TPM utilizes lean manufacturing and 5S principles to organize and standardize facility procedures while framing maintenance as an integral element of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Identifying Problems
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a lean manufacturing philosophy that seeks to achieve near-perfect production without small stops, breakdowns, defects, or accidents. TPM involves all facility employees, from floor plant technicians to senior facility managers, working collaboratively to improve equipment availability and quality while using preventive maintenance techniques and featuring eight pillars.
Step one in any TPM program should be to identify issues that could impede production and take corrective actions. This involves an in-depth evaluation of the current production process, including a review of downtime losses, defect losses, and speed losses and identifying the root causes of these losses.
Problem-solving techniques combined with automated tools like condition monitoring can be used to achieve this objective. Condition monitoring provides real-time information on equipment status, allowing facilities to quickly pinpoint its root cause (such as excessive wear and tear ) to prioritize future actions and limit downtime.
Preventative maintenance checklists can also help identify problems by increasing employee awareness of what must be done and when. They also reduce the time and effort needed for routine tasks performed by maintenance personnel.
Problems that impede production can often be easily identifiable, for example, when a machine stops functioning due to sensor or power surge issues. Other issues, however, may be more challenging to detect or pinpoint, such as improper operator training, lack of organization in the workplace, and inconsistent inspection schedules.
TPM provides an effective solution to these issues by shifting responsibility for basic equipment upkeep to its primary users: machine operators. This enables them to perform autonomous maintenance like cleaning and safety checks without needing assistance from technicians - potentially cutting production losses significantly while improving overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
TPM stresses the significance of streamlining administrative functions to eliminate wasteful organizational practices, such as expediting order processing, purchasing, and scheduling, to avoid delays in finding necessary parts or materials for production.
Preventative Maintenance
Total Productive Maintenance is a framework for optimizing facility maintenance to eliminate resource waste, employee accidents, product defects, and unplanned downtime. However, its success relies upon effective maintenance practices used to support it; an excellent CMMS makes identifying issues simple while tracking maintenance and repair costs, helping avoid breakdowns or unexpected repairs that might otherwise cost more than anticipated.
Step one of implementing Total Productive Maintenance is setting goals for your most crucial assets and equipment using quantifiable and measurable metrics. For instance, if a critical piece of machinery consistently breaks down or produces products below quality standards, set an annual goal to reach zero production losses; this will motivate your employees for continuous improvements and help get your TPM program off the ground.
Once your targets have been set, the next step should be creating a preventative maintenance schedule for your most valuable equipment. Begin with the frequency the manufacturer recommends, adjusting as necessary to avoid over or under-maintain them. In addition, create a preventative maintenance checklist to keep track of team tasks and ensure all required tasks are accomplished; mandatory charges should be addressed immediately, while non-mandatory ones may be completed without risking equipment failure or productivity losses.
After establishing a preventive maintenance routine, training employees is critical for increasing autonomy and decreasing over-reliance on reactive maintenance. A CMMS can assist this effort by offering quick access to maintenance logs and controlling inventory. Hence, you always have spares and centralizing information about each asset (OEM recommendations, fault patterns, inspection procedures).
Once your employees are trained, they should begin identifying problems and taking measures to address them using the practice of Kaizen (continuous improvement to optimize processes and eliminate waste). As you implement changes, you must measure progress to know which areas need further improvement while tracking what changes work well and which require additional work from your team.
Restoring Equipment to Prime Operating Condition
Each piece of equipment must be in top operating condition to maximize performance. This can be accomplished through adhering to TPM principles to eliminate waste in manufacturing. TPM helps eliminate unscheduled downtime, scrap, rework, and product quality issues that adversely impact equipment failure that require costly repairs or replacements.
TPM requires all employees to assume some responsibility for equipment maintenance management to improve equipment availability, allowing everyday users to take on essential upkeep duties like cleaning, lubrication, and inspection while freeing up facility and maintenance staff to focus on more critical tasks. This allows people with intimate knowledge of equipment like cleaning machines to take ownership of basic upkeep such as cleaning, lubricating, and inspecting them themselves while freeing facility and maintenance teams up for more pressing duties.
