Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a strategy that operates according to the idea that everyone in a facility should participate in maintenance, rather than just the maintenance team. This approach uses the skills of all employees and seeks to incorporate maintenance into the everyday performance of a facility.

 

Advantages of TPM:

When everyone in a facility is contributing to maintenance, many aspects of the facility will change for the better.

Less Failure or Breakdowns :

When machine operators keep an eye and observe out for changes with their equipment, big issues and failures are more likely to be spotted early, before a breakdown. This lets the maintenance team to resolve the problem in time.

Safer Workplace:

Maintenance Team/Technicians are more likely to take risks when rushing to fix a breakdown, so fewer breakdowns generally mean a safer workplace for everyone. On top of that, when everyone keeps maintenance in mind, problems can be spotted and resolve before they become potentially dangerous situations.

 

The 8 Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Traditional total productive maintenance was developed by Seiichi Nakajima of Japan. Nippon Denso (now Denso), a company that created parts for Toyota, was one of the first organizations to implement a TPM program. This resulted in an internationally accepted benchmark for how to implement TPM. Incorporating lean manufacturing techniques, TPM is built on eight pillars based on the 5-S system.

1. Autonomous maintenance:

Autonomous maintenance means ensuring operators are fully trained on routine maintenance like cleaning, lubricating and inspecting, as well as placing that responsibility solely in their hands. This includes training the operator on technical skills for conducting a routine inspection based on the machine's manual.

2. Focused improvement:

Focused improvement looks at the process as a whole and brainstorms ideas for how to improve it. Getting small teams in the mindset of proactively working together to implement regular, incremental improvements to processes pertaining to equipment operation is key for TPM. Diversifying team members allows for the identification of recurring problems through cross-functional brainstorming.

3. Planned maintenance:

Planned maintenance involves studying metrics like failure rates and historical downtime and then scheduling maintenance tasks based around these predicted or measured failure rates or downtime periods.

4. Quality maintenance:

The quality maintenance pillar focuses on working design error detection and prevention into the production process. It does this by using root cause analysis to identify and eliminate recurring sources of defects.

5. Early equipment management:

The TPM pillar of early equipment management takes the practical knowledge and overall understanding of manufacturing equipment acquired through total productive maintenance and uses it to improve the design of new equipment.

6. Training and education:

Training and education applies to operators, managers and maintenance personnel. They are intended to ensure everyone is on the same page with the TPM process and to address any knowledge gaps so TPM goals are achievable. This is where operators learn skills to proactively maintain equipment and identify emerging problems.

7. Safety, health and environment:

Maintaining a safe working environment means employees can perform their tasks in a safe place without health risks. It's important to produce an environment that makes production more efficient, but it should not be at the risk of an employee's safety and health. To achieve this, any solutions introduced in the TPM process should always consider safety, health and the environment.

8. TPM in administration:

A good TPM program is only as good as the sum of its parts. Total productive maintenance should look beyond the plant floor by addressing and eliminating areas of waste in administrative functions. This means supporting production by improving things like order processing, procurement and scheduling.