Management of the implementation of the Rosatom improvement project. Rosatom Production System (RPS) (506). – The question is, actually, what changed with the introduction of the RPS

Production system Rosatom (AKP) is a culture lean manufacturing and a system of continuous process improvement to ensure competitive advantage at the global level.

The RPS is based on five principles that encourage employees to be attentive to the customer’s requirements (not only in relation to the final consumer, but also to the consumer site, consumer workshop and even the subsequent operator); solve problems where they arise; build quality into the process, do not produce defects; identify and eliminate any losses (excess inventory, interoperational backlogs, downtime, unnecessary movements, etc.); be an example for colleagues.

These principles were formulated on the basis of the best examples of domestic and foreign experience, in particular, the system of scientific organization of labor, production and management (NOTPiU) of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR and the Toyota Production System of the Japanese automobile company Toyota. The Rosatom production system is aimed at achieving the strategic goals of the State Corporation, and industry RPS projects are aimed at increasing productivity, reducing costs and improving product quality. Knowledge and ability to use RPS tools is a prerequisite for professional and career growth nuclear industry employees.

At the beginning of 2015, it was decided to apply a systematic approach to the deployment of RPS at enterprises: decomposition of goals to the level of the site manager, optimization of the production of the enterprise’s main products (production flows), implementation of RPS projects, training and motivation of employees. By 2017, the system deployment contour grew from 10 to 23 RPS enterprises. By 2020 there will be about 30 of them, their products will form about 80% total cost Rosatom.

According to the concept of development of the Rosatom Production System, all enterprises where the system is being comprehensively deployed are divided into three levels: “PSR Leader”, “PSR Candidate” and “PSR Reserve”. Enterprises - “PSR Leaders” receive a package of privileges (visits of a business coach to the enterprise, the opportunity for employees to travel to exchange experience at foreign and Russian leading enterprises, family vouchers, certificates for training at the Rosatom Corporate Academy, participation in the “Workspace Design” project and etc.). Currently, the implementation of RPS at industry enterprises has already made it possible to achieve significant savings, reduce inventories in warehouses and reduce the timing of scheduled preventive maintenance at Russian nuclear power plants.

In 2017, TsKBM JSC received the status of “PSR Leader” thanks to the development and improvement of two main streams: “Production of the removable part of the main circulation pump” and “Zero group stream”, work on which has been systematically carried out at the enterprise since 2014. The fulfillment of quantitative and qualitative indicators, as well as business goals (share of total costs, order turnover, labor productivity) was ensured. Peer audits, which were carried out at TsKBM in 2017 and 2018, and engagement studies confirmed the achievement and consolidation of high results.

In March 2018, TsKBM confirmed the status of “PSR Leader” and became the first in the rating of RPS-enterprises of the ROSATOM State Corporation.

The Rosatom Production System (RPS) is a lean manufacturing culture and a system of continuous process improvement to ensure a global competitive advantage.

Currently, the implementation of RPS at industry enterprises has already made it possible to achieve significant savings, reduce inventories in warehouses and reduce the timing of scheduled preventive maintenance at Russian nuclear power plants.

Not long ago, my colleague was in Obninsk for advanced training courses at Rosatom. So, as soon as the AKP was mentioned in a conversation among themselves, an absolutely unanimous flurry of indignation and indignation arose. Everyone said that because huge amount absolutely unnecessary paperwork, there is simply no time left for the main work, people are forced to stay after work, production itself is left to chance. So what is this abbreviation that caused a sharp reaction of rejection from completely different people– managers, engineers, economists from all over Russia?

The history of the creation of the AKP, its essence

RPS is Rosatom’s production system, which has been implemented since 2009. It is based on the Toyota Lean Production System (TPS), which was developed in Japan from 1945 to 1975. in specific conditions: in post-war times, Japan was in ruins and the country needed new cars of various types (passenger cars, light and medium-duty trucks, etc.) in small quantities. Some provisions, for example, color differentiation of parts, are associated with illiteracy of workers, and in post-war period they were mostly peasants. Like in Tsarist Russia: hay and straw. The main idea is the right parts just in time in the right place. The idea is good and not at all new. But here is the embodiment of this idea...

Although the production of fuel for nuclear power plants is fundamentally different from the production of cars, especially in post-war Japan, Rosatom created a separate structure for the implementation of RPS - a directorate (Director for RPS Development - S.A. Obozov) with a staff of 41 people. RPS structures were also created at the enterprises of the fuel company TVEL, including at the Machine-Building Plant in Elektrostal, the main producer of fuel for nuclear power plants in Russia.

Enterprises organized RPS bureaus and created departments in workshops with functionaries relieved of their main work. I think there will be several hundred such released people who are not part of the central staff of JSC PSR across Rosatom.

In general, the Toyota lean production system is a set of previously known techniques from any textbook on economics or production organization from Soviet times and successfully applied in practice:

So, as they say, the famous “pull system” is nothing more than a system for planning production, taking into account interoperational backlogs, which was used at the plant before.

Kaizen: there are and always have been plans for technical re-equipment, while free creativity is encouraged - the submission and implementation of rationalization proposals and inventions.

It’s funny to talk about the notorious 5C principle (establishing order and cleanliness, according to which 90 page guidelines have been issued and elevated to the rank of philosophy!) - it’s as organic as washing your hands before eating, in addition, there are workshop and factory commissions on production culture who are constantly dealing with these issues.

Andon, JIDOUKA (Jidoka): do not transfer defects to the following operations - both previously and now, defects found at the plant were removed and placed in a defect isolation room; there are special guidelines for this.

Gemba - production meetings should be held in production premises.

Muda is unproductive losses that need to be minimized.

Now to the question: “Where did you go?” sometimes they answer: “to the gemba, eliminate muda.”

PSR - shackles for production workers

Thus, this whole system comes down to a set of well-known banal truths. A multitude of secondary and additional documents appeared with many indicators, different strategies: 3 steps, 5 questions, 14 principles, etc. and so on. We are required to fill out a huge amount of paperwork in the form of plans, graphs, tables, reports, presentation of long-term and “ambitious” plans, etc. Over the course of a year, about 90 documents appeared on the factory website of the AKP, many of them under 100 pages; in addition, there is a flood of instructions and orders. Moreover, the specifics of production - special requirements for the quality (reliability) of products - are not taken into account at all.

The enterprise has unique equipment with different processing cycles. However, the RPS team from Rosatom, led by a Toyota consultant, arrives, walks along the line and indicates that the storage devices should not have more than 3-5 fuel rods (fuel element). This leads to downtime of the entire line if one unit fails. There is only one answer to attempts at discussion: you don’t know how to work, so your place is behind the fence.

All this resembles a universal pill for all diseases and is called quackery. Moreover, mutually exclusive tasks are set - to eliminate inter-operational backlogs as a class and at the same time increase productivity. This is as unnatural as the cultivation of high morality in a brothel: the owner of the brothel says: “Girls, we’ve been studying this in the morning.” light image Natasha Rostova, after lunch, answer me, and to clients, to clients. And whoever doesn’t cover the topic fully enough will go to the cop’s community cleanup.”

Numerous indicators, graphs, diagrams, reports have the same connection with increasing productivity, as in the famous Schweik problem: there is a four-story house, each floor has eight windows, there are 2 dormer windows and 2 chimneys on the roof, and there are 2 tenants in each floor. Now tell me, gentlemen, in what year did the doorman’s grandmother die? It’s as if, before washing the dishes, the housewife draws a graph halfway across the wall and marks in it every tine of every fork washed, the consumption of water, soap, electricity and calculates her productivity.

Here is an excerpt from only one document “Regulations on small groups” (MG: 6-10 people): The format of the DPA (production analysis board) is established in the department and the MG (12 – 20 graphs, many of which are color and processed using special programs), In this case, an hourly production analysis should be carried out. The MG leader is the most qualified worker among the MG members. Those. the most competent worker (out of 8 people!) is imprisoned for filling out unnecessary pieces of paper, although all the data is in the electronic database, and he will not have time for more. Well, engineers fill out all this in an expanded volume for the department, and some indicators are suitable for a candidate’s dissertation.

Over the course of several years, the AKP has grown so much that it has become self-sufficient and functions by issuing a mountain of papers; in general, it does not need production, it can work on its own and for itself.

And the reduction in numbers is carried out by a volitional order - periodically they pinch off one person at a time, because even the AKP workers cannot explain the connection between labor productivity and dozens of pictures. There is a targeted elimination of personnel, on whom the quality and reliability of products largely depends: highly qualified workers are simply laid off, and their engineering and technical managers are laid off and drowned in a sea of paper, preventing them from working normally. And then it’s even worse - a landing party of PSR workers from Rosatom landed at the plant (with salaries several times higher than ours) and my colleague, the head of the section for the production of fuel rods and assemblies, is sometimes surrounded by three people at once: one demands to immediately draw diagrams, the other draws pictures. and fill out the tables, the third requires a hundred magnets to create another “supermarket” (a useless stand with dozens of useless pieces of paper, which are attached with magnets). A person is simply not able to do work. And you can’t send them - they immediately run to complain to the director.

And it would be good if there were really experts, otherwise one of them recently asked me “such a ruler,” trying to explain with gestures, which one, in the end, it turned out that he needed a square! Of course, they own complex programs for constructing tables, graphs, diagrams, but all their activities are efforts directed perpendicular to the direction of movement - no matter how much you increase them, the speed will not increase, but, on the contrary, will decrease due to an increase in the friction force. It would still be possible to put up with a parallel reality, but I’m afraid that this perpendicular world will push us into the abyss.

AKP as a non-economic shamanistic ideology

The AKP consists of elements of coercion and propaganda, I analyzed what is more in it, what it resembles: either the church of the times of the Inquisition and the Crusaders, or the commissars of the 20-30s with their agitprop, and decided that it is more like the latter , something like shamanistic commissars (shamkora).

Methods for achieving their goals: cost reduction - non-economic, performance assessment is also non-economic. The ideology is more reminiscent of a shamanic cult with totemic signs - huge stands with a bunch of graphs, reports, tables, diagrams, plans, some of which workers must fill out every half hour; taboo system - there should be no more than 8 people on the line (currently no more than 6, in the near future -5); there should be no objections - whoever is not with us is against us; All stands must have fresh pictures; floors should be washed only using the principles of 5C, rituals and reciting mantras at the stands.

The reaction of production workers to the arrival of top shamkors is exactly the same as the peasant’s reaction to the arrival of commissars. If the peasants hid grain and livestock, then we hide the fuel rods, removing them from the line, because it is impossible to work with interoperational backlogs of 3-5 fuel rods, and a container with products, shoving them into nooks and crannies throughout the workshop. If they see an operator sitting, monitoring the normal course of a process, or filling out technical documentation, the favorite question is why is he sitting? And they don’t say what the operator should do - either spin around like a dervish, or jump up, squealing joyfully, because they themselves don’t know.

Instead of solving serious problems, AKP managers are engaged in the creativity of beggars: “Let's use a cap instead of a hat!”

Or even worse - technically unsubstantiated ideas are put forward that can cause a collapse in production: they are constantly required to manufacture fuel rods for one fuel cartridge, then repeat for another, etc. And the fuel elements in the cassette are of different enrichments; to switch to another type, you need to remove the fuel pellets and rebuild the equipment. It’s the same as when producing a car, M10 nuts are first made for it alone, the equipment is rebuilt, then M14, the equipment is rebuilt, then M16, etc., 1 car is assembled and the cycle repeats. As they say, no comment! And the Japanese generally put forward proposals, and in a categorical form, which cannot be called anything other than nonsense.

In the statutory documents, the AKP is positioned as consulting company with the following type of activity:

consulting on commercial activities and management;

provision of services for analyzing the efficiency of the enterprise, optimizing the production process, teaching and conducting trainings, introducing techniques aimed at reducing unproductive losses.

Apparently, the AKP significantly exceeds its authority, spreading metastases throughout all Rosatom enterprises (332 affiliated enterprises as of March 31, 2015), commanding everyone without being responsible for anything.

And from the point of view of management theory, the AKP is some kind of irresponsible blip on the side (according to science - a system without feedback, whatever they do, production will be responsible).

According to the report for 2013 (paragraph 2. PSR OJSC does not have branches or representative offices. Where did the RPS bureaus at enterprises and exempt workers in workshops come from? And then, when providing consulting services a tender must be held, an agreement must be concluded and remuneration must be paid based on the results of the work. It turns out that enterprises perform their work for OJSC "PSR" and also report to them!

Everything is turned upside down! Apart from the AKP directorate, everything else is illegal - just some kind of initiative imposed from above. Nowadays more people draw “pictures” than make fuel rods.

An analogy comes to mind with regional committees, which in Soviet time gave instructions when to plow, sow, harvest, at what depth to plant potatoes, etc. Everyone knows how it ended. But at least they were responsible for their instructions. So, in 1959, the first secretary of the Ryazan Regional Committee received the Hero of Socialist Labor for fulfilling the meat plan three times, and a year later he shot himself because he put all the cows under the knife, and there was no more meat or milk. These won't shoot themselves. They will blame production for everything - the analysis should have been done not according to 80 indicators, but according to 180, filling out papers in the “supermarket” not every half hour, but every five minutes, etc. and so on. But there are almost no cows left.

Redistribution of financial flows to RPS

RPS functionaries receive a certain percentage of savings from any type of activity of the enterprise, so 3 magic letters “PSR” are inserted into any document. Behind Lately The number of personnel at the site decreased by almost 2 times, while the plan increased by 30%, but salaries remained at the same level. According to existing standards, there should be 2 times more personnel on site. Obviously, the saved funds go towards maintaining the RPS structure. According to Protocol No. 1 from 09/30/11 until the end of 2011, 42,105,000 rubles are allocated for only one RPS task. Addressed the workshop team Technical Director with the following information: the plant’s profit in 2011 was 1,700 million rubles, and in 2012 it was planned to be 200 million rubles, and all of it will be distributed through the RPS. In 2012 OJSC "PSR" received 277,264,000 rubles for consultations alone, and this is only for the central office, and taking into account hundreds of employees throughout Rosatom, and hundreds formally listed as workers and engineers, but engaged exclusively in RPS, which are on the balance sheet of enterprises, their covens ( they call them conferences) throughout the country (in April of this year - in Sochi), the amount will be several times larger. Now the AKP workers will unfasten the crumbs from their production table according to the criteria known to them (if there is good mood and greed will not completely strangle).

It is not for nothing that George Orwell is considered a great writer. Also in 1945, his book “Animal Farm” was published. Our situation is very accurately predicted there:

“At times it began to seem that although the farm was getting richer, this abundance had nothing to do with the animals - except, of course, the pigs. Of course, they did not shirk their work. They were loaded, as Squealer never tired of explaining, with endless responsibilities for supervising and organizing work on the farm. Much of what they did was simply beyond the understanding of animals. For example, Squealer explained that pigs pore over such mysterious things as “summaries,” “reports,” “minutes,” and “memos” every day. They were large, densely written sheets of paper, and as they were filled, the sheets were burned in the stove. The prosperity of the farm depends on this work, Squealer explained. But still, the pigs did not create any food with their labor, and their vast team always had an excellent appetite.”

Results of the AKP activities. Beginning of the End

And all the activities of the AKP employees resemble the habits of these cute animals: all the acorns in the clearing have already been eaten and digging has begun under the oak tree. And the fact that the oak roots are already exposed does not bother them. Examples? – please: summer 2011 At one of the nuclear power plants, 3 cassettes were depressurized, and corrosion of the fuel elements in the reactor was discovered - this is an emergency. And these incidents began to repeat themselves with alarming regularity. Quite recently, during the startup of one reactor, components of fuel assemblies began to fall off; their modification will cost millions (tens of millions?) rubles. And these fuel rods and assemblies are manufactured precisely in areas where workers run from one operation to another, and engineers are busy drawing pictures that stretch along the line for tens of meters, like shingles. And there are 2 times fewer workers left on the line than three years ago. And then the AKP team from Rosatom arrives, led by a consultant from Japan, about 15 people, and thoughtfully says that one more person needs to be laid off. Welders and other skilled workers who depend on the reliability of fuel rods are forced to perform other tasks, so that they do not have enough time for their main work. What kind of full product control can there be? Delays began in the supply of components with a sharp deterioration in their quality. This had never happened before. Recently we received defective components, with them we assembled 2 fuel assemblies that cannot be installed in the reactor, a loss of about 20 million rubles.

Some young lady from the AKP, who apparently had never worked in production for a day, angrily reprimanded the production director that it was necessary to hold daily meetings at the sites. You can’t disobey - we set up stands with pictures 18 meters long in our workshop (people immediately aptly dubbed them the wailing wall), and the management of the plant and the main workshops gather there every day. If an emergency occurs at this time, and the management is not on site, the wrong decision may be made, and here you have depressurization of the cassettes and defective components. I have been working at the enterprise for a long time, and I have never observed such a heavy, oppressive, hopeless atmosphere, the further, the more imbued with a sharp rejection of the activities of the incompetent overseers and drivers placed over us, apologists for nonsense. Due to the specific nature of production, we have competent, qualified employees, they see and understand everything, and the most common reaction to all this bacchanalia is: “absurdity, insanity, injustice.” If in 2009 the price of a share in MSZ OJSC was 11,400 rubles, then on July 16, 2013 it was 1,800 rubles - you can’t fool the market beautiful pictures and pseudoscientific texts.

By the way, at the fuel rod manufacturing site for the company “AREVA”, the company’s management banned such activities led by the Japanese, and there is not a single refusal for their products!

Road to nowhere. Application of the Toyota system in the world and in Russia

Let's look at the problem from the other side, based on the available facts. Lean manufacturing expert Curtis Quirin, who has traveled halfway around the world, laments that when you think about it, only three companies have successfully implemented a lean manufacturing system. These are Toyota, Honda and Danaher. All other enterprises that have embarked on the path of implementing this production system are very superficially engaged in the use of Lean Manufacturing tools. And these efforts are wasted. Those. the system is not taking root anywhere, and the above-mentioned 3 companies operate, most likely, not thanks to, but in spite of the system.

An example from Russian industry: Nizhny Novgorod Kaizen

The first enterprise in the Russian automotive industry to use Japanese lean manufacturing technologies was GAZ. Since 2005, the system began to operate at all enterprises of the Gorky Automobile Plant. It includes four principles: “people are our most valuable asset”, “focus on the production site”, “continuous daily improvement” and “think about the customer”. The people of Nizhny Novgorod “improved” and “thought of it” so much that they stopped producing the Volga, and the government was forced to pump 38 billion rubles into GAZ ($1.2 billion at the then exchange rate.) Obviously, all their intellectual strength and financial resources went to the release of “pictures,” as we call them, but there was no longer any energy or money left for cars.

In science and technology there is such a thing as repeatability (reproducibility) of a result. If the result is not repeated (which is what we observe), it is no longer a system.

Now let's get down to the Main Teacher - Toyota. They are the world leaders in producing defective products. Apparently, the recall of defective Toyota vehicles has already become a tradition.

For the first time, first selling its cars in the American market, Toyota became the first on the list of automakers that recalled more than 4.8 million defective cars in the United States in 2009. This was reported by The Detroit Free Press. And in other years their number is in the millions, for example in 2012 - about 10 million.

And finally, in March 2014, Toyota paid an unprecedented, largest fine in history in the United States - $1.2 billion for untimely repair of faults and deception of consumers (formulation of the US Department of Justice), which led to serious accidents and deaths. April 2014 – recall of 6.7 million vehicles with defects.

Here are reviews of Toyota from the penultimate Geneva Motor Show: “The saddest sight was presented by the stands of Japanese brands. The Toyota exposition, the high level of production of which is known only to Russians, and only through advertising exploits, was ignored by the European public.”

Do we need a second Chernobyl?

In the nuclear industry, a single failure is an emergency; until recently there were no such failures for many years, but our Teacher had millions of them!!! If the AKP continues its activities at the same pace, then exploding hydroelectric generators (Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP) and falling rockets with satellites will soon be added to the nuclear reactors. I can even imagine how the reactor could be brought to an accident. If in a CPS cassette, a row of fuel rods along the wall of the casing mistakenly have a different enrichment, then the cassette will bend due to uneven heating and, if emergency reset is necessary, the cassette will simply jam. A nuclear explosion, of course, will not occur, but superheated steam can tear off the reactor lid or destroy the primary circuit equipment through the inlet and outlet pipes.

It wasn’t in Chernobyl either. nuclear explosion– only thermal due to non-lowering emergency protection rods. And the likelihood of errors has recently increased due to a sharp decrease in the number of personnel and the performance of several operations by one worker. On last day informing with fanfare, it was announced that at the plant for the production of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, the time to manufacture one centrifuge was reduced by almost 10! once. Now all that remains is to wait until they begin to fall apart and uranium hexafluoride, which is so beneficial for the body, appears in the surrounding air.

"Altruism" of the Japanese

And finally, the last thing. I am amazed by people who are touched by Toyota's willingness and desire to share with them and even provide training on the Lean Manufacturing system. They probably don’t know that free cheese only comes in a mousetrap, or they think that this only applies to mice. Then especially for them, about people, from Virgil: “Fear the Danaans who bring gifts.” My grandmother, a Ural Cossack, called them “strangers.”

Toyota itself is moving away from the system it created. Toyota's quality management is changing under the pressure of globalization. The company no longer relies on self-improvement, but on strict adherence to standards. Toyota believes: in Russia (at its factories) you can strive for absolute quality and reduce costs with the same efficiency as in Japan, and this is correct, everything has its time.

What is wrong is that Toyota is imposing its outdated, costly system on the rest of the world. Everyone knows that the Japanese are patriots of their country and company, and it is not surprising that they weaken competitors with their system, and in the era of globalization the whole world is competitors. In military science this is called a decoy: enemy planes bomb plywood mock-ups of tanks and guns. In production, this can be compared to a miracle steam locomotive, the design of which was offered for nothing. True, half the steam goes to the whistle, the locomotive is barely crawling, but discussions are prohibited: whoever is not with us is against us; and then a consultant from Japan comes and says that the horn can be heard only 30 km away, it would be necessary to increase its power even more. And they will increase it until the locomotive stops, which is what happened at GAZ.

But I have formed the opinion in light of the latest decisions (the planned reduction in the plant’s profits by 8.5 times, the transfer of most of the profits to the RPS, the cessation of payment of bonuses for saving material resources) that the managers of the RPS could take any theory: corpuscular-wave, theory chess openings, etc., just to create a structure for it and close financial flows to it. And they took the Toyota system out of a sense of innate delicacy, so that production workers would not be too nervous, it is still more realistic, and it was tested on GAZ.

I think that in a few years the government will not be able to manage with one billion dollars. A phantasmagoric picture is emerging, worthy of the brush of Bosch or the pen of Kafka, more absurd than in his “The Trial”: the chief consultant, Mr. Hayashi, arrives from Japan, walks around all Rosatom plants and, in a couple of minutes, casts an eagle eye over an 80-year-old man at something completely unfamiliar to him production gives instructions as if in a nightmare. But, if you wake up after a nightmare and breathe a sigh of relief, then you can’t even object here, before you even have time to open your mouth, you’ll fly out of the factory - it’s clear that a simple (it would seem by status) consulting firm has very high support.

Epilogue. (Epitaph?)

The AKP is an ideological cover for the redistribution of financial flows to a newly created structure, which is not responsible for anything, does not produce anything useful, and the functioning of which poses a danger to the continued existence of the nuclear industry. This structure, like the Terminator, cannot be persuaded, cannot be convinced, it can only be destroyed, otherwise it will destroy the nuclear industry. And no half measures, like the article “Dizziness from success,” will help here. They will calm down for a while, but then they will take up their task again - after all, the oak tree is still standing, and not all the acorns have been dug out from under it yet.

V.N. Kartashov, engineer-technical center 55, PJSC MSZ

Note:

The article was created starting in November 2011, some figures may be outdated.

Hello Tatiana.

In connection with the 70th anniversary of the Russian nuclear industry, which happened on September 27, 2015, I ask you to post two articles by an employee of one of the enterprises of this very industry. I really hope that these articles will catch the eye of people who wish Russia well and have the opportunity to give these articles an official spin. The person who wrote these articles is a pensioner, a veteran of the nuclear industry, who worked at the enterprise for many years. I dared to write everything that hurt because I had enough and had nothing to lose. Younger people are much more careful. I don't know this person personally. Therefore, for objectivity, I talked with other people working at the plant. I was told that after the first article was posted on the factory intranet, people came up to him and shook his hand. Everyone has sharply negative reviews about the AKP.

In general, the actions of the PSR come down to a significant (and, as the author claims, fatal) reduction in the number of workers, a reduction in material costs (including through maintaining, or even reducing the level of wages) and an increase in labor intensity. As you can see from the articles, these seemingly good goals can add up to a deadly cocktail!

By the way, these articles, in my opinion, will easily fit into the topic “Possible targets of sabotage,” which became popular on the blog after the explosions in China, and “Methods of sabotage warfare.”

