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Total Productive Maintenance

• satyendra
• August 4, 2023
• 4 Comments
• 5S, Autonomous maintenance, Development management, Education and training, Eight pillars, Focussed improvent, OEE, Office TPM, Planned maintenance, Quality maintenance, Safety health and environment, Seiketsu, Seiri, Seiso, Seiton, Shitsuke, TPM,

Total Productive Maintenance

Organizations have been facing challenges world-wide in recent times because of high competitiveness and continuous search for profitability, and are under constant pressure to become more flexible and efficient, aiming towards a better quality of products in the desired deadlines, at low cost and fully meeting the growing needs of the customers. In this scenario, maintenance activities have had their role changed and started to be evaluated as strategic tools. Total productive maintenance (TPM) is an important strategic tool for an organization for meeting these challenges.

TPM is an approach for increasing the organizational effectiveness, as well as the performance of its equipment during its use in operations, by enlisting the full participation and interest of all of its employees. TPM is a deliberate strategy aimed at production performance improvement which deals with the organizational infrastructure integrity and the efficient utilization of the resources through continual employee participation and empowerment in production, maintenance, and different other organizational activities. The main goal of TPM is to reduce waste in different activities, lowering total costs by increasing productivity, and producing high-quality products.

TPM is a management approach born in Japan. It is focused on improving productivity and the quality of manufactured goods, minimizing losses, and reducing costs. Originally a maintenance tool, it evolved over the years into a management tool, seeking to involve professionals from all departments and hierarchical levels for ensuring effective and efficient operations. TPM was introduced to achieve several objectives. The important ones are (i) to avoid wastage in a quickly changing economic environment, (ii) to produce goods without reducing product quality, (iii) to reduce cost, (iv) to produce a low batch quantity at the earliest possible time, and (v) the goods sent to the customers are to be non-defective.

TPM seeks to maximize equipment effectiveness throughout the life-time of the production equipment. TPM aims at improving existing plant equipment conditions and increase the knowledge and skills of front-line personnel on the production floor. It strives to maintain the equipment in optimum condition in order to prevent unexpected break-down, speed losses, and quality defects. TPM initiatives in production help in streamlining the manufacturing and other organizational functions, and garnering sustained profits. TPM is adopted, in order to strengthen the manufacturing performance of the organization and to achieve a world-class performance level.

The objective of the a TPM programme is to improve productivity and quality along with increased employee morale and job satisfaction. Earlier preventive maintenance was considered as non-value adding process, but now it is essential requirement for longer life-cycle of equipments in an organization. TPM is an innovative approach to maintenance which optimizes the equipment effectiveness, eliminates break-downs, and promotes autonomous operator maintenance through day-to-day activities involving the total work-force.

In present-day industrial scenario huge losses / wastages occur at the shop floor. These wastes occur because of the operators, maintenance personnel, process, tooling problems, and non-availability of spares and components in time etc. Other examples of wastes include idle equipments, idle man-power, equipment break-down, and rejected products etc. The quality related wastes are of considerable importance since the wastes impact the organizational performance in terms of time, material and the hard-earned reputation of the organization.

There are also other invisible wastes like operating the equipments below the rated capacities, start-up loss, break-down of the equipments and bottle-necks in process. Zero oriented concepts such as zero tolerance for wastes, defects, and break-downs, and zero accidents are becoming a pre-requisite in the manufacturing organizations. In this situation, a revolutionary concept of TPM has been adopted in several organizations across the world to address these issues. Fig 1 shows the concept of TPM.

Fig 1 Concept of TPM

TPM is a maintenance programme which involves a newly defined concept for maintaining plant and equipments. The goal of the TPM programme is to markedly increase production while, at the same time, increasing employee morale and job satisfaction. TPM brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and vitally important part of the organizational operational activities. It is no longer regarded as a non-profit activity. Down-time for maintenance is scheduled as a part of the daily production activities and, in some cases, as an integral part of the production process. The objective is to hold emergency and unscheduled maintenance to a minimum.

The organizational maintenance activities and the performance of the equipment improves with the implementation of TPM. However, several organizations have failed to successfully deploy TPM. For successful deployment of TPM in the organization, it is necessary to create a plan outlining the elements which contribute to the successful installation and implementation of TPM. Also, involvement of top management is necessary.

The introduction of TPM in an organization represents a significant shift in the maintenance sector which calls for a shift in the outlook of the employees. A positive work-place culture helps the organization to adopt TPM successfully. Additionally, it provides an effective mathematical tool for use in the execution.

Organizations around the world continue to experience difficulties in successfully implementing TPM since that the TPM implementation involves a long-term planning, and also since it needs time to change the attitude of senior management and its employees. TPM implementation needs significant changes in the organizational culture. It also needs a well-founded implementation plan.

History of TPM

TPM is an innovative Japanese concept. The origin of TPM can be traced back to 1951 when preventive maintenance was introduced in Japan. TPM was developed by Seiichi Nakajima in Japan between 1950 and 1970. This experience led to the recognition that a leadership mindset engaging front-line teams in small group improvement activity is an essential element of effective operation. The outcome of his work was the application of the TPM process in 1971. One of the first companies to gain from this was Nippon Denso, a company which produced parts for Toyota.

