Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a company- wide equipment maintenance system involving all employees, from top management to production line workers and the building custodians. It is but one of many approaches to maintenance. The word total in total productive maintenance is common to
● Total equipment effectiveness in pursuit of profitability,
not simply maintenance cost reduction.
● Total maintenance system, including maintenance pre-
vention (MP), maintainability improvement (MI), and good old-fashioned preventive maintenance (PM), is a maintenance plan for the equipment’s entire life span. MP translates into maintenance-free design and is pursued during the equipment design stage. MI translates into repairing or modifying equipment to prevent breakdown and facilitate ease of maintenance.
● Total participation by all employees.
The idea behind TPM is not revolutionary. Simply stated, it is cooperation to get the important job of main- tenance done reliably and effectively. It is supplementary to, rather than a replacement for, established principles of successful maintenance management. Built around five focal points, TPM combines concepts of continual improvement, total quality, and employee involvement: 1. Activities to optimize overall equipment effective-
ness.
2. Elimination of breakdowns through a thorough system of maintenance throughout the equipment’s entire life span.
3. Autonomous operator maintenance (this does not imply that operators perform all maintenance):
● Use lower-skilled personnel to perform routine
jobs that do not require skilled technicians.
● Use operators to perform specific routine mainte-
nance tasks on their equipment.
● Use operators to assist technicians in the repair of
equipment when it is down.
● Use computerized technology enabling operators
to calibrate selected instrumentation.
● Use technicians to assist operators during shut-
down and startup.
4. Day-to-day maintenance activities involving the total workforce (engineering, operations, custodi- ans, maintenance, and management).
5. Company directed and motivated, yet autonomous, small group activities. Small group goals to coincide with company goals.
6. Continuous training: formal training, on job train- ing, one-point lessons, and team members training each other.
7.1.1. The TPM Organization
In the TPM organization, operators and techni- cians are organized into zone teams. They are trained and certified to perform particular tasks in their zone as the need arises, such as one point lessons (one per week) and higher levels of maintenance by operators, which usually are voluntary. Individuals who spot problems pitch in to restore equipment, resulting in less downtime. Major maintenance work requiring high craft skills is performed by centralized (or less centralized) maintenance forces.
108 The Basics of Maintenance and Reliability
7.1.2. TPM Objectives
While the dual goals of TPM are zero breakdowns and zero defects, TPM is more about performance improvement, employee interaction, and positive reinforcement than maintenance-specific technology. Human resource factors and technical factors must be balanced. TPM works toward elimination of nine for- midable obstacles to equipment effectiveness:
● Downtime
● Equipment failure from breakdown ● Setup and adjustment
● Speed losses
● Idling and minor stoppages due to abnormal opera-
tion of sensors, blockages of chutes, and the like
● Reduced speed due to discrepancies between
designed and actual speed of equipment
● Defects
● Process defects—scrap, downgrades, rejects, returns,
and so forth
● Reduced yields from all resources such as raw mate-
rials, packaging, energy, and labor
7.1.3. Autonomous Maintenance
Group activities are promoted throughout the organization to gain greater equipment effectiveness. Operators are trained to share with maintenance per- sonnel the responsibility for routine maintenance. This is referred to as autonomous maintenance. Routine main- tenance normally includes
● Housekeeping. ● Equipment cleaning.
● Protection of components from dirt. ● Lubrication by operators.
● Equipment inspection by operators and mainte-
nance.
● Setups and adjustments.
Autonomous maintenance may or may not include minor equipment repairs. Each company decides how autonomous maintenance is to be. Operators must receive a large amount of skills training and be certi- fied as they progress through various skill levels. As operators become trained, an organized transfer of tasks takes place.
7.1.4. Equipment Management
The second focus of TPM is on equipment manage- ment (EM), not simply on maintenance. EM is pursued through autonomous, small group (team) activity com- prising operators, engineers, and technicians. Equip- ment improvement never stops.
The aim of team efforts is to optimize overall equipment effectiveness and eliminate breakdowns through a thorough system of maintenance throughout equipment’s entire life span. Through involvement, operators develop ownership of and an affinity for “their equipment.” Team members involved in prob- lem solving develop a strong urge to see the problem fixed. They therefore participate in equipment man- agement activities to make sure the problem does not recur. They take pride in their accomplishments.
