Total Productive Maintenance

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) may be considered a component of lean manufacturing, but it is actually a crucial building block of Six Sigma as well. Processes that experience downtime also produce defects, so high equipment uptime is a necessary pre-requisite to Six Sigma performance.

TPM was developed in the 1970's as a method of involving machine operators in the preventive maintenance of their machines - a reaction to increasing specialization and centralization of the maintenance function that had created division-of-labor barriers between operators and the maintenance of their machines and equipment.

Autonomous maintenance activities tap the knowledge and skill of the people who work with the equipment on a daily basis, and gives operators a stake in the performance of the equipment. This involvement is part of a larger philosophy of continuous improvement, or Kaizen, that touches all shop floor activities. Involving machine operators also makes the regular maintenance people more productive by focusing them on more extensive preventive maintenance (PM) tasks.

The overriding objective of TPM is the elimination of LOSSES. Losses, or waste, includes equipment downtime, defects, scrap, accidents, wasted energy, and labor inefficiency. Equipment reliability is a cornerstone of a lean production system. With little or no buffer inventories, equipment failures directly impact production volumes and customer service, so effective preventive maintenance is a critical activity. By bringing together people from all departments concerned with equipment into a comprehensive PM system, equipment effectiveness is raised to the highest possible level. Most TPM programs are built upon autonomous small group activities - the people closest to the action. This requires the support and cooperation of everyone from top management on down.

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