Total Productive Maintenance: A Critical Review

R.S.Nehete1, B.E.Narkhede2 and S.K.Mahajan3

1Research Scholar in Production & Industrial Engg, VJTI, Mumbai-400 019 rupendranehete@yahoo.com

2Officer on Special Duty, Directorate of Technical Education, Mumbai – 400 001.benarkhade@vjti.org.in

3Director, Technical Education, Maharashtra State, Mumbai-400 001. director@dte.org.in

Abstract

Good maintenance is fundamental to productive manufacturing system. Total Productive

Maintenance (TPM) is an alternative approach to equipment maintenance that seeks to achieve

zero breakdowns and zero defects. TPM is an approach to keep the current plant and equipment

at its higher productive level through cooperation of all areas of organization. The eight pillars of

TPM are very important and serve as guidance to effectively implement TPM programme to

improve overall manufacturing performance. In this paper the basic issues like planning,

training, overall equipment effectiveness and implementation pertaining to the TPM are

discussed.

Key words: TPM, planning, training, overall equipment effectiveness, implementation,

manufacturing performance, etc.

Introduction:

The Japanese, based on the planned approach to preventive maintenance (PM), evolved the

concept of total productive maintenance (TPM). Nakajima (1986) outlines how, in 1953, 20

Japanese companies formed a PM research group and, after a mission to the USA in 1962 to

study equipment maintenance, the Japan Institute of Plant Engineers (JIPE) was formed in 1969,

which was the predecessor to the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). In 1969, JIPE

started working closely with the automotive component manufacturer-Nippondenso- on the issue

of PM, and when the company decided to change roles of operators to allow them to carry out

routine maintenance this was the beginning of TPM. Tajiri and Gotah (1992) point out that

whilst TPM was communicated throughout Japan only a small number of factories took up the

challenge. It was the severe economic situation in the early 1970s that accelerated the adaptation

of TPM, propagated by the seven-step programme developed by the Tokai Rubber Industries

(see Nakajima, 1989). In the early 1990s, Western organizations started to show interest in TPM

following on from their total quality management (TQM) interventions.

Nakajima (1989), a major contributor of TPM, has defined TPM as an innovative approach to

maintenance that optimizes equipment effectiveness, eliminates breakdowns, and promotes

autonomous maintenance by operators through day-to-day activities involving the total

workforce. TPM is not a maintenance- specific policy, it is a culture, a philosophy and a new

attitude toward maintenance. According to Chaneski (2002), TPM is a maintenance management

program with the objective of eliminating equipment downtime. Lawrence (1999) describes

TPM as the general movement on the part of businesses to try to do more with fewer resources.

According to Besterfield et al. (1999), TPM helps to maintain the current plant and equipment at

its highest productive level through the cooperation of all functional areas of an organization.

TPM is a partnership between maintenance and production functions in the organization to

improve product quality, reduce waste, reduce manufacturing cost, increase equipment

availability, and improve the company's state of maintenance (Rhyne, 1990). According to

Blanchard (1997), TPM is an integrated life-cycle approach to factory maintenance. TPM can be

effectively deployed in an organization to develop employee involvement at every step of the

manufacturing process and facilitate maintenance in order to streamline production flow,

increase product quality and reduce operating costs. Total employee involvement, autonomous

maintenance by operators, small group activities to improve equipment reliability,

maintainability, productivity, and continuous improvement (kaizen) are the principles embraced

by TPM. TPM achieves lower operating costs through ongoing changes in behavior, work

procedures and attitudes. TPM initiatives in production help in streamlining the manufacturing

and other business functions, and garnering sustained profits. TPM also facilitates the

organizations to achieve higher levels of productivity, improved customer service, morale, and

profits. TPM initiatives, as suggested by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM),

involve an eight pillar implementation plan that results in substantial increase in labor

productivity through controlled maintenance, reduction in maintenance costs, and reduced

production stoppages and downtimes. The JIPM eight pillar TPM implementation plan is

depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Eight pillars of TPM implementation plan (suggested by JIPM)

5S Workplace Management

Sincere Management Leadership

8 Pillars of TPM

Machineries of the plant are liable to fall in their performance level with respect to time, due to

various reasons such as wear and tear, ageing and chemical reactions. In order to keep up the

performance of any equipment at desired level, planning and proper implementation of

maintenance program is necessary. TPM is an approach to keep the current plant and equipment

at its higher productive level through cooperation of all areas of organization. It is an alternative

approach to achieve zero breakdowns and zero defects. In TPM program the overall

improvement of manufacturing processes is achieved through the use of employee involvement

and employee empowerment.

TPM is a successful blend of preventive maintenance ideas with the philosophy of Total Quality

Management (TQM). In nutshell, TPM dose to maintenance what TQM has done to the quality

management function in an organization [6]. TPM is based on the three ideas Yaruki-motivation,

Yarude-competency, Yaruba-work environment.

Generally, the first task in TPM is to breakdown the traditional barriers between maintenance

and production personnel so they are working together. Individual working together without

regard to organizational structure and have common objective – peak performance and total

productivity.

Analyzing the TPM in to its three words [5], we have:

Total = All encompassing by maintenance and production individuals working together.

Productive = Production of goods and services that meet or exceed customers’ expectations.

Maintenance = Keeping equipment and plant in as good as or better than the original condition at

all times.

Production equipment has become unimaginably sophisticated. We see equipment for

automation, such as robots and unmanned production; we also see equipment for super precise

processing of micron-size objects and processing that requires speeds, pressures, and

temperatures challenging current technology.

Increased automation and unmanned production will not do away with the need for human labor

– only operations have been automated; maintenance still depends heavily on human input.

Automated and technologically advanced equipment, however, requires skills beyond the

competence of the average maintenance supervisor or worker, and to use it effectively requires

an appropriate maintenance organization. TPM, which organizes all employees from top

management to production line workers, is a companywide equipment maintenance system that

can support sophisticated production facilities.

The primary goals of TPM are zero breakdowns and zero defects. When breakdowns and defects

are eliminated, equipment operation rates improve, costs are reduced, inventory can be

minimized, and as a consequence, labor productivity increases. One firm reduced the number of

breakdowns to 1/50 of the original number. Some companies show 17-26 percent increases in

equipment operation rates while others show a 90 percent reduction in process defects. Labor

productivity generally increased by 40-50 percent.

Of course, such results cannot be achieved overnight. Typically, it takes an average of three

years from the introduction of TPM to achieve prize-winning results. Furthermore, in the early

stages of TPM, the company must bear the additional expense of restoring equipment to its

proper condition and educating personnel about the equipment. The actual cost depends on the

quality of the equipment and the quality of maintenance. As productivity increases, however,

these costs are quickly replaced by profits. For this reason TPM is often referred to as “profitable

PM”.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness:

The concept of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is central to the TPM philosophy. OEE

essentially captures the six big losses that occur in any organization. These six major losses need

to be measured and tracked:

Down time Losses

1. Planned

a. Start-ups

b. Shift changes

c. Coffee and lunch breaks

d. Planned maintenance shutdown

2. Unplanned Downtime

a. Equipment breakdown

b. Changeovers

c. Lack of material

Reduced Speed Losses

3. Idling and minor stoppages

4. Slow-downs

Poor Quality Losses

5. Process nonconformities (defects)

6. Scrap

Downtime losses are measured by equipment availability using the equation

Availability =

The performance efficiency of the equipment provides a quantitative basis to assess the loss. It is

given by:

Poor quality losses are measured by tracking the rate of quality products produced using the

equation

Quality Rate = x100

Overall equipment effectiveness is measured by the equation

OEE = Availability x Performance Efficiency x Quality Rate

Goals of TPM:

The overall goals of the TPM are:

1. Maintaining and improving equipment capacity.

2. Maintaining equipment for life.

3. Using support from all areas of the operation.

4. Encouraging input from all employees.

5. Using teams for continuous improvement.

TPM Implementation:

In this stage eight activities are carried which are called eight pillars in the development of TPM

activity. Of these four activities are for establishing the system for production efficiency, one for

initial control system of new products and equipment, one for improving the efficiency of

administration and are for control of safety, sanitation as working environment.

Eight Pillars of TPM (refer fig 1): 1. 5S: TPM starts with 5S. Problems cannot be clearly seen when the work place is

unorganized. Cleaning and organizing the workplace helps the team to uncover problems.

Making problems visible is the first step of improvement. The meaning of 5S is SEIRI - Sort

out, SEITON – Organize, SEISO - Shine the workplace, SEIKETSU – Standardization,

SHITSUKE - Self discipline.

2. Autonomous Maintenance : This pillar is geared towards developing operators to be able to

take care of small maintenance tasks, thus freeing up the skilled maintenance people to spend

time on more value added activity and technical repairs. The operators are responsible for

upkeep of their equipment to prevent it from deteriorating.

3. Continuous Improvement (KAIZEN): Kai" means change, and "Zen" means good ( for the

better ). Basically kaizen is for small improvements, but carried out on a continual basis and

involve all people in the organization. Kaizen is opposite to big spectacular innovations.

Kaizen requires no or little investment. The principle behind is that "a very large number of

small improvements are move effective in an organizational environment than a few

improvements of large value. This pillar is aimed at reducing losses in the workplace that

affect our efficiencies. By using a detailed and thorough procedure we eliminate losses in a

systematic method using various Kaizen tools. These activities are not limited to production

areas and can be implemented in administrative areas as well.

4. Planned Maintenance: It is aimed to have trouble free machines and equipments producing

defect free products for total customer satisfaction. This breaks maintenance down into 4

"families" or groups

a. Preventive Maintenance

b. Breakdown Maintenance

c. Corrective Maintenance

d. Maintenance Prevention

5. Quality Maintenance: It is aimed towards customer delight through highest quality through

defect free manufacturing. Focus is on eliminating non-conformances in a systematic

manner, much like Focused Improvement. We gain understanding of what parts of the

equipment affect product quality and begin to eliminate current quality concerns, then move

to potential quality concerns.

6. Education & Training: It is aimed to have multi-skilled revitalized employees whose morale

is high and who has eager to come to work and perform all required functions effectively and

independently. Education is given to operators to upgrade their skill.

7. Office TPM: Office TPM should be started after activating four other pillars of TPM (JH,

KK, QM, PM). Office TPM must be followed to improve productivity, efficiency in the

administrative functions and identify and eliminate losses. This includes analyzing processes

and procedures towards increased office automation. Office TPM addresses twelve major

losses. They are Processing loss

a. Cost loss including in areas such as procurement, accounts, marketing, sales

leading to high inventories.

b. Communication loss

c. Idle loss

d. Set-up loss

e. Accuracy loss

f. Office equipment breakdown

g. Communication channel breakdown, telephone and fax lines

h. Time spent on retrieval of information

i. Non availability of correct on line stock status

j. Customer complaints due to logistics

k. Expenses on emergency dispatches/purchases

8. Safety, Hygiene and Environment Control: In this area focus is on to create a safe workplace

and a surrounding area that is not damaged by our process or procedures. This pillar will play

an active role in each of the other pillars on a regular basis. A committee is constituted for

this pillar which comprises representative of officers as well as workers. The committee is

headed by Senior vice President (Technical). Utmost importance to Safety is given in the

plant. Manager (Safety) is looking after functions related to safety. To create awareness

among employees various competitions like safety slogans, Quiz, Drama, Posters, etc. related

to safety can be organized at regular intervals.

Nine Essentials of TPM: In nutshell, following are the essential things which are necessary for effective implementation

of TPM programme

Self maintained work place

Elimination of the 6 big losses

Zero Breakdowns

Zero Defects

Optimal life and availability of tools

Self-improvement

Short production-development time and low machine life cost

Productivity in indirect departments

Zero Accidents

Benefits of TPM:

Increase productivity and OEE (Overall equipment efficiency) by 1.5 or 2 times.

Rectify customer complaints.

Reduce the manufacturing cost.

Satisfy the customer’s needs (Delivering the right quantity at the right time, in the

required quality.)

Reduce accidents.

Follow pollution control measures.

Conclusion:

In this paper an attempt has been done to present a critical review about philosophy of TPM.

TPM is predicated by the challenge of seeking to do things better – hence dealing effectively

with change (often requiring rapid alteration) needs to become a way of life within

manufacturing organizations. The willingness of employees within an organization to “accept

change” for the better is an essential prerequisite for successfully implementing TPM. Their

degree of eagerness to embrace “change” determines the rate of progress towards that goal. TPM

can only succeed in an organization that is committed to provide the necessary training and time

to monitor the success or failure of the ensuing improvement initiatives. The eight pillars of TPM

are very important and serve as guidance to effectively implement TPM programme to improve

overall manufacturing performance.

References:

1. Nakajima, S. (1986),”TPM a challenge to the improvement of productivity by small

group activities'', Maintenance Management International, Edition No. 6, pp. 73-83.

2. Nakajima, S. (1988), Introduction to Total Productive Maintenance, Productivity Press,

Cambridge, MA.

3. Nakajima, S. (1989), TPM Development Programme: Implementing Total Productive

Maintenance, Productivity Press, Cambridge, MA.

4. Tajiri, M. and Gotah, F. (1992), TPM Implementation: A Japanese Approach, McGraw-

Hill, New York, NY.

5. Dale Besterfield et.al.(2004), Total Quality Management, Pearson Education , New

Delhi.

6. Mahadevan B. (2007), Operations Management Theory and Practice, New Delhi.

7. Ahmed, S., Hassan, M.H. and Taha, Z. (2005), “TPM can go beyond maintenance:

excerpt from a case implementation”, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

8. Tajiri, M., Gotoh, F., 1992. TPM Implementation: A Japanese Approach. McGraw-Hill,

New York.