Total Productive Maintenance

I have previously highlighted that operating expenses

and investment in an organization need to be managed

downwards relative to sales revenues.

This seems logical but many decisions taken in business

do not align with this.

For example, if an organization can’t meet customer

demand they may decide that the solution is to invest a

significant amount of money in new equipment.

Many organizations have done this and have had little or

no improvement in sales revenues/throughput.

The only thing significantly impacted is the financial returns of the business.

Surely we should ask first “How well are we running the equipment that we have?”

The organization needs to ask “What are we losing time to?”  The 6 types of equipment losses are:

• Down Time
• Change Overs
• Running Slow
• Minor Stops
• Start up
• Defects

Equipment is also impacted by the 8 wastes, namely:

• Over production
• Waiting
• Material Handling
• Inapprop Processing
• Unnecessary Inventory
• Unnecessary Motion
• Defects / Correction
• Lost Human Creativity

Total Productive Maintenance is a tool that can be used to improve equipment performance.

The objective of TPM is to:

• Eliminate equipment related wastes / losses

• Ensure maximum equipment availability  & performance

What is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)?

Total

The entire team related to the equipment and it’s operation must be involved i.e. the operator(s), team leader and maintenance staff.

Productive

The equipment should be always:

• Available
• Reliable
• Capable

Maintenance

• Autonomous maintenance – the equipment care practices which are the responsibility of Operators and the Team Leader
• Effective maintenance  - the practices which are the responsibility of Maintenance personnel

An organisation wanting to implement TPM should ideally implement 5S program first.

5S is the best practice of creating an organised, safe and waste free workplace using the following 5 principles

• Sort - sorting & removing unnecessary items
• Shine – cleaning the work area
• Set in order – a place for everything & everything in it’s place
• Standards – establishing the rules & standards
• Sustain – maintaining the standards

Following 5S an organisation could start to introduce Autonomous Maintenance (or Equipment Care) practices.

Autonomous Maintenance requires us to train machine operators to

• operate equipment correctly,
• keep it clean,
• do basic lubrication and
• inspect it regularly.

Typically Autonomous Maintenance needs to address:

• Operator training i.e. TPM, Safety, Lubricant, Coolants, Pnuematics etc
• Equipment improvements to make it easier to inspect/maintain i.e. inspection panels,
• Cleaning, Inspection and Lubrication schedules
• Standard Work Methods for Cleaning, lubricating etc.

This approach will free up skilled maintenance staff to spend more time on complex repairs or more value adding activities (Effective Maintenance).

Effective maintenance has several components namely:

• Breakdown maintenance
• Preventative maintenance – Fixed Interval maintenance, Condition Based maintenance, Maintenance Reduction.