Total productive maintenance (TPM) yields downtime and operational efficiency benefits for manufacturers through the implementation of goals and processes in pursuit of optimal production. When you move forward with total productive maintenance implementation, machinery is expected to run without unplanned downtime, at peak rated speed and efficiency, with a 100% output acceptance rate and without accidents. Clearly, these are very lofty goals. But by striving for perfection, TPM manufacturing is an ideal way to reduce downtime and improve your productivity. But how, and why? Total productive maintenance achieves these seemingly impossible goals by incorporating employees more deeply into maintenance processes. This gives all employees—not just maintenance personnel—accountability and ownership for the optimal operation of machinery. These process and responsibility changes are expressed in the pillars of TPM.
The TPM pillars
Total productive maintenance implementation is carried out by incorporating the 8 pillars of TPM.
These are:
- Operator maintenance — Equipment operators become responsible for routine scheduled maintenance operations such as cleaning, status checks, lubrication, basic component and part replacement, and problem identification. This step moves maintenance operations to the employees who know machines best. In addition, operators will feel an increased sense of agency and ownership, providing indirect performance improvements.
- Continuous improvement for machines and processes — This component of TPM implementation focuses on addressing any problem that occurs in a process and then providing potential solutions to solve or improve it. By starting with the assumption that every issue is an area of potential improvement, this step works toward the goal of optimal production.
- Preventive maintenance commitment — Every employee, from operators to managers, commits to developing and adhering to a preventive maintenance schedule and practice that meets or exceeds that recommended by the OEM. Maintenance tasks are shared across the organization to ensure that the schedule is met.
- Early input on new equipment — In its ideal form, this TPM pillar takes feedback from machine operators and others closest to the equipment and incorporates it into machinery design, including ergonomic factors and ease of maintenance and access. Alternatively, this pillar can be implemented by including equipment operators in purchasing decisions, so that they can help select machinery that will work best for them and the specific requirements of the process and business.
- Focus on quality assurance and maintenance — This pillar brings quality to the forefront in several ways, including manufacturability design (to minimize part defects before they happen), root cause analysis (to address underlying causes instead of symptoms, improving the long-term quality of output) and a commitment to rigorous QA practices. As with the other pillars, every member of the organization is responsible for facilitating, enabling and adhering to these practices.
- Admin and support services — Support services such as procurement, inventory and scheduling are as important to TPM as production and maintenance. With this pillar, principles such as continuous improvement and self-ownership are applied to administrative functions, ensuring that the entire organization is operating at peak efficiency.
- Ongoing education — A commitment to TPM often involves training and retraining in numerous areas — machinery operation, maintenance best practices, quality standards, safety training and more. These steps are just the beginning. In order to ensure an ongoing commitment to TPM, training and education should occur on a regular basis.
- Safety — Zero incidents is a key tenet of TPM because no facility can operate at maximum capacity if safety issues occur. Protecting the safety of personnel is at the forefront, but from a business standpoint, accidents lead to downtime, repairs, investigation and other core and supporting process issues that run counter to TPM. Without a focus on 100% safety, no TPM program will be truly successful.
Tips for successfully implementing TPM in your facility
TPM supports equipment reliability and higher levels of production, but only once it’s built into your existing workflows. A structured implementation process helps maintenance teams integrate the new practices and keep them in place after the initial rollout. Tips to keep in mind during TPM implementation include:
- Communicate the changes: Management may be committed to implementing TPM, but without the buy-in and support from the rank-and-file, there’s little chance for success. Change management of any sort depends on open, clear communication from the top down, giving technicians the basic information about the new system along with the benefits it is expected to bring.
- Start out small: Trying to make sweeping changes to an entire facility’s manufacturing workflows can introduce unexpected complexities that can hurt the initiative. This is why it’s recommended to start with a single process or piece of equipment as a pilot program. This gives technicians the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the TPM process without feeling like they’re diving into the deep end. It also means teams can identify any potential friction points and resolve them before rolling out the program across the entire facility.
- Start tracking metrics: If you don’t already, this is the time to start tracking some KPIs that guide TPM efforts. One of the most important is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), which combines availability, performance and quality into a single measure of how well equipment runs. Tracking it shows where losses occur and how your efforts affect productivity and equipment availability.
- Standardize maintenance procedures: Consistency is key for TPM, and this means your maintenance teams need to standardize procedures as much as possible. Technicians should follow the same instructions using the same tools for the same tasks. This is important not only for ensuring the process is consistent, but also to prevent human error and ensure the proper practices become standard operating procedure.
- Adopt root cause analysis: With its focus on preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance and other proactive maintenance strategies, TPM requires technicians to understand the why behind equipment failures. Fixing the issue without knowing why it occurred leaves the room for the same problem to recur and eat up precious resources. Integrating root cause analysis into standard processes means technicians can find the underlying causes behind recurring failures and resolve them so they don’t cause trouble again.
- Take advantage of technology: Software platforms such as a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) create a central repository for work orders, planned maintenance schedules, asset histories, real-time inventory stock levels, and more. That cuts manual steps and helps lock in the standardized procedures that are key for success with TPM.
As a pioneer in managed factory maintenance, ATS has a deep understanding of the pillars of TPM and how to implement them across a wide range of manufacturing facilities. Our services help facilitate each step, including training and education, ownership over maintenance practices, and assistance in MRO asset management and other support functions. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you implement total productive maintenance at your facility, contact us today.