An internationally accepted TPM benchmark was developed by Seiichi Nakajima of JIPM (Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance) who is hence regarded as the father of TPM. The classic TPM process he developed consisting of 5 principles was later improved by the JIPM to incorporate several of the lessons of lean manufacturing and is referred to as organization-wide TPM which consists of 8 principles / activities. The name ‘Pillar’ is symbolically used as a structural support to the structure of TPM. The term ‘activities, is more appropriate since execution of these 8 pillars is the process of TPM implementation.

The concept of preventive maintenance was taken from USA. Nippon Denso was the first company to introduce plant wide preventive maintenance in 1960. Preventive maintenance is the concept wherein, operators produced goods using plant and equipments and the maintenance group is dedicated with work of maintaining the plant and equipments. However, with the automation of Nippon Denso, maintenance became a problem as more maintenance personnel were needed. Hence, the management decided that the routine maintenance of equipment would be carried out by the operators which is called the ‘autonomous maintenance’, one of the features of TPM. Maintenance group took up only essential maintenance work.

Nippon Denso which already followed preventive maintenance also added ‘autonomous maintenance’ done by production operators. The maintenance crew went in the equipment modification for improving its reliability. The modifications were made or incorporated in new equipment. This had led to maintenance prevention. Hence, preventive maintenance along with the ‘maintenance prevention’ and ‘maintainability improvement’ gave birth to ‘productive maintenance’. The aim of productive maintenance was to maximize plant and equipment effectiveness to achieve optimum life-cycle cost of production equipment.

Based on these developments, Nippon Denso was awarded the distinguished PM prize for developing and implementing TPM, by JIPE (Japanese Institute of Plant Engineers). They became the first winner of the PM prize. Hence, Nippon Denso of the Toyota group became the first company to get the TPM certification.

TPM has originated from two correlated areas namely (i) maintenance, and (ii) reliability. It first arose in Japan within the Nippon Denso company with the purpose to maintain the equipment regularity. According to Nakajima, the history of Japan has been marked by three phases of maintenance over the last 100 years. These three phases are the corrective maintenance, the preventive maintenance, and the production maintenance, which later evolved and resulted in the TPM programme.

One of the objectives of TPM is to maximize the effectiveness of equipments effectiveness throughout their life-cycle and to keep them in optimum conditions for preventing unexpected failures, and avoiding capacity losses, down-time, and quality defects. The three fundamental goals of TPM are zero defects, zero accidents, and zero break-downs. The primary goal of TPM is the ability to enable a critical maintenance and an approximation between polyvalent operators and production employees in joint works.

TPM is also characterized by promoting and exercising synergy among all organizational functions, emphasizing production and maintenance for ensuring continuous improvements of product quality, operational efficiency, capacity utilization, warranty, and security. TPM is a continuous improvement methodology which improves confidence of operator in equipment and management efficiency by improving motivation and satisfaction of the people involved at all working levels, integrating production, maintenance and engineering activities. It is not considered only as a specific maintenance policy, but rather as a culture, a philosophy, and a change of attitude towards maintenance.

TPM has gained popularity since its impact on production in totality is very appealing. Several organizations have their manufacturing systems, modelled to the TPM methodology. TPM improves corporate operating results, creates pleasant and productive work-place by changing the way people think and it works closely with equipment improvement activities.

The adaptation of the Japanese culture of TPM is elusive for several organizations who failed to exploit it though the potential is clearly understood. However, in the late 1980s, the TPM ideology started to penetrate into other countries. The manufacturing organizations began adapting TPM to the needs and culture of the organization, manoeuvring TPM in between their existing and more mature quality system and organizational culture. The strategic outcome of TPM implementations is the reduced occurrence of unexpected equipment break-downs which disrupt production and lead to losses, which can reach substantial quantities.

Moving forward with TPM, the manufacturing organizations were probably the pioneers of TPM since the early nineties, and the adaptation of this Japanese approach has been a challenging one. Traditional approach has yielded low mileage in total productivity. Also, the traditional maintenance concepts are regarded as passive and non-productive to the current production function. The traditional maintenance has been considered as a support function, one which is non-productive and not a core function, hence adding little value to the organizational operating results. Hence, implementing TPM in the manufacturing organization has emerged as an important operational strategy to overcome the production losses because of the equipment inefficiency. Manufacturing organizations who were striving for world-class performance have shown that the contribution of an effective maintenance strategy can be significant in providing competitive advantage through its TPM programme.

TPM activities in manufacturing organizations secure the physical improvement of personnel, equipment, and the organization as a whole. TPM activities target to improve equipment effectiveness and eventually to secure zero equipment failures, zero defects and reworks, and zero industrial accidents. TPM is focused on improving all the big picture indicators of manufacturing success. TPM is also very much about safety, asset utilization, expanding capacity without investment in new equipment or people, continuing to lower the cost of equipment maintenance and improve equipment uptime.

TPM is a resource-based approach where all employees are responsible for contributing to avoid equipment deterioration, break-downs, failures, and stoppages. Implementation of TPM needs a long-term commitment with the support of management to achieve the benefits of equipment effectiveness and operational excellence. TPM paves the way for excellent planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling practices through its unique methodology.

TPM methodology comprises and ranges from production to maintenance, quality, new equipment and product introduction, operational losses to safety and environment, training, and administrative functions. Ideally, everyone in the manufacturing plant at every level is involved.

