What is Total Productive Maintenance TPM? its Pillar and 5S
In today’s industrial world, organizations must strive to implement certain practices to maintain high operational standards, such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
The total productive maintenance (TPM) strategy operates on the idea that everyone in a facility, not only the maintenance team, should participate in maintenance.
This method uses the skills of all employees and helps incorporate maintenance into a facility’s everyday performance. This reading will delve into the concept of total productive maintenance, its significance, the 5S methodology, and the eight pillars involved. We’ll also explore its advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s begin!
What Is Total Productive Maintenance?
Total productive maintenance (TPM) is the process of using machines, equipment, employees, and supporting processes to maintain and improve the integrity of production and the quality of systems.
It is a holistic approach to equipment maintenance that strives to achieve perfect production. That is, no breakdown, small stops or slow running, defects, and no accidents.
The industrial process emphasizes proactive and preventive maintenance to maximize the operational efficiency of the equipment. TPM introduced the roles of production and maintenance, placing a strong emphasis on empowering operators to help maintain their equipment.
The implementation of the TPM program creates a shared responsibility for equipment that encourages greater involvement by workers. When performed properly, it can be very effective in improving productivity by increasing uptime, eliminating defects, and reducing cycle times.
The goal of a total productive maintenance program, as previously mentioned, has the potential to significantly influence the organization’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) over time.
To achieve this, everyone must prioritize preventive maintenance, which involves shedding the mindset of “fixing it when it breaks” and instead placing machinery at the center of an operation to maximize its availability. This is one of the benefits of implementing the TPM program.
By forming small, multidisciplinary teams to address crucial areas like preventive and autonomous maintenance, training employees who operate machinery, and the security and standardization of work processes, TPM can improve OEE.
Finally, the definition of total productive maintenance focuses on the effective and efficient use of the means of production, that is, all departments must be involved. With the small teamwork, productivity increases and downtime decreases through equipment reliability.
The 5S of the Total Productive Maintenance Strategy stands for Sort, Systemize, Shine, Standardize, and Maintain.
Sort
We record the sorting to identify the most frequently used items and those that aren’t. Most frequently used items are to be kept close by and others should be stored further away. You should organize all assets in one place using an asset organizer template.
Systemize
Each item should have one place of storage.
Shine
In this context, “shine” refers to maintaining a clean workplace; without this, identifying problems will be more challenging, and employees will find maintenance more challenging.
Standardize
Standardize and label the workplace to establish processes where none previously existed. Finally,
Sustain
The organization should continuously implement all the previously listed measures. After laying the foundation, the organization can consider initiating the eight pillars of TPM.
Seiichi Nakajima of Japan developed the Total Productive Maintenance program in the late 1960s and 1970s. Seiichi Nakajima of Japan built the process on eight pillars, each based on the 5S system. This 5S system is an organizational method based around five Japanese words and their meaning:
Seiri (organize): eliminating clutter from the workspace
Seiton (orderliness): ensure order by following “a place for everything and everything in its place.”
Seiso (cleanliness): clean the workspace and keep it that way
Seiketsu (standardize): standardize all work processes, making them consistent
Shitsuke (sustain): constantly reinforcing the first four steps
The 8 Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
The pillars of total productive maintenance deal with proactive and preventive techniques to help improve equipment reliability. The following are the eight pillars:
Autonomous Maintenance
All operators receive comprehensive training on routine maintenance tasks like cleaning, lubricating, and inspecting, thanks to autonomous maintenance.
It gives operators a sense of ownership and increases their knowledge of the equipment. Autonomous maintenance also guarantees the machinery is always clean and lubricated. It helps the operator notice issues before becoming failures.
The maintenance process involves cleaning the machine to a “baseline” standard that the operator must maintain. Technical skills training equips operators to conduct routine inspections according to the machine’s manual.
The operator sets his or her own autonomous inspection schedule after training. Despite the existence of a standard, everyone adheres to the same procedures and processes.
Focused Improvement
Focus improvement is based on the Japanese term “kaizen,” which means “improvement.” This process requires improving functions and processes continually.
It looks at the process as a whole and brainstorms ideas for how to improve it. Small teams have the mindset of proactively working together to implement regular, incremental improvements to processes about equipment operation.
This is the key for TPM. Different sets of team members will allow for the identification of recurring problems through cross-functional brainstorming. This will also help combine input from across the company so teams can see how processes affect different departments.
Furthermore, focused improvement increases efficiency by decreasing product defects and the number of processes while enhancing safety. We achieve this by analyzing the risks associated with each action.
Additionally, focused improvement guarantees the standardization of improvements, thereby ensuring their sustainability and repeatability.
Planned Maintenance
Maintenance involves the study of metrics like failure rates and historical downtime and then scheduling maintenance tasks based on the measured failure and downtime period.
Because there is a specific time maintenance can be performed on equipment, one can schedule maintenance around the time the equipment is idle or producing low capacity, rarely interrupting production.
Furthermore, planned maintenance enables the accumulation of inventory ahead of scheduled maintenance events.
You can achieve this because you are aware of the maintenance schedules for each piece of equipment, and the inventory buildup helps to mitigate any production decreases caused by maintenance.
Implementing this proactive method can greatly reduce the amount of unplanned downtime by allowing for most maintenance to be planned for times when machinery is not scheduled for production.
This allows for thorough inventory planning by improving control over parts that are prone to wear and failure.
Other advantages include a steady decline in breakdowns that lead to uptime and a decrease in capital expenditures on equipment due to its optimