Application of chosen elements from Japanese production and maintenance management philosophies in Polish coal mines

The article describes the chosen Japanese production and maintenance management philosophies, such as Lean Management, kazien and TPM. Japanese approaches to the process of work organizing and work planning, workplace preparing, tasks, duties and responsibilities turn out to be the most effective and the most efficient in the world. The practical application of these philosophies entails achieving the measurable benefits by the companies that use them. The basis of these philosophies is the elimination of all kinds of losses – even the smallest ones, continuous improvement and striving for perfection, reducing unnecessary activities, avoidance of squander and waste, constant improvement of quality, paying attention to the details and minimizing errors and mistakes. The crucial element and the most important resource in the enterprises, which is necessary to realization of mentioned actions, is human. Building the awareness and the sense of employees’ responsibility for all activities performed in work, cooperating, interacting and engaging them in the process of consistent improvement and perceiving the company as a common good, which every employee influences with his or her work and attitude, are the foundations of these philosophies. In the practical part of the paper, the results of the research, aimed at assessing the current state of the use of mining machinery in the perspective of the implementation of the selected elements of Japanese production and maintenance management philosophies in Polish coal mines, were shown. The purpose of these changes is to improve the level of the use of the technical means, which are owned by the companies, and in particular, of the machines working in the underground excavations. In practice, a very low level of the mining companies’ effectiveness in the area of the use of the technical resources has been observed. The basis of the conducted research was data obtained from the independent industrial automation system. According to the authors, adaptation and implementation of the assumptions behind the mentioned strategies should contribute to the effectiveness of the coal production by increasing the level of availability and performance of mining machinery, more efficient work organizing and an active and positive attitude of the workers.