Many organizations don’t take care of their equipment like they should, and then wonder why it breaks down. Most organizations that don’t take care of their equipment do so because they “can’t afford to shut it down” even for a little while, which normally results in the equipment breaking down. And, from our experience a piece of equipment never picks a good time to break down. It normally happens at the worst time possible and then the organization goes through a period of missed production and added cost to get the equipment running again.
TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is a methodology that takes care of the equipment. It is an often misunderstood concept in industry. Most people think that TPM refers to maintenance performing periodic planned maintenance and machine operators becoming involved in the maintenance process. And that in fact these are components of TPM, but there is so much more. TPM is a company-wide, team-based effort to build quality into equipment and to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
The overall goal of TPM is zero unplanned downtime, and to improve productivity and reduce cost by improving the yield, capacity, flexibility, quality and safety of the equipment. It focuses on reducing the various types of losses equipment experience and reaches far beyond just those related to the equipment breaking down.
In short, TPM focuses on having reliable, flexible equipment that runs when you need it to run. With a properly executed TPM program, the worst condition any piece of equipment should ever be in is its condition on the day it arrives at the organization. TPM focuses on how to continuously improve the condition of the equipment and over time make it better than it was designed.
The areas of TPM include autonomous maintenance,
planned maintenance, early equipment management,
quality maintenance, focused improvements on
the equipment (Kobetsu Kaizen), safety of the
equipment, and the education and training necessary
to make it all happen
The benefits an organization can expect from
TPM are as follows:
