Total Productive Maintenance

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a method of increasing equipment effectiveness by including all supporting departments in the process. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) aims to boost overall productivity by maximizing the availability of equipment.

What is total productive maintenance?

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a concept based on the premise that everyone in a facility, not only the maintenance crew, should engage in maintenance. This method takes advantage of all employees' abilities and aims to include maintenance into a facility's daily operations.

How does total productive maintenance work?

Maintenance  Workers are always aiming for "perfection" in their work. This is challenging since even the best-planned facilities experience unforeseen issues; nonetheless, comprehensive productive maintenance will bring a facility as close to "perfect production" as possible.

TPM views maintenance as a competitive advantage: there will be no downtime or equipment failure, leaving just production and profit. TPM is based on the 5S methodology, which helps to organize and standardize facility operations, resulting in several productions and workplace quality benefits.

4 Benefits of Total Productive Maintenance

In the quest for perfection, manufacturing focuses on continual improvement. A Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) method may be used to apply this idea to industrial production. Productive maintenance may help a company experience gains in important areas such as efficiency, morale, safety, and satisfaction by enabling staff to take responsibility for equipment maintenance and productivity.

The following are four of the most notable advantages of Total Productive Maintenance :

1. Less unplanned maintenance

Equipment is kept in excellent condition thanks to well-planned and scheduled maintenance. TPM also encourages all plant employees to take ownership of their machinery, making maintenance a worthwhile investment. Assets are better cared for because TPM makes upkeep personal.

2. Reduced equipment downtime

Fewer failures result from more scheduled maintenance. Downtime is reduced by conducting proactive maintenance operations.

3. Lower manufacturing costs

Production expenses are reduced when overall equipment efficiency (OEE) improves. Better productivity translates to higher revenues and lower costs for equipment downtime and maintenance.

4. Strengthened workplace safety

The workplace is methodically organized and cleaned as a result of TPM's 5S basis. Sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain are the phases in the 5S approach that reveal underlying difficulties and obstacles in sustaining the work environment.

Total productive maintenance workflow

TPM is a cutting-edge manufacturing concept that emerged from preventive maintenance to include methods such as product maintenance, maintenance prevention, and reliability engineering. TPM, as it is now known, is a clever way to improve overall equipment efficacy by engaging the people who operate behind the machinery (i.e. the operators).

TPM's advancements were initially seen in Japan. Toyota was one of the first businesses to be certified under the TPM program. TPM's philosophy was important in establishing Toyota's Just-In-Time service and dependability in their manufacturing plants. “TPM is the creation of things via the creating of people,” says Seiichi Nakajima, who is widely recognized as the Father of TPM.

8 pillars of Total Productive Maintenance

Through eight pillars of activity, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) boosts productivity, efficiency, and safety by allowing operators, team leaders, and managers to take a proactive part in the day-to-day operation and maintenance of their respective work areas.

1) 5S - Sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain

Creating a robust TPM process requires a solid foundation in the form of the 5S principles, just like building a strong physical structure. This approach of workplace organizing may be broken down into five simple steps :

• Sort tools, equipment, and supplies to see which may be thrown away.
• Reduce needless motion and travel between working groups and locations by straightening and setting items in the right order.
• The term "shine" refers to doing the appropriate housework to clean up the work environment.
• Standardize and plan activities to create habits that will help you keep your office organized.
• Keep the process and concepts going for the long haul.

The 5S method is a methodical approach to cleaning the workplace, revealing underlying issues and obstacles in the process.

2) Autonomous maintenance

Maintenance and equipment care should begin with the individuals who use the equipment. The ability of operators to perform efficiently on basic maintenance chores frees up maintenance teams to focus on more specialized duties.

3) Continuous improvement

Continuous Improvement, also known as Kaizen in Japan, encourages a mindset of striving for zero losses and zero faults. The overall efficacy and efficiency of the organization are built via minor but consistent adjustments to processes.

4) Planned maintenance

Equipment breakdown can be avoided with well-planned maintenance efforts. Planned maintenance entails checking the state of equipment on a regular basis in order to prevent degradation and mechanical breakdowns.

5) Quality maintenance

Manufacturing procedures strive for zero-defect output to achieve customer satisfaction. There should be quality standards in place, as well as inspections to see if the requirements are being fulfilled. The aim of quality control is to find any potential sources of deviations from zero-defect output.

6) Training

TPM is based on the concept that everyone contributes to the overall productivity of the manufacturing process. Proper training is necessary to provide each member with the theoretical and practical know-how of working with machinery and equipment in order to achieve optimal performance and to build each member's competency.

7) Office TPM

The administrative department, which works behind the scenes, plays an important function that is sometimes ignored. Management and administrative activities, like the rest of the production teams and processes, are subject to productivity enhancement. Tins are responsible for discovering and reducing losses as well as contributing to the plant's overall performance.

8) Safety, health, and environment

The eighth and final pillar focuses on establishing a safe working environment. When this pillar is actively applied to each of the other pillars, the essence of this pillar is realized. This pillar's successful implementation will contribute to a safe and secure workplace.

“It means we are all responsible for guaranteeing the total effectiveness of the equipment maintenance, production, top management, human resources… everyone.”

Conclsion

TPM expands on the concepts of maintenance and preventative maintenance by incorporating all departments and individuals inside a company. Even with a limited amount of resources, boosting overall performance is possible with an organization-wide mentality centered on taking responsibility for the machines and equipment.