TPM is a productivity movement which introduces a closely knitted, inter-linked and structured production system with the objective of positioning the organization to be more efficient and effective in the running of the day-to-day operations.

TPM is a methodology to form a corporate culture focus on maximizing the efficiency of overall production system through cross-functional approach. It can be described as a plant improvement methodology which enables continuous and rapid improvement of the manufacturing process through the use of employee involvement, employee empowerment, and closed-loop measurement of results. It is a production driven improvement methodology which is designed to optimize the reliability of the equipments and ensure efficient management of plant assets. TPM also aims on building up a corporate culture which thoroughly pursues production systems efficiency improvement and OEE (overall equipment efficiency).

From both the definitions, it can be seen that they both describes a synergistic relationship among all organizational functions, but particularly between production and maintenance, for continuous improvement of product quality, operational efficiency, capacity assurance, safety and improvement of the people who work within the organization. It emphasizes maximizing OEE through employee involvement. TPM activities involved all employees, starting from top management till shop-level operators. TPM programme is marked to increase production while at the same time, increase employee morale and job satisfaction. In order to set up TPM framework, the understanding of it is to be total. The goal of TPM is to continuously improve all operational conditions, within a production system by motivating the daily understanding of all employees.

TPM implementation involves applying continuous improvement methods to reduce losses in operations. The actual process of adding value to products normally involves operator and equipment. Hence, TPM focuses its improvement activities on equipment-related losses. In an ideal manufacturing plant, equipments are needed to operate 100 % of the time, at maximum of 100 % capacity, with an output of 100 % good quality products being produced. However, in reality, this happens rarely.

The difference between the ideal and the actual situation is because of the losses in operation. Manufacturing organizations face these losses in operation on a daily basis. Hence, TPM gives them the tool to identify the losses and make improvements through OEE percentage. OEE is a metric for the evaluation of equipment effectiveness and frequently used as a driver for improving equipment performance. Also, OEE measurement can be applied to several different levels within a manufacturing environment.

OEE is the core metric for measuring the success of TPM implementation programme. One of the important contributions of OEE is to consider the hidden losses of the equipment in computing equipment utilization. The overall goal of TPM is to raise the overall equipment effectiveness. OEE is calculated by obtaining the product of availability of the equipment, performance efficiency of the process, and rate of quality products.

OEE is a product of availability (time e.g., 24 hours a day), the performance efficiency (speed, utilization rate), and the rate of quality (number of good products). Hence, the formula is given by OEE % = Availability x Performance efficiency x Rate of quality x 100. If any metric cannot be measured, then it cannot be managed. The OEE concept paves the way for measuring the effectiveness of production equipment. It is also the backbone of several techniques employed in asset productivity programmes.

TPM focuses on maximizing the OEE with the involvement of each employee in the organization. The TPM activities provide an effective measurement index through OEE which makes the improvement on the production floor. Through TPM implementation, OEE has been widely adopted by several manufacturing organizations. The basic underlying approach of TPM is to maximize production equipment effectiveness, which is typically measured by OEE for improving the equipment effectiveness.

OEE has become a very strategic measurement tool since manufacturing organizations employ a big work-force with large number of equipments. Through OEE, these organizations can identify and address the equipment losses. Apart from this, OEE also can also facilitate in monitoring the overall manufacturing performance.

To begin applying TPM ideas to plant maintenance activities, the whole work-force is required initially to be convinced that senior level of management is committed to the programme. The primary step during this effort is to either employ or appoint a plant manager responsible for TPM. This plant manager is the TPM planner or organizer. It is the responsibility of the TPM planner or organizer to sell the TPM ideas to the work-force through an enlightenment and educational programme. To try and do an intensive job of teaching and convincing the work-force that TPM is simply not another ‘programme of the month’, and it can take time, may-be a year or more. Fig 2 gives the organizational structure for TPM.

Fig 2 Organizational structure for TPM

Maintenance strategy

Maintenance strategy is a long-term plan, covering all aspects of maintenance management which sets the direction for maintenance management and contains firm action plans for achieving a desired future state for the maintenance function.

Basic maintenance strategy – For becoming the world class in maintenance management, the discipline is required to start from the basics of maintenance. Basic discipline is the fundamental activities which are to be performed on the equipment before going to any other stage. It is waste of money, if the organization goes on improving straight away to advance strategy if the basics condition has not been well established. The organization normally wants things to be done faster all the time and consider addressing to the basic things as useless. There are 5 disciplines in ‘basic maintenance strategy’ which are (i) training and education, (ii) maintenance indices and KPI (key performance indicators), (iii) autonomous maintenance (AM), (iv) basic equipment condition, and (v) understanding of preventive maintenance.

Intermediate maintenance strategy – This strategy can be implemented once the basic strategy has been established. There are 5 disciplines in ‘intermediate maintenance strategy’ which are (i) RCFA (root cause failure analysis), (ii) lubrication strategy, (iii) reliability Initiatives, (iv) life cycle management, and (v) spare parts inventory management.

Advanced maintenance strategy – Savings generated through the application of basic and intermediate strategies can be well spent on the acquisition of advanced maintenance technologies. There are 2 disciplines in ‘advanced maintenance strategy’ which are (i) CBM (condition-based monitoring), and (ii) CMMS (computerized maintenance management system).