Step two of TPM involves identifying and addressing significant losses in production processes. A cross-functional team of employees should gather to conduct root cause analysis on all available data sets to pinpoint areas that should be considered. Once problem areas have been identified, an action plan can be developed to address them.
Training operators on identifying and fixing issues quickly and devising simple preventative maintenance procedures they can promptly implement can also be very beneficial. Visuals that track equipment health and performance, such as color-coded charts showing when lubrication should occur, may help identify any under or over-lubrication problems; using visuals to spot potential problems early can improve OEE while reducing downtime.
Implementing Total Productive Maintenance can be challenging, yet can yield significant improvements to manufacturing processes. By eliminating six big losses in production, TPM can increase profitability through lower operational costs and improved product quality while raising worker morale by placing maintenance as part of a company's core value system.
Measurement
An effective total productive maintenance implementation relies on robust measurement and data collection techniques. This involves collecting and analyzing production and maintenance data to assess each piece of equipment's status and identify any critical problems while simultaneously identifying significant losses - the six leading causes of failure in industrial environments that must be addressed through root cause analysis of OEE data to pinpoint its causes and solve any related issues.
TPM seeks to shift responsibility for equipment maintenance away from an independent maintenance department and onto all plant personnel by assigning tasks typically reserved for dedicated crews, such as cleaning and lubricating equipment, performing regular safety checks, and identifying signs of trouble early. This approach blurs the distinction between manufacturing and maintenance by investing every employee in its success - making everyone part of an organization's machinery's success!
TPM may seem challenging to implement in a factory environment, but companies that commit themselves and take the necessary time and care will see results over time. TPM can reduce equipment stoppage costs while increasing productivity, resulting in greater profits for your company.
TPM calls for developing a culture of continuous improvement, or Kaizen. This means gathering small groups of workers to brainstorm ways to enhance equipment and processes within their facility, including finding early adopters to lead this initiative and spread knowledge throughout.
Though TPM may seem ideal for production facilities, its applications extend to offices and administrative functions. By applying TPM tools in these areas, businesses will find that waste reduction increases along with organizational efficiency in procurement, order processing, scheduling, and more consistent production processes that ultimately boost worker morale and quality of life.
Pros of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
- Reduced Downtime: TPM aims to minimize equipment downtime, increasing productivity and efficiency.
- Improved Quality: By maintaining equipment in optimal condition, TPM helps produce high-quality products.
- Employee Involvement: TPM encourages the involvement of all employees, not just maintenance teams, in equipment upkeep.
- Cost Savings: Reduced downtime and fewer defects lead to significant cost savings in the long run.
- Enhanced Safety: Regular maintenance checks help identify potential safety hazards, reducing accidents.
- Increased Equipment Life: TPM extends the life of machinery and equipment, reducing the need for frequent replacements.
- Better Planning: TPM allows for better planning and scheduling as equipment failures are minimized.
- Competitive Advantage: Companies that implement TPM effectively often gain a competitive edge in quality and cost.
- Resource Optimization: TPM ensures that human and machine resources are used to their full potential.
- Cultural Change: TPM fosters a culture of continuous improvement and responsibility among employees.
Cons of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
- Initial Costs: Implementing TPM can be costly, especially for training and possibly upgrading equipment.
- Time-Consuming: TPM requires a long-term commitment and can be time-consuming to implement effectively.
- Complexity: TPM involves multiple activities like autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, and quality maintenance, making managing it complex.
- Resistance to Change: Employees may resist the new responsibilities and changes that TPM brings.
- Dependency on Employee Skills: The success of TPM is highly dependent on the skills and commitment of the workforce.
- Potential for Over-Maintenance: There's a risk of spending too much time on maintenance activities, affecting productivity.
- Limited to Manufacturing: TPM is most effective in manufacturing settings and may not apply to all types of businesses.
- Requires Cultural Shift: Successful TPM implementation may require a change in organizational culture, which can be challenging.
- Risk of Inconsistency: Withorts can become inconsistent over time without proper train consistent-through.
- High Expectations: Promising significant improvements can lead to high expectations, and failure to meet them can be demotivating.