The most important achievement in Russian nuclear technologies is their quality and reliability. Anyone who has read these articles is clear that if everything written in the articles is true, then Russia’s prestige as a leader in nuclear technology will be dealt a serious blow. Undermining prestige, as I see it, is fraught with serious problems not only for Russia, but also for consumer countries (and these are mainly developing countries). Nuclear power plants are a source of cheap energy that these countries need so much. Provided, of course, that nothing explodes, infects the area and blows the minds of the population, who understand that they are actually living on an atomic bomb.

I am also very interested, if the plans for the collapse of our nuclear industry come true, will Russia’s niche in this business be occupied by its sworn friends, or will this begin the global collapse and discredit (in full) of the world nuclear industry? I assure you, the answer is not obvious. I hope that things will not go further than theoretical calculations.

In the meantime... “The introduction of the Japanese 5S workspace organization system has begun in the Moscow metro,” Denis Litvinov, head of the Vykhino electric depot, told m24.ru. He emphasized that new system will become part of a lean manufacturing program that will significantly increase the reliability of repaired units. This, in turn, will reduce the number of breakdowns and increase the level of passenger safety. It is expected that by 2017 the 5S system will be implemented in the repair and operational departments of all metro electric depots.”

The implementation of the Rosatom Production System (RPS) is a large-scale industry project designed not only to increase labor productivity to the level of foreign competitors of the Rosatom State Corporation and reduce costs, but also to increase wages and create new rules for career growth.

The RPS is based on NOTPiU of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR - a system of scientific organization of labor, production and management. In addition, the RPS includes and adapts to industry specifics the best achievements and tools from other modern systems, in particular, the principles of the Toyota Production System of the Japanese automobile company Toyota. The main principle of the RPS, like the Toyota production system, is to meet the needs of the consumer in the shortest possible time with the minimum possible expenditure of resources at the required level of quality.

The purpose of introducing RPS is to create, based on the best examples of domestic and foreign experience, a universal methodology for a management system for complex optimization of production and management processes, and test it at the enterprises of the State Corporation Rosatom. Further development of the RPS will take place in the form software solutions aimed at increasing the production efficiency of key products, as well as replicating RPS experience in other sectors of the economy.

The objectives of the RPS are:

Identification of key Rosatom products and parameters of their competitiveness;
Setting goals for key products;
Development of methodological documents on the use of optimization tools production processes, diagnostics of production management system and labor resources;
Optimization of production processes;
Carrying out comprehensive diagnostics of production for key products in order to identify reserves for increasing production efficiency;
Approval and launch of comprehensive programs to increase the production efficiency of divisions based on the results of the diagnostics;
Creation of industry infrastructure to ensure the process of increasing production efficiency.

The system ensures the implementation of strategic goals through personnel training, as well as through continuous improvement and continuous improvement capabilities to increase productivity, improve quality, reduce costs and meet customer requirements. The introduction of RPS is aimed at embedding the ideas of efficiency and optimality into the logic of adoption management decisions in production, and through production - into other processes and structural units companies.

RPS is designed to maximize productive activities per unit of time at each workplace by consistently eliminating losses in production and management processes. RPS ensures a progressive increase in the productivity of production processes, a reduction in production costs and an increase in the quality of working and managerial work. In addition, the RPS is aimed at combating any losses: excess warehouse stocks, inter-operational backlogs, downtime, unnecessary movements.

The development and implementation of the RPS began in the second half of 2008, when general director Sergei Kiriyenko set the goal of the Rosatom State Corporation to increase labor productivity in the industry by four times by 2020, reduce costs and, as a result, reduce the cost of products. On December 29, 2008, the order “On the implementation of the Rosatom production system in industry organizations” was signed.

Since 2009, the production system has been actively implemented at Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. It was in the Concern that the first learning programs on RPS tools and the training process has been launched. Moreover, it has started practical work at pilot sites of nuclear power plants under construction and in operation, and in the machine-building complex.

In 2010, 54 projects were successfully implemented through the RPS. At the first stage of implementation, pilot sites were selected at a number of enterprises.

Since August 2011, the second stage of RPS development has been launched, when the system is being implemented on the main production chains Rosatom enterprises.

Currently, the system is deployed at 79 enterprises in the industry, which are divided into three groups, in order of priority (groups A, B and C). Among the enterprises of group A, the highest priority ones have been identified, which have received the status of reference ones, where promising projects are being carried out, the results of which are planned to be transferred to other enterprises. Many Rosatom enterprises have already achieved certain positive results in implementing the system.

We thank the editors of the magazine "REA" (Rosenergoatom Concern) for providing this material.

When setting the task, Andrei Petrov emphasized that we need changes that give a real economic effect and have a direct impact on production. This decision was based on the positive experience of the Smolensk and Balakovo NPPs, which began implementing RPS back in 2007, and at the end of 2015 received the status of “Enterprise - RPS Leader” at the industry level.

The implementation of production (or business) systems has become widespread in Russia in recent years. Companies that want to win competition, it is necessary to keep up with the times, and it is better to be “one step ahead”. Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of doing business and management. Those who have carefully studied the essence of lean technologies understand that they are the future of management, and the theory of lean production overturns the usual idea of doing business. Realizing this, the Rosatom State Corporation has been actively implementing RPS at its enterprises since 2008.

When we launched the program to transform the Concern into an RPS division at the beginning of 2016, we understood that a functional vertical was needed, since without an effective management system it would be difficult to implement our plans. For this purpose, NPP directors identified active, proactive specialists, and the Concern management decided to create a department for RPS development and operational efficiency in the central office, the task of which was the overall coordination of RPS development in the division, methodological support for RPS divisions of NPPs and divisions of the Concern's central office .

Summing up the work of enterprises on the systemic implementation of RPS is carried out with the help of developmental partner inspections of the quality of system deployment (in short, we call them RPK), the teams of which involve highly qualified industry specialists.

RPK allow you to conduct diagnostics in the areas of RPS deployment, assess the level of development of the production system at the enterprise, identify development areas and best practices. Representatives of 18 enterprises participating in the RPS development program of the State Corporation Rosatom take part in the work of the RPPK at the industry level, and at the divisional level - employees of our leading enterprises, RPS divisions of nuclear power plants and the RPS development and operational efficiency department. In-person inspections take place twice a year.

In the middle of the year, an interim inspection takes place - “Previsit”, within the framework of which the current level of RPS development at the enterprise is assessed, problem areas are identified for quickly solving emerging problems, and recommendations are given for managing the deployment program. At the end of the year, the results of the program implementation for the entire year are summed up. The RPK team gives an opinion on the achievement of indicators in all areas.

Before each visit of inspectors, the enterprise conducts a self-assessment of the implementation of all RPS deployment indicators in five areas: “Decomposition of goals”, “RPS flows”, “Project and change management”, “Training”, “Motivation”.

At mid-year, indicator performance levels varied at each station. The RPK teams made recommendations for each of the areas, on the basis of which the stations developed action plans to achieve indicators, which were fully implemented by the final RPK, which made it possible to achieve such results.

However, since one of AKP principles- continuous improvement; based on the results of the final inspections, the stations received new recommendations from experts, which will form the basis for plans for the further development of the Production System at the sites.

Based on the results of the work of the divisional-level RPK, seven nuclear power plants and the central office of the Concern, adopting the experience of Smolensk and Balakovo NPPs on the principle of “leaders teach leaders”, under the leadership and with the help of the RPS Development Department, are assigned the status “RPS-enterprise”. Based on the results of the industry-wide RPK, the Balakovo and Smolensk NPPs should be confirmed, and the Leningrad NPP should receive the status of “Enterprise - Leader of the RPS”. Confirmation and receipt of this status will take place at the beginning of 2017 based on the results of financial reporting.

The audits also identified best practices that will be recommended for implementation at other sites. For example, at the Kola NPP the best practices were recognized as: organization of order safe operation lifting mechanisms, the use of industrial polyethylene landing ladders, the introduction of workplace standards according to the 5C system production sites. At the Kalinin NPP, the use of the “Memo for working with polyurethane foam”, the development and implementation of standards for cleaning and inspection of equipment in production areas of the centralized repair shop with visualization were noted.

One of the tasks of the outgoing year set by Rosatom State Corporation for the division is to reduce the turnover of production inventories of the Electric Power Division (in terms of revenue) by 27%. Completing this task would have been impossible without the opening of a personal RPS project for the General Director of the Concern and his deputies to reduce inventories.

The analysis carried out within the framework of the RPS project showed that this can be done through:

bringing production inventories for REN to standard levels;
development and approval of standards for the availability of fuel assemblies in the operational reserve;
developing inventory reduction schedules for each area;
procurement of materials and equipment taking into account the analysis of warehouse stocks;
efficient delivery of materials and equipment (just-in-time delivery) and other activities.

The information center of the General Director of the Concern organized monitoring to reduce the turnover of current inventories. The dynamics of all current reserves of nuclear power plants and subsidiaries is monitored monthly. In the event of a deviation from the forecast reduction in inventories, those responsible for the areas report at which enterprise, in which direction the deviation occurred and what measures were taken.

However, unscheduled shutdowns at Smolensk, Kalinin, Rostov NPPs and Novovoronezh NPP-2 complicated the task. Due to the fact that current production inventories consist of 75% fresh nuclear fuel(SNF) and core components (KAZ), due to unscheduled shutdowns of power units, incomplete predicted burnup of the fuel located in the core occurred, and, as a consequence, this fuel was not written off from the balance sheet of the enterprise.

Participation in industry competitions led to a clear understanding of the need to plan activities, coordinate the timing of the opening and implementation of RPS projects in the division

After completion of the project, it will be necessary to analyze the nomenclature, the amount of inventory and the formed minimum reserve in the production cycle (from overhaul before major repairs), and then make a decision on further work with reserves and establishing their standards.

The main task of RPS is to search for and eliminate losses, as well as solve problems that arise in various life processes of enterprises. Learning to see losses is the task of every employee. Unfortunately, we get so used to reality that we no longer notice the problems that are nearby. RPS tools such as value stream mapping and production control and analysis help us learn to see our processes from the point of view of lean production and notice losses. To learn how to use them, this year each manager was given the task of implementing two RPS projects. RPS project is a project aimed at optimizing the process.

