TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)

What is TPM?

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a lean manufacturing strategy that deploys machines, equipment and employee’s effectiveness to maintain and optimize the quality of manufacturing systems. The focus of TPM lies in eliminating all losses related to equipment maintenance and reaching a near-perfect product, leading to a new standard in the manufacturing industry. Thus, the main goal of the TPM process is to increase the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of manufacturing systems and machines.  

The best way to increase OEE is to actually observe and measure it against the predicted plan of production. Tracking OEE analytics will therefore gain an insight as to whether TPM is working or not. 

The TPM Foundation

TPM in the manufacturing industry tackles the issue of maintenance in order to identify and eliminate the origin of the losses. The traditional TPM manufacturing model, created decades ago, embraces the 5S foundation: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain; a methodology set in place aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the company. It’s not difficult to conclude that an organized and prompt environment leads to a self-maintaining workplace. 

Within the 5S foundation shine the eight pillars of TPM manufacturing: 

1. Autonomous Maintenance – gives operators greater responsibility by handling all basic maintenance activities, and allowing the maintenance crew to focus on more complex issues. 
2. Process & Machine Improvement – schedules maintenance activities according to maintenance metrics, when a machine fails, and avoids surprise breakdowns. 
3. Quality Maintenance – reduces the number of discrepancies by detecting and preventing errors in real-time, thereby intercepting faulty products before they continue to move down the production line. 
4. Focused Improvement – creates dedicated teams within a company that each focus on particular maintenance improvement to achieve, identifying and achieving goals quickly. 
5. Early Equipment Maintenance – takes all of the data and knowledge collected through previous TPM activities to ensure new equipment is improved.
6. Education & Training – ensures all departments in the company are involved in every aspect of the TPM to make sure goals are achieved. 
7. Health, Safety & Environment – eliminates major health risks so employees can continue to work in an efficient manner in a risk-free environment.
8. TPM in Administration – applies each of the techniques above so the whole organization understands the necessary process during implementation of TPM. 

These pillars are proactive and preventative techniques that together create an environment for improved equipment effectiveness. 

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What are the benefits of TPM implementation?

Breaking down the meaning of 5S foundation and the eight pillars of TPM allows manufacturers to see how useful of a tool it is to get the most out of their resources. Those that adopt TPM and OEE analytics software could achieve the following goals:

• Heightened employee success
• Improved team communication
• Higher equipment profitability
• Lowered maintenance costs
• Greater access to equipment