The organization trains, solves problems, and works as teams. Peer support is important. Team competition is healthy and encouraged.
7.1.5. TPM Integration
The TPM approach does not preclude need of an integrated maintenance program, including comput- erized support, formalized planning and scheduling, and insightful equipment history.
7.1.6. TPM Is an Investment
TPM is not a short-lived, problem-solving, main- tenance cost-reduction program. It is a process that changes the corporate culture and permanently improves and maintains the overall effectiveness of equipment through active involvement of opera- tors and all other members of the organization. The required TPM investment, as well as the return, is very high. Systematic TPM development and full implementation requires a three-year program. Over time, the cooperative effort creates job enrichment and pride that dramatically increases productivity and quality, optimizes equipment life cycle cost, and broadens the base of every employee’s knowledge and skill. Initially, the company must bear the addi- tional expense of restoring equipment to its proper condition and educating personnel about their equipment.
While TPM is popularly viewed as a Japanese con- cept, more accurately it should be viewed as a program that effectively integrates a number of maintenance management concepts that did not originate in Japan. However, to the credit of the Japanese, they have a knack for turning good ideas into enormously success- ful practices.
The Japanese business culture is more receptive to TPM requirements than the dominant business culture in the United States (see Table 7.1).
While initial TPM successes occurred largely in automated machining and assembly operations, it has also been effectively applied to other types of organi- zations as well.
7.1.7. Calculating Major Losses Is Key to TPM’s Success
TPM activities should focus on results. One of the fundamental measures used in TPM is overall equip- ment effectiveness (OEE):
OEE = equipment availability × performance efficiency × first-pass quality
World-class levels of OEE start at 85% based on the following values:
90% equipment availability × 95% performance efficiency × 99% rate of quality = OEE of 84.6% The OEE calculation factors in the major losses that TPM seeks to eliminate. The first focus of TPM should be on major equipment effectiveness losses, because this is where the largest gains can be realized in the shortest time. The 11 major areas of loss fall within four broad categories.
Planned shutdown losses:
1. No production, breaks, or shift changes. 2. Planned maintenance.
Downtime losses:
3. Equipment failure or breakdowns. 4. Setups and changeovers.
5. Tooling or part changes. 6. Startup and adjustment. Performance efficiency losses:
7. Minor stops (less than six minutes). 8. Reduced speed or cycle time. Quality losses:
9. Scrap product or output. 10. Defects or rework.
11. Yield or process transition losses.
Planned Shutdown Losses
Valuable operating time is lost when no production is planned. However, there are reasons that this is not often considered a “loss.” It is probably best stated as a “hidden capacity to produce.”
Loss 1. Production is not scheduled. The facility may be a three-shift operation where the third shift is the maintenance shift. It may be a plant that does not run on Saturday and Sunday. Employee shift changes, breaks, and mealtimes also fall into this category. Dur- ing breaks, some equipment gets shut down. If an oper- ation is a continuous process, obviously, that does not happen. But in plants making piece parts, some assem- bly lines and processes shut down for breaks and shift changes.
Loss 2. Planned maintenance includes periodic shut- downs of equipment, processes, and utilities for major maintenance. These shutdowns represent a period of time when no production occurs. Typically, OEE cal- culations factor planned maintenance out of the equa- tion. It is assumed that it is planned maintenance—it must be done, it cannot be reduced or eliminated, so leave it in. Auto racing represents a different story about “planned maintenance.” A planned-mainte- nance stop or “pit stop” on the NASCAR circuit in 1950 typically was nearly four minutes long. Now pit crews perform the same pit stops in 17.5 to 22.5 seconds. In that less-than-23-second period, the same things happen today that were happening in 1950 in four minutes: change four tires, dispense 22 gallons of fuel, make chassis adjustments, wipe off the wind- shield, give the driver some water, and wipe the rub- ber dust off the radiator. In about 20 seconds, the car is back on the track. At some point, somebody said, “We can do these pit stops in less than four minutes, can’t we?” Planned maintenance is a pit stop. TPM advocates must ask, “How much time are we spend- ing in the pits?”
