, mining, processing, utilities and service companies. For example from Sept 1998 to June 2003 CTPM assisted Telstra roll-out their TPM initiative to over 200 teams servicing their Customer Access Copper Network in 16 Regions throughout Australia resulting in over $110m in savings.

Ross has been actively involved with Lean Production since 1985, TPM since 1990 and Australasian TPM & Lean since 1998 and has delivered publicly over 200 workshops and papers on the subjects both within Australia and overseas.

CTPM, under the direction of Ross with his team of experienced Operational Excellence Specialists, is presently assisting over 30 sites located in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia and China on their Australasian TPM & Lean journeys to Operational Excellence and World Class Performance.

Education

    BSc (Eng) Mechanical Engineering; University of NSW 1977
    B Comm (Management Studies); University of Wollongong 1985

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

    Australasian TPM & Lean
    Operational Excellence
    Overall Equipment Effectiveness
    Effective Daily Management
    Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis
    Stable Production Plan through Flow Logic

Personal Interests

    NBL Basketball - former Wollongong Hawks player, team chemistry coach, Director, Chairman
    Thoroughbred Horse Racing - Director Illawarra Turf Club

Websites

Books

Featured Title
 Featured Title - Understanding, Measuring, and Improving Overall Equipment - 1st Edition book cover

Articles

CTPM Australasia

Ensuring your Organisation Structure & Shift Rosters support Operational Excellence


Published: Dec 03, 2018 by CTPM Australasia
Authors: Ross Kennedy
Subjects: Business & Management, Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

Organisation structure and shift rosters are two areas that many companies struggle to get right in their quest to improve the operations side of their business. Too often companies are locked into arrangements that significantly hinder their ability to engage and develop all their people in on-going improvement activities resulting in limited results and a lack of sustainability of the improvements that are made.

CTPM Australasia

Operator Development Game Plan


Published: Feb 17, 2018 by CTPM Australasia
Authors: Ross Kennedy
Subjects: Business & Management, Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

The way we develop our Operators on each shift can have a significant impact on the approach we should take to introduce continuous improvement activities and most importantly the sustainability of the improvements. We can develop our Operators based on the analogy of a sporting game. The key is to know what game best suits each area of production, and then ensure that all shifts in the area are playing the same game.

CTPM Australasia

What Gets Measured Gets Done!


Published: Aug 23, 2017 by CTPM Australasia
Authors: Ross Kennedy
Subjects: Business & Management, Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

A key foundation for Operational Excellence is to have Goal Aligned Performance Measures. This is where all measures, at all levels of the operation, align to the Key Success Factors for Operations. In other words, all measures should be based on, and reported under, your site’s Key Success Factors for Operations so that everyone can see where their performance contributes to the overall site performance.

CTPM Australasia

The Importance of a Continuous Improvement Strategy


Published: Nov 25, 2016 by CTPM Australasia
Authors: Ross Kennedy
Subjects: Business & Management, Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

Most organisations understand the importance of Strategy and spend considerable time developing and refining their Business Strategy, however often what gets breezed over, or just buried within the Business Strategy, is the Continuous Improvement Strategy, resulting in improvement activities that lack alignment and holistic effectiveness. Therefore we need the right parts to our Business Strategy and Continuous Improvement Strategy if we are to win the battle against our competitors.

CTPM Australasia

Achieving Perfect Equipment Performance at the lowest Cost


Published: Sep 16, 2016 by CTPM Australasia
Authors: Ross Kennedy
Subjects: Business & Management, Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

Most manufacturing, process and mining companies have invested substantial amounts into their plant and equipment, yet accept the old thinking that as plant and equipment gets older maintenance costs increase and performance drops away. In fact, best practice thinking is that plant and equipment should perform better as it gets older and maintenance practices should become more fine-tuned and hence maintenance costs should reduce as you achieve zero breakdowns and perfect equipment performance.

Videos

Setting and Managing Workplace Standards through 5S or Work Area Management

Published: Mar 07, 2019

A 30 minute webinar on 'Setting and Managing Workplace Standards through 5S or Work Area Management' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will cover: 1. Selecting and prioritising the Areas to create Standards 2. Determining the criteria for establishing Standards 3. Developing a simple Template to record each Standard 4. Gaining agreement for each Standard from everyone who works in the area 5. Monitoring the Standards through an effective Compliance Audit Process

Getting our Frontline to identify and address Waste in their Workplace

Published: Feb 07, 2019

A 30 minute webinar on 'Getting our Frontline to identify and address Waste in their Workplace' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will cover: 1. Why address waste – what are we trying to achieve from a customer’s perspective 2. Types of Waste – is the Toyota model relevant for your workplace 3. Using ‘cause for pause’ and ‘time lost’ to identify waste 4. How best to address Waste in the workplace 5. How do we link ‘addressing waste’ into our Daily Review Process

Writing Effective Procedures for Operators and Maintainers

Published: Dec 06, 2018

A 30 minute webinar on 'Writing Effective Procedures for Operators and Maintainers' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will cover: - The concept of Training Within Industry (TWI) - The purpose of Standardised Work - Determining the major steps and key points with valid reasons - Developing your template that incorporates best practice - Using a team approach to develop your procedures

Lean, CI, Six Sigma – What are the Differences and Strengths

Published: May 08, 2018

A 30 minute webinar on 'Lean, CI, Six Sigma – What are the Differences and Strengths' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will cover: 1. Simplistic Overview of Improvement Options; 2. Defining Lead Time Reduction - the Driver of Lean; 3. The Components of Lean; 4. The Components of TPM & Lean; 5. Six Sigma; 6. The Key Differences between Six Sigma and Lean; 7. Why Toyota doesn't use Six Sigma; and 8. CI - The 3 Critical Parts of a CI Strategy.

Developing the Structure & Discipline for successful Continuous Improvement

Published: Sep 13, 2018

A 30 minute webinar on 'Developing the Structure & Discipline for successful Continuous Improvement' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will cover: 1. Setting the scene with Tom Peters 2. Reflecting on the 3 Parts of a CI Strategy 3. The Goals of Continuous Improvement 4. The Importance of Structure, Ownership and Alignment 5. Establishing Discipline in Reactive Improvement 6. Establishing Discipline in Pro-active Improvement

Implementing Effective Daily Meetings

Published: Oct 11, 2018

A 30 minute webinar on 'Implementing Effective Daily Meetings' presented by Ross Kennedy. The session will assist you to: 1. Determine purpose of each Daily Review Meeting 2. Plan the timing of all meetings across the site 3. Understand the 10 Attributes of an effective Daily Review Meeting 4. Determine Information to be reported and how 5. Establish baseline and targets 6. Create an Agenda that supports your Frontline Leaders