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What Is TPM ?
What Kind of Workplace Suffers from Defects and Equipment Breakdowns?
Workplaces plagued by numerous defects and breakdowns have several features in common:
The equipment is filthy and stays that way.
Oil and lubricant leaks are common and lubricators are empty.
Rotating parts and moving surfaces are encrusted with chips and raw materials.
Wires and hoses are tangled and you can’t tell what is connected where.
Equipment mechanisms are hidden by big covers and you can’t see inside.
Material, parts, tools and supplies are strewn randomly and you can’t tell what is essential and what is not.
Everyone is utterly convinced that things have to be that way
Preventive Maintenance is Health Management for Machines
To keep our bodies in shape, we exercise, watch what we eat and drink, and visit the doctor for periodic health checkups. If we get sick, we treat the problem as soon as possible. All this seems like common sense to us.
Preventive maintenance is really health management for machines. Equipment will stay healthy and run without problems when we give it
- daily maintenance to prevent deterioration.
- inspections to measure deterioration.
- regular operating checkups.
- early treatment to correct the effects of deterioration.
What Is TPM?
1. The goal of TPM is to build a robust enterprise by maximizing production system efficiency (overall effectiveness).
2. TPM addresses the entire production system life cycle and builds a concrete, shopfloor-based system to prevent all losses. Its aims include the elimination of all accidents, defects, and breakdowns.
3. TPM involves all departments, from production to development, sales, and administration.
4. Everyone participates in TPM, from top executives to shopfloor employees.
5. TPM achieves zero losses through overlapping team activities.
A Definition of TPM
The standard definition of TPM is given in the box above. But how does this apply to the production shop floor? Basically, it means
1. Setting the goal maximizing equipment effectiveness
2. Establishing a total PM system focusing on the entire equipment life cycle
3. Coordinating all departments, including those that design, maintain and use equipment
4. Involving everyone, from top executives to shopfloor employees
5. Managing through team-based activities aimed at plantwide goals of zero losses.
Why Do TPM ?
As equipment becomes more automated and sophisticated, it is no exaggeration to say that machines make the product. The role of people, then, is to maintain machines so that they work properly - with no breakdowns and no defects.
But this can’t happen when only maintenance specialists are involved as in the past. Total productive maintenance requires the participation of equipment users and equipment and product designers. It is especially important for users (operators) to take an active role in caring for their own equipment to prevent break downs and defects.
What Makes TPM Different ?
TPM takes the idea of productive maintenance or profitable PM one step further.It moves beyond traditional maintenance activities and involves all departments and employees in equipment management.
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of TPM is autonomous maintenance. Carried out by production floor employees, autonomous maintenance activities help the people take care of their own machines.
Another feature of TPM is that it aims at the total elimination of all losses, or zero losses. The insistence on total elimination is a key factor in maximizing overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). This concept is crucial in developing a TPM program.
The Goals Of TPM
TPM aims to build healthier companies by strengthening people as well as equipment.
Our workplaces are fiddled with equipment-related losses. But what we see on the shop floor is the natural result of the attitudes and behavior of the people who works there - from top managers to frontline workers. The assumptions of the past - that the current state of affairs must be accepted or that breakdowns and defects are outside our control - will never allow us to get rid of all losses.
It follows that to enhance our equipment and to eliminate breakdowns, defects and other losses, we need to strengthen the skills of every employee. Developing stronger employees and equipment builds a stronger, more resilient company
.
Achieving the goals of TPM requires activities in 8 key areas:
1. Focused improvement (kaizen) to make equipment more efficient
2. Autonomous maintenance activities
3. Planned maintenance for the maintenance department
4. Technical training in equipment maintenance and operation
5. An early equipment management program
6. Quality maintenance activities
7. A system for increasing the efficiency of administrative and support function (office TPM)
8. A system for management of safety and environmental issues
Not all of these strategies are implemented at once; each company will develop a sequence that fits its situation. This concentrates on those activities carried out by equipment operators: autonomous maintenance, focused improvement and safety activities.