TABLE 7.1. Japanese and U.S. Business Cultures
Typical Conditions in Japan Typical Conditions in the United States
Total corporate commitment to TPM Lack of management involvement
Very long-range planning Focus on quarterly results
Few cost constraints Severe cost constraints
Pressure to succeed from top management Less sustained pressure to succeed from top management Practically no limit on training Limited training time; however, plenty of time for meetings Ability to absorb concurrent activities Inability to absorb concurrent activities
110 The Basics of Maintenance and Reliability
A walk-through of almost any plant uncovers ways that the same amount of maintenance can be done in less time or more maintenance done in the same amount of time. And those things can be accomplished, not with more contractors and not with more work hours, but just by doing things differently and working smarter, not working harder.
Downtime Losses
Downtime is the second category of major equip- ment losses. This category includes the following.
Loss 3. Typically, when a company’s personnel con- sider losses, they think of equipment failures or break- downs. But there are other unplanned downtime losses.
Loss 4. This loss includes how long it takes to set up for production processing and how long it takes to shift from one product or lot to another. Determining these losses should take into account how long it takes to start up after a changeover and run a new product. In auto racing, this type of loss includes the prepara- tion and setup for qualifying and racing.
Loss 5. This loss includes the time it takes to make tool changes and production-part changes. Industries in which certain tooling, machine devices, or parts have to be changed can learn from an auto racing pit stop. The techniques are the same. In an actual pit stop, every single action is taken into account.
Loss 6. This loss occurs when equipment or pro-
cesses start up. It includes the warmup time and the run-in time that must be set aside to get everything in the process ready to produce high-quality output. Pit stops are in part successful if the driver optimizes the car’s speed on the slowdown lap before the pit stop and the speed-up lap after the pit stop. If the driver brings the car up to speed too quickly, the drive train and tires may be damaged. A race car handles poorly until the new tires are properly conditioned on the track.
Performance Efficiency Losses
The third category of major equipment losses is performance loss, when machines operate at less than designed speed, capacity or output.
Loss 7. These types of loss—minor stops or “machine hiccups”—are the little things that companies usually do not track. Quite often, equipment downtime of less than six minutes is not tracked. However, consider the impact if this six-minute downtime occurs during each shift in a three-shift, five-day operation. That all adds up to 1½ hours of downtime per work week or 75 hours of lost production per 50-week year. Little losses add up.
Loss 8. Equipment and processes running at less
than design speeds and cycle times result in lower output. As machines age and components wear, they tend to run slower. At times, machines are run at lower speeds because the people who operate and maintain them have compensated for problems and believe that running them slower is better and results in fewer breakdowns.
Quality Losses
The final category of major equipment losses is loss of quality—first-pass quality only. One of the funda- mental truths of TPM is this: If equipment is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week—and if it performs at its highest design cycle rate—then if it is not pro- ducing the highest level of quality, it is just producing scrap at full capacity. So, quality is a very important element among the major losses.
Loss 9. Scrap loss is fairly straightforward. Every time equipment runs and produces unusable product or output, valuable operating time is lost.
Loss 10. Defective output, even if it can be reworked or recycled, is considered a major loss to be eliminated. As with scrap, every time equipment runs and produces unusable product or output, valuable operating time is lost.
Loss 11. Yield or transition losses often occur when equipment and processes require a warmup or run-in time. During that time, they often produce an off-qual- ity output. This type of loss also includes the lost out- put that results from transitioning from one chemical product to another in a process. Equipment running and wasting raw materials create yield and transition losses.
TPM can yield results in two months—sometimes two weeks—when activities are focused on results and there is regular monitoring, recording, and trending of OEE data. It is not as important to focus on OEE percent- age as on each factors of OEE and perform root cause failure analysis on the major losses of each—equipment availability, performance efficiency, and rate of quality. Use the OEE data to communicate how well the equip- ment performs and how well the TPM activities work.
As the foundation of lean maintenance, TPM is pop- ularly viewed as a Japanese concept. To be more accu- rate it should be viewed as a program that effectively integrates a number of maintenance management concepts that did not originate in Japan. Yet, to the credit of the Japanese, they have a knack for turning good ideas into enormously successful practices. The Japanese business culture is more receptive to TPM requirements than is the dominant business culture in the United States.