What is Total Productive Maintenance?

History of TPM

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is an innovative Japanese concept that originated from the implementation of Preventive Maintenance in 1951. The concept of preventive maintenance itself is a concept adopted from the United States. Nippon Denso Co. Ltd, a supplier to Toyota, was the first company to introduce the TPM concept in 1960 with the slogan “Productivity Maintenance with total Employee Participation”. Seiichi Nakajima, who at that time served as Vice Chairman of JIPM (Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance), became known as the father of TPM.

Total Productive Maintenance is an innovative maintenance approach of machines/tools/facilities that involves maintenance personnel and operators that focus on preventing failure and defects related to equipment.

What are the main objectives of implementing the TPM?

1. Reduce unplanned equipment downtime
2. Eliminate barriers between departments
3. Reduce equipment-related defect

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a performance metric used to measure the equipment’s productivity. OEE consists of several equipment losses, there are:

1. Breakdowns
2. Setup and adjustments
3. Idling
4. Minor Stoppages
5. Quality
6. Rework

Figure 1. TPM Pillars (Figure by Agustiady on Total Productive Maintenance Strategies and Implementation Guide)

Total Productive Maintenance also consist of eight main pillars that must be implemented in maintenance implementation, the eight pillars are:

1. 5S

5S is the main foundation in TPM which consists of sort, straighten, shine / sweep, standardize, and sustain

2. Jishu Hozen (Autonomous Maintenance)

Autonomous Maintenance focuses on empowering and developing operators to handle small maintenance tasks

Autonomous Care (also referred to as Front Line Maintenance in other organizations). The CLAIR (Clean, Lubricate, Adjust, Inspect and Repair) activities conducted under Autonomous Care are essentially a combination of the above strategies, but conducted on a higher frequency by front line staff.

-Erik Hupjé, 9 Types of Maintenance

3. Kobetsu Kaizen

Kaizen is a powerful philosophy and can be applied to Total Productive Maintenance implementation with “Small incremental improvement”

4. Planned Maintenance

Planned maintenance aims to have trouble-free equipment without defects for customer satisfaction. The types of planned maintenance can consist of time-based or condition-based preventive maintenance or predictive maintenance

5. Quality Maintenance

This pillar focuses on customer satisfaction by providing high quality product through defect-free manufacturing.

6. Training

To fill the knowledge gap, operators must develop the ability not only to understand how the equipment works, but also to understand possible problems

7. Office TPM

Improving administrative functions is also crucial in implementing TPM and increasing productivity

8. Safety, Health, and Environment

The aim of this pillar is an accident-free workplace, focused on eliminating potential risks that could lead to accidents.

At this time, the company faced various challenges and intense competition. TPM can be one of the solutions in increasing company capability to increase competitiveness. All employees must be bold and consistent in implementing this TPM program. If all employees have a strong commitment, the rate of return of the resources expended by the company can return well as expected.

References:

Agustiady, T. K., & Cudney, E. A. (2016). Total Productive Maintenance Strategies and Implementation Guide. New York: CRC Press.

Hupjé, E. (2018, July). 9 Types of Maintenance. Retrieved from Road to Reliability: https://www.roadtoreliability.com/types-of-maintenance/

Suzuki, T. (1994). TPM in Process Industries. Portland: Productivity Press.