TPM focused on achieving:
• Zero Accidents
• Zero Breakdowns
• Zero Defects
The ultimate aim of TPM is to eliminate all types of production losses.
TPM emphasizes proactive and preventative maintenance to maximize the operational efficiency of equipment. It blurs the distinction between the roles of production and maintenance by placing a strong emphasis on empowering operators to help maintain their equipment.
The implementation of a TPM program creates a shared responsibility for equipment that encourages greater involvement by plant floor workers. In the right environment this can be very effective in improving productivity (increasing up time, reducing cycle times, and eliminating defects).
The 5S Foundation
The goal of 5S is to create a work environment that is clean and well-organized. It consists of five elements:
- Sort (eliminate anything that is not truly needed in the work area)
- Set in Order (organize the remaining items)
- Shine (clean and inspect the work area)
- Standardize (create standards for performing the above three activities)
- Sustain (ensure the standards are regularly applied)
It should be reasonably intuitive how 5S creates a foundation for well-running equipment. For example, in a clean and well-organized work environment, tools and parts are much easier to find, and it is much easier to spot emerging issues such as fluid leaks, material spills, metal shavings from unexpected wear, hairline cracks in mechanisms, etc.
The Eight Pillars
The eight pillars of TPM are mostly focused on proactive and preventative techniques for improving equipment reliability.
Autonomous Maintenance(JH pillar)
- Gives operators greater “ownership” of their equipment.
- Increases operators’ knowledge of their equipment.
- Ensures equipment is well-cleaned and lubricated.
- Identifies emergent issues before they become failures.
- Frees maintenance personnel for higher-level tasks.
Focused Improvement(KK pillar)
- Recurring problems are identified and resolved by cross-functional teams.
- Combines the collective talents of a company to create an engine for continuous improvement.
Planned Maintenance(KH pillar)
- Significantly reduces instances of unplanned stop time.
- Enables most maintenance to be planned for times when equipment is not scheduled for production.
- Reduces inventory through better control of wear-prone and failure-prone parts.
Quality Maintenance
- Specifically targets quality issues with improvement projects focused on removing root sources of defects.
- Reduces number of defects.
- Reduces cost by catching defects early (it is expensive and unreliable to find defects through inspection).
- New equipment reaches planned performance levels much faster due to fewer startup issues.
- Maintenance is simpler and more robust due to practical review and employee involvement prior to installation.
- Operators develop skills to routinely maintain equipment and identify emerging problems.
- Maintenance personnel learn techniques for proactive and preventative maintenance.
- Managers are trained on TPM principles as well as on employee coaching and development.
- Eliminates potential health and safety risks, resulting in a safer workplace.
- Specifically targets the goal of an accident-free workplace.
- Extends TPM benefits beyond the plant floor by addressing waste in administrative functions.
- Supports production through improved administrative operations (e.g. order processing, procurement, and scheduling).
Introduction to OEE
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a metric that identifies the percentage of planned production time that is truly productive. It was developed to support TPM initiatives by accurately tracking progress towards achieving “perfect production”.
For Availability
Mean Time Between Failures & Mean Time To Repair
Mean Time Between Failures = (Total up time) / (number of breakdowns)
Mean Time To Repair = (Total down time) / (number of breakdowns)
The "availability" of a device is, mathematically, MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR) for scheduled working time.