Five levels of TPM

The TPM can be divided into five different levels which are described below.

Level 1 – At the first level, initial cleaning and inspection is performed. The aim of this level is to increase the efficiency of the equipments and to find problems, which have not been found before. Unnecessary items and equipment are also removed and general cleaning is performed to clear away the dirt and dust.

Level 2 – At the second level, all the sources of contamination, dirt, and oil are eliminated. The places which are difficult to clean and inspect, are relocated or re-assembled to allow access.

Level 3 – The third level introduces standards for cleaning, lubricating, and maintenance. The standards are to make sure that the cleaning is performed effectively. Problem areas are taken into closer look to pin-point the places where lubrication has been inefficient and insufficient. The process is also to be documented for auditing purposes, and what were the situations before the cleaning and after the cleaning are to be recorded. This is an easy way to realize the positive changes achieved by TPM.

Level 4 – At the fourth level, the operators are to be trained and advised in the basic functions and controls of the equipments they use. This is to make sure that the operators are able to perform easy maintenance tasks on their own and they are aware of the functions of the equipment with which they are working.

Level 5 – The fifth level sums up the standards and learning acquired by training at the third and fourth levels and it is time when the operator starts to perform the basic inspection and maintenance task autonomously. At this stage, the photographs of the final results are taken and the pictures are to be compared to with photographs taken at the earlier stages. Comparison of the pictures are very easy and straight forward method used to document the achievements of the TPM programme.

TPM is one of a lean tool, a maintenance programme which gives a totally new approach for maintaining plant and equipment. This maintenance programme is used for increasing the efficiency of the plant, equipments, and the processes. TPM gives a way for excellent planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling practices through its 5S foundation methodology and unique eight-pillars (activities).

TPM starts with 5S. 5S forms the foundation of TPM. Problems cannot be clearly seen when the work place is not organized. Cleaning and organizing the workplace helps the team to uncover problems. Making problems visible is the first step of the improvement. The 5S are (i) Seiri which means ‘sort’ (organize), (ii) Seiton which means simplify (visibility), (iii) Seiso which means sweep (cleanliness), (iv) Seiketsu which means standardize (adherence), and (v) Shitsuke which means self-discipline (sustain). Fig 3 shows 5S Japanese disciplines.

Fig 3 5S Japanese disciplines

Seiri (Sort) – This means sorting and organizing the items as critical, important, frequently used, useless, or items which are not needed as of now. Items not wanted can be salvaged. Critical items are to be kept for use nearby the equipment, and items which are not to be used in near future are to be stored in some place. For this step, the worth of the item is to be decided based on utility (frequency of use) and not the cost. As a result of this step, the search time of the item at the time of need is reduced.

Seiton (Organize) – The concept here is that ‘each of the items has a place, and only one place’. The items are to be placed back after usage at the same place. For easy identification of the items, name plates and coloured tags are to be used. Vertical racks can be used for this purpose, and heavy items occupy the bottom position in the racks.

Seiso (Sweep) – This means cleanliness of the work-place and involves cleaning the work-place free of burrs, grease, oil, waste, and scrap etc. No loosely hanging wires or oil leakage from the equipments are to be there.

Seiketsu (Standardize) – It means that employees are to discuss together and decide on standards for keeping the work place / equipments / pathways neat and clean. These standards are implemented for the whole organization and are tested / inspected randomly.

SHITSUKE (Self-discipline) – This means the employees are to follow a way of life and bring about self-discipline. This includes wearing badges, following of work procedures, punctuality, and dedication to the organization etc.

The basic practices of TPM are known as pillars. These are fundamental pillars of TPM. TPM initiatives, as suggested and promoted by JIPM, involve an eight pillars implementation plan. These eight pillars are eight types of activities in TPM implementation process. The eight pillars are (i) Jishu-Hozen or autonomous maintenance, (ii) Kobetsu-Kaizen or focused improvement, (iii) planned maintenance, (iv) education and training, (v) development management, (vi) Hinshitsu-Hozen or quality maintenance, (vii) office TPM, and (viii) safety, health, and environment which encompass almost all areas in operating the plant.

Each of the eight pillars has its own areas of responsibility, but the eight pillars also have areas where they overlap. The TPM pillars substantially increases employees’ productivity through controlled maintenance, reduction in maintenance costs, and reduced production equipment stoppages and break-downs. Fig 4 shows the eight pillars of total productive management.

Fig 4 Eight pillars of total productive management

Jishu-Hozen or autonomous maintenance -The pillar of autonomous maintenance is geared towards developing operators so that they are able to take care of small maintenance tasks, hence freeing up the skilled maintenance personnel to spend time on more value-added activity and technical repairs. The operators are responsible for the upkeep of their equipment to prevent it from deteriorating.

The policy of autonomous maintenance is to include (i) uninterrupted operation of equipments, (ii) flexible operators to operate and maintain the equipments, (iii) eliminating the defects at source through active employee participation, and (iv) step-wise implementation of autonomous maintenance activities.

Use of highly skilled technicians or engineers to carry out very simple maintenance tasks is not cost-effective. If operators can be trained to carry out these basic tasks, it gives them an opportunity to increase their skill level, makes them more responsible for the operation of the equipment, increases their job prospects, and frees up the maintenance technicians to work on more complex tasks including TPM teams. It also has the benefit of the cost to do the job gets reduced.

This pillar is intended to increase operators’ skill to a level where they are able to carry out the basic maintenance on their own equipment. By adopting ‘clean and inspect’ procedures, they are taught to recognize abnormal operation and identify problems which are developing. Through time, as the operators’ skill improves, the autonomous maintenance teams progress to more complex maintenance.

The steps for autonomous maintenance are (i) to perform initial cleaning and inspection, (ii) to eliminate contamination sources, (iii) to establish checking standards and cleaning specification, (iv) to conduct general equipment inspection, (v) to perform general process inspection, (vi) to carry out systematic autonomous maintenance, and (vii) to practice full self-management.

Kobetsu-Kaizen or focused improvement – There can be outstanding issues with equipment or processes which have been difficult to identify in the past. Cross-functional teams are used to investigate such issues and to find permanent solutions. The problems under consideration have to be evaluated to justify if a fix to be provided is a positive, cost-effective benefit.

The objective of TPM is maximization of equipment effectiveness. TPM aims at maximization of the equipment utilization and not merely machine availability maximization. As one of the pillars of TPM activities, focused improvement pursues efficient equipment, operator, and material and energy utilization, that is extremes of productivity and aims at achieving substantial effects. Focussed improvement activities try to eliminate thoroughly the major losses.

‘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. It is also known as continuous improvement. Kaizen is opposite to big spectacular innovations. Kaizen needs 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.

The focussed improvement pillar is aimed at reducing losses in the work-place which affect the operator’s efficiencies. By using a detailed and thorough procedure, the operator eliminates losses in a systematic manner using different Kaizen tools. These activities are not limited to production areas and can be implemented in administrative areas as well.

The policy of focussed improvement includes (i) to practice concepts of zero losses in every sphere of activity, (ii) to relentlessly pursuit for achieving cost reduction targets for all the resources, (iii) to relentlessly pursuit for improving overall plant equipment effectiveness, (iv) to carry out extensive use of productive maintenance (PM) analysis as a tool for eliminating losses, and (v) to focus on easy handling by operators.

The tools used in focussed improvement include (i) PM analysis, (ii) why-why analysis, (iii) summary of losses, (iv) Kaizen register, and (v) Kaizen summary sheet.

The steps for focussed improvement are (i) to select improvement topic, (ii) to understand situation, (iii) to expose and eliminate abnormalities, (iv) to analyze causes, (v) to plan improvement, (vi) to implement improvement, (vii) to check results, and (viii) to consolidate gains.

Planned maintenance – It is aimed to have trouble free equipments producing defect free products for total customer satisfaction. This breaks maintenance down into four ‘families’ or groups namely (i) break-down maintenance, (ii) preventive maintenance, (iii) corrective Maintenance, (iv) maintenance prevention. With planned maintenance the efforts are to evolve from a reactive to a proactive method and use trained maintenance personnel to help train the operators to better maintain their equipment.

Planned maintenance looks for the underlying causes of equipment problems and identifies and implements root-cause solutions. In several organizations maintenance is rarely managed, with the engineers choosing the jobs they want to tackle and using their ‘own experience’ to carry out the work. Majority of the maintenance technicians dislike routine maintenance as it is too repetitive and is not a challenge. Besides, the best attention is normally given to the fire-fighters (the technicians who come to the rescue when the equipment crashes). There are even technicians who are the organizational experts on the problems which happen regularly.

Some managers do not appreciate that recurring faults are unresolved faults. The technical term for fire-fighting is ‘reactive maintenance’ i.e., the equipment is  actually repaired on failure. The purpose of the planned maintenance pillar is to prevent break-downs. This needs improvement of the maintenance standards. The planned maintenance pillar covers all aspects of equipment analysis and improvement in a simple way.

The policy of planned maintenance includes (i) to achieve and sustain availability of equipments, (ii) to optimize the maintenance cost, (iii) to reduce spares inventory, and (iv) to improve reliability and maintainability of the equipments.

Planned maintenance teams are cross-functional and are known as ‘zero fails (ZF) teams. ZF teams include operators and technicians. In addition to the basic problems covered by autonomous maintenance teams, the ZF teams also tackle the more complex issues. These include the effectiveness of current maintenance, elimination of the recurring problems, and improvement of the equipment efficiency. OEE is the measure used by TPM to attain the best equipment performance.

The steps for planned maintenance include (i) to evaluate equipment, understand situation, and to record present status, (ii) to reverse the deterioration and to correct the weakness, (iii) to build an information management system, (iv) to prepare time-based information system, select equipment, parts, and members and map out plan, (v) to build a predictive maintenance system by introducing equipment diagnostic techniques, and (vi) to evaluate the planned maintenance system.

Education and training – Without proper training, TPM, and maintenance in general, simply does not work. This pillar explains what knowledge is necessary, how to teach it, and how to confirm it has been absorbed and has been understood. It is important that the competency of the operator is confirmed, not simply that they have attended a course. All details of training are to be recorded. TPM also recognizes that the absence of proper training methods is not limited to industry, which is why it promotes the use of standard operating procedures.

Education and training are aimed to have multi-skilled revitalized employees who have high morale, and who are eager to come to work and perform all the needed functions effectively and independently. Education is given to operators to upgrade their skill. It is not sufficient to have only the ‘know-how’ but the operators are also to learn ‘know-why’. By experience, they can gain, ‘know-how’ for overcoming a problem what is to be done. This they do without knowing the root cause of the problem and why they are doing so. Hence, it become necessary to train them on knowing ‘know-why’. The employees are to be trained to achieve the four phases of skill. The goal is to create a plant full of experts. The four phases of skills are (i) do not know, (ii) know the theory but cannot do, (iii) can do but cannot teach, and (iv) can do and also teach.

The policy of education and training includes (i) to focus on improvement of knowledge, skills, and techniques, (ii) to create a training environment for self-learning based on felt needs, (iii training curriculum / tools / assessment etc. are to meet the needs of employee revitalization, and (iv) training to remove employee fatigue and make work enjoyable.

The steps for educating and training activities are (i) setting of policies and priorities and checking present status of education and training, (ii) establishing of training system for operation and maintenance skill up gradation, (iii) training the employees for upgrading the operation and maintenance skills, (iv) designing and developing a skill development system, (v) preparation of training calendar, (vi) fostering an environment which encourages self-development, and (vii) evaluation of activities and study of future approach.

Development management – This pillar consists of getting the realistic information and on the whole knowing of production equipment using it for the improvement of design of equipment. Employees’ Input is taken to get better maintainability. It is necessary to take care about such work like the lubrication and cleaning ease, parts accessibility, and controls placed ergonomically in a comfortable way for the operator of equipment. This approach when followed, augments efficiency.

The development management aims to improve the existing system through supporting factors improvement such as training of the employees, designing new equipment, and starting new maintenance improvement initiatives to fit the improved system. This assessment of the TPM pillar is carried out by the NGT (nominal group technique) method, together with the managers and supervisors in the organization. Nominal group technique (NGT) is defined as a structured method for group brain-storming which encourages contributions from everyone and facilitates quick agreement on the relative importance of issues, problems, or solutions.

Development management aims to implement new products and processes with vertical ramp up and minimized development lead time. It is normally deployed after the first four pillars as it builds on the learning captured from other pillar teams, incorporating improvements into the next generation of product and equipment design.

There are two parts to the development management pillar namely (i) equipment development management, (ii) product development management. Both approaches focus on using the lessons from previous experiences to eliminate the potential for losses through the planning, development and design stages.

For equipment development management, the goal is to introduce a loss and defect free process so that equipment downtime is minimal (zero break-downs), and maintenance costs are all considered and optimised, from commissioning onwards.

Product development management aims to shorten development lead times, with teams working on simultaneous activities so that vertical start up can be achieved with zero quality loss (zero defects).

Effective development management implementation delivers reduced product and process introduction lead times, improved OEE, and the ability to deliver in volume the right quality product from production start-up. Cost savings is delivered both during the introduction phase and throughout the equipment or product life cycle.

For the development management, the requirements are (i) there is a standard improvement as a result of the continuous Improvement process, (ii) there is the realization that the employees’ suggestions are necessary for continuous improvement, (iii) employees participate in providing suggestions for continuous improvement, and (iv) there is a management support for employees’ suggestions such as providing rewards for realization of the suggestions.

The steps in the development management are (i) to investigate and analyze the existing situation, (ii) to establish a development management system, (iii) to debug the new system and provide training, and (iv) to apply the new system comprehensively.

Hinshitsu-Hozen or quality maintenance – It is aimed towards achieving customer delight by supplying highest quality product through defect free manufacturing. Focus is on eliminating non-conformances in a systematic manner, much like ‘focused improvement’. Operators gain understanding of what parts of the equipment affect product quality and begin to eliminate current quality concerns, then move to potential quality concerns. Transition is from reactive to proactive (from quality control to quality assurance).

Quality management activities are to set equipment conditions which preclude quality defects, based on the basic concept of maintaining healthy equipment for maintaining perfect quality of the products. The conditions are checked and measured in time series for verifying that the measured values are within standard values for preventing the defects. The transition of measured values is watched to predict possibilities of defects occurring and to take counter measures before-hand.

Even what is regarded as a perfect equipment does not produce a perfect product. There is always be some kind of variation in the quality or the physical attributes of the product. The cause of the variation is the limitations in the equipment design and the choice of the components / equipment performance where the product variation is to be reduced. Once a cause has been found, the team is to investigate if a modification or an upgrade can be implemented to increase yield. Alternatively, it can search for a different production process which does not show the same limitations.

Quality maintenance reduces the cost of quality, as waste resulting from poor quality, rework, consumer complaints, and the need for inspection are reduced. Defects become a failure of the organizational systems, not the fault of the operator, and poor quality is no longer accepted as a normal occurrence. Everyone is responsible for maintaining optimal conditions and striving for zero defects.

The policy of quality management includes (i) defect free conditions and control of equipments, (ii) quality management activities to support quality assurance, (iii) focus on prevention of defects at source, (iv) focus on poka-yoke (fool proof system), (v) on-line detection and segregation of defects, and (vi) effective implementation of operator quality assurance.

Data requirements for quality management are quality defects data at customer end and in house data. For customer-end data, the need is to get data on (i) customer end line rejection, and (ii) field complaints. In-house data include data related to products and data related to process. Data related to product include (i) product wise defects, (ii) severity of the defect and its contribution (major / minor), (iii) location of the defect with reference to the layout, (iv) magnitude and frequency of its occurrence at each stage of measurement, (v) occurrence trend in beginning and the end of each production / process / change (such as pattern change, and ladle / furnace lining etc.),and (vi) occurrence trend with respect to restoration of breakdown / modifications / periodical replacement of quality components. Data related to process include (i) the operating condition for individual sub-process related to 4Ms (men, method, material and machine), (ii) the standard settings / conditions of the sub-process, and (iii) the actual record of the settings / conditions during the defect occurrence.

The steps for quality maintenance are (i) to prepare quality assurance (QA) matrix, (ii) to prepare production-input condition analysis table, (iii) to prepare problem chart, (iv) to evaluate seriousness of problem using FMEA (failure-mode-effect analysis), (v) to use phenomenon-mechanism (P-M) analysis to track down causes of problem, (vi) to asses impact of proposed counter measure using FMEA, (vii) to implement improvement, (viii) to review production-input conditions, (ix) to consolidate and confirm check points, and (x) to prepare a quality component control table and assure quality through strict condition control.

Office TPM – Office TPM is to 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. These are (i) processing loss, (ii) cost increase in the areas such as procurement, accounts, marketing, sales leading to high inventories, (iii) communication loss, (iv) idle loss, (v) set-up loss, (vi) accuracy loss, (vii) office equipment break-down, (viii) communication channel break-down, telephone and fax lines, (ix) time spent on retrieval of information, (x) non availability of correct on line stock status, (xi) customer complaints because of logistics, and (xii) expenses on emergency dispatches / purchases.

For implementing office TPM, a senior person from one of the support functions e.g., head of finance, MIS, purchase etc. is required to head the sub-committee. Members representing all support functions and people from production and quality are to be included in sub-committee. TPM co-ordinate plans and guides the sub-committee which includes (i) providing awareness about office TPM to all support departments, (ii) helping them to identify P, Q, C, D, S, M in each function in relation to plant performance, (iii) identifying the scope for improvement in each function, (iv) collecting relevant data, (v) helping them to solve problems in their circles, (vi) making up an activity board where progress is monitored on both sides, results and actions along with Kaizens, and (vii) fanning out to cover all employees and circles in all functions.

The P Q C D S M in office TPM consists of (i) P stands for the production output lost because of want of material, manpower productivity, and production output lost because of want of tools, (ii) Q stands for the mistakes in preparation of cheques, bills, invoices, pay-roll, customer returns / warranty attributable to BOPs (balance of plant), rejection / rework in BOP’s / job work, office area rework, (iii) C stands for buying cost / unit produced, cost of logistics both inbound / outbound, cost of carrying inventory, cost of communication, and demurrage costs, (iv) D stands for logistics losses (delay in loading / unloading), delay in delivery because of any of the support functions, delay in payments to suppliers, and delay in information, (v) S stands for safety in material handling / stores / logistics, and safety of soft and hard data and (vi) M stands for number of Kaizens in the office areas.

Kobetsu Kaizen (focussed improvement) topics for office TPM include (i) inventory reduction, (ii) lead time reduction of critical processes, (iii) motion and space losses, (iv) retrieval time reduction, (v) equalizing the work load, and (vi) improving the office efficiency by eliminating the time loss on retrieval of information, by achieving zero breakdown of office equipment like telephone and fax lines etc.

The benefits of office TPM include (i) involvement of all people in support functions for focusing on better plant performance, (ii) better utilized work area, (iii) reduction in repetitive work, (iv) reduction in inventory levels in all parts of the supply chain, (v) reduction in the administrative costs, (vi) reduction in inventory carrying cost, (vii) reduction in number of files, (viii) reduction in the over-head costs (including cost of non-production / non capital equipment), (ix) productivity of people in support functions, (x) reduction in break-down of office equipment, (xi) reduction of customer complaints because of the logistics, (xii) reduction in expenses because of emergency dispatches / purchases, (xiii) reduction in manpower, and (xiv) clean and pleasant work environment.

Office TPM supports the plant, initially in doing Jishu-Hozen (autonomous maintenance) of the equipments (after getting training of Jishu-Hozen), as in Jishu-Hozen at the (i) initial stages equipments are more and manpower is less, so the help of commercial departments can be taken, for this, and (ii) office TPM can eliminate the loads on line for no material and logistics.

Extension of office TPM to suppliers and distributors is necessary, but only after it has been done as much as possible internally. With suppliers, it leads to on-time delivery, improved ‘in-coming’ quality and cost reduction. With distributors, it leads to accurate demand generation, improved secondary distribution and reduction in damages during storage and handling. In any case organization have to teach the suppliers and distributors based on its experience and practice and highlight gaps in the system which affect both sides. In case of some of the larger organizations, they have started to support clusters of suppliers.

Safety, health, and environment – Sustaining a protected working environment implies people can do their work in a secure area devoid of risk of health. It is significant to create an environment which makes production well-organized and it is not to be at the cost of the safety of an employee. For achieving it, any efforts put in the TPM process ought to focus forever on the safety, health, and the environment. Further, when people work in a protected environment, their feelings become superior, since they have not to think about this important aspect. It can improve productivity in an obvious manner.

The purpose of this pillar is to create a safe work-place and a surrounding area which is not damaged by the organizational processes and procedures. Utmost importance is to safety is needed to be given in the plant. Objectives of this pillar is to achieve zero accident, zero health damage, and minimal pollution effect on the environment. This is crucial and Its importance is emphasized by the need to protect operators, who are to be trained, initially, to carry out simple technical tasks. To this end, the organization is required to cover risk assessments, hazard maps, and some other safety concepts in detail. To build confidence in the operators, they are to be trained in how to carry out risk assessments. They are also to be encouraged to help with the development of the safe working procedures.

In the present-day scenario, safety is always the number one consideration when carrying out tasks in any industry. Even without the legislation and regulations, tasks are to be designed so that they can be carried out with the minimum of risk or, better still, with zero risk. TPM sets the ambitious target of zero accidents. There are five key actions which help keeping the teams ahead in safety, health and environment methodology.

The first is to identify the risks which are present on a specific piece of equipment by using an area map and a hazard map.

The second is to identify the risks associated with each task to be carried out. There is a significant added complication to be considered for autonomous maintenance and zero fail teams since operators are eventually be performing minor technical tasks. This is rarely a requirement when the operators are initially employed, when they probably need to develop new skills. Hence, extra special care is to be taken to compensate for any initial lack of technical experience they have. The operators begin their autonomous maintenance with very simple tasks. To maximize safety, they are initially be working with maintenance technicians on cleaning and inspections, in controlled areas which have been made extra safe (lock out tag out is to be used). Risk assessments are to be carried out for every task and are to be written as if the least experienced team member is carrying out the task.

The third is to carry out a risk assessment. All of the team members are to be trained in evaluating risk assessments and reading hazard maps. They do not have to be experts, but are to be good enough to identify a potential problem. It is important that everyone understands how the risks are evaluated and agree on the results. Being able to evaluate a risk, causes the team members to think in a different way when they are working.

The fourth is to apply control measures to minimize risk. Control measures are actions which are taken to eliminate or minimize risk.

The fifth is to create safe working procedures. Safe working procedures become the document of choice. Specifications normally give instructions and refer to relevant other documentation. A good procedure contains all the information needed.

A committee is to be constituted for this pillar which comprises representative of executives as well as of the work-force. The committee is headed by a senior officer. Utmost importance to safety is to be given in the plant. There is to be available a manager (safety) who is to look after functions related to safety. To create awareness among employees, different competitions like safety slogans, quiz, drama, and posters, etc. related to safety are to be organized at regular intervals.

Introduction of TPM

The introduction of TPM is carried out in an organization in four stages as given below.

Introductory or preparatory stage – it is done in five steps which are described below.

The first step is the declaration of the management about introduction of TPM initiative to everyone in the organization. For this, proper understanding, correct perceptive, and active, dedicated, and dynamic involvement of the top management is necessary. Senior management is required to have awareness programmes, after which announcement is made to all. The introduction of TPM initiative is to be published in the house magazine and put it on the notice board. If needed, a letter is sent to all concerned individuals.

The second step is the initial learning and publicity for TPM. Training is to be done based on the need. Some employees need intensive training while some others just an awareness. Employees who matters are sent to places where TPM has already successfully implemented.

The third step is the setting up of TPM and departmental committees. TPM includes improvement, autonomous maintenance, and quality maintenance etc. as part of it. When committees are set up, they are to take care of all those needs.

The fourth step is establishing of the TPM working system and target. Under this step bench-marking of each area is done and target for achievement is fixed.

The fifth step is a master plan for institutionalizing. TPM implementation is to be done leading to its institutionalizing wherein TPM becomes an organizational culture.

Introduction stage – At this stage, there is a ceremony where all concerned are invited. Suppliers are to be invited since they are to know that the organization needs quality supply from them. Related and affiliated organizations who can be the customers, and sister organizations etc. are to be invited. Some can learn from the organization and some can help the organization while the customers get the communication that the organization is keen for quality output of products.

Implementation stage – In this stage, eight pillars (activities) in the development of TPM are carried out. Out of these four activities are for establishing the system for efficiency of production, one for initial control system for new product and equipment, one for control of quality, one for improving the administration efficiency, and one is for safety and health of the employees as well as the as the working environment.

Institutionalising stage – The successful implementation of first three stages helps the organization in reaching the stage of maturity. This is the stage when the organization can apply for institutional awards. At this stage, the organization can plan next challenging level to which this movement can be advanced.

Sustaining the upgrading attained with TPM – Putting into practice a TPM programme results into short-term achievement. The strategy is to be nourished that achievement can be sustained over a long period. It commences along with the employees. If the employees accept the TPM programme, the superior future of the organization is ensured and it can be observed in the form of superior prospective benefits the employees. This can generate a great feeling of bonding of the employees with the organization.

Another method to attain continuing upgrading with TPM programme is by dynamic leadership. By this, the importance of the programme by actions is illustrated. Leadership engagement stops people from going back into prior work habits and addition of new vigour into the process repeatedly. Incessant improvement assists the TPM programme get used to altering environments and stops the delaying of programme and avoiding employees from becoming monotonous.