If the solution to the identified problem is obvious, then any of us can submit a proposal for improvement (PIP). This work is now being carried out at all enterprises in the industry, and for the sixth time the Rosatom State Corporation has held an industry competition for PPU and RPS projects. Our division has taken part in it several times. The competition is held in three stages. At the first, nuclear power plants and subsidiaries of the Concern determined the best PPU and RPS projects implemented in 2016. Selected proposals and projects were submitted for participation in the second stage, which was held at the division level. The selection committee reviewed more than 80 works from nuclear power plants, as well as from JSC Atomenergoremont, JSC Atomtekhenergo and other organizations of the division, selecting the most effective PPU and RPS projects from them. Thus, we entered the third stage of the industry competition with 12 PPU and 12 RPS projects.

The best RPS and PPU projects of 2016 (with economic effect)

The selection of winners from the projects and proposals selected for the State Corporation took place within the framework of the annual forum “AKP Leaders”. Each of the applicants was given the opportunity to personally present the implemented improvements. As a result, one of the winners of the PPU competition was Denis Romanovich Vikhasty, a repair engineer at the Kursk NPP. His proposal - “Development of a plug for repairing the lower path of the technological channel (TC) sb.26”, makes it possible to cut off the TC from the PVC without carrying out work on dismantling the clips sb.25-33r.

The program for transforming the Electric Power Division into the RPS division in 2017 provides for the systematic deployment of the Rosatom Production System not only at NPPs, but also in all other branches and subsidiaries of the Concern, which have yet to go through the process of learning the principles and tools of RPS. Serious assistance in this will be provided by NPP employees who have been certified by the ANO Rosatom Corporate Academy as RPS trainers.

An important task for the next year is the implementation of the plan approved by the General Director of the State Corporation “Rosatom” A.E. Likhachev in December 2016, a roadmap for the implementation of RPS engineering standards at Rosatom facilities under construction.

Results of RPK at seven nuclear power plants

Already this year, based on the positive experience of JSC ASE EC (power unit No. 2 of NVNPP-2 is recognized by the State Corporation Rosatom as an exemplary RPS unit), as well as focusing on the upcoming key event of 2017 - the physical start-up of power unit No. 1 of the Leningrad NPP - 2, The Concern, together with the general contractor, developed a Joint Action Plan for the implementation of RPS during the construction of power units No. 1 and 2 of the Leningrad NPP-2 and an Action Plan for the creation of a unified information database for the customer, general contractor and designer. As part of the implementation of these plans, a unified information base data on the servers of the Leningrad NPP and JSC Concern Titan-2, training of workers of the Leningrad NPP-2 and contractors headed by the general contractor in the basic RPS course was organized and conducted, developed on the basis of the standards of JSC ASE EC RPS standards for construction and installation management works, production control and analysis, application of the 5C system on a construction site, “Chain of Help” and “Proposals for Improvement” standards. The general contractor was handed over adapted guidelines on the motivation of employees participating in the implementation of the RPS.

Another serious task for next year is to look at the processes “New Products”, “R&D and Innovation”, “Quality” from the perspective of RPS in order to optimize them and determine the possibilities and ways of implementing inter-industry and inter-divisional RPS projects.

Achieving the ambitious goals set for the division for the systematic deployment of RPS is impossible without involving all personnel in the philosophy of leanness and the use of production system tools. Let me remind you that RPS is a lean production culture and a system of continuous process improvement to ensure a competitive advantage at the global level.

Culture is a set of codes that prescribe a person a certain behavior with his inherent experiences and thoughts, exerting a managerial influence on him. RPS is a new culture of production, work organization and workplaces. It will take a lot of time to instill it, and therefore we assign a separate role in the formation of this culture to the involvement, training and motivation of staff. Only together we can achieve results. When planning work on engagement in the RPS, we need to develop a positive attitude towards the Production System.

At the RPS Leaders forum this year, the results of a study of attitudes towards the Rosatom Production System at the enterprises of the State Corporation were presented, in which employees of our division’s enterprises also took part. The attitude towards RPS is changing dramatically at enterprises where the system has been implemented for several years now.

A positive attitude towards RPS requires an engaging implementation style. A high level of reputation is typical for enterprises where managers are actively involved in implementation: they personally explain and demonstrate by example. The presence of RPS leaders who demonstrate effective tools of the system and clearly and convincingly explain the need for its implementation is an important factor influencing the high reputation of the RPS. Education and “cultivation” of such employees should be a priority for divisional enterprise managers at all levels.

Typical reputation of RPS at different stages of implementation (results of a qualitative study; illustrated using drawings collected during the study)

A lot of work on the development of the RPS has been done this year, and even more remains to be done next year. I would like to wish our leaders of 2015 - Smolensk and Balakovo NPPs - to successfully confirm their title, and Leningrad NPP - to receive it at the industry level. Nuclear power plants, participants in the 2016 transformation program, who have achieved the target indicators of the RPS enterprise, must reach a new level and become RPS leaders. And to the subsidiaries and branches (not NPPs), participants in the 2017 transformation program, I wish successful implementation RPS development plans using the experience of the Concern’s nuclear power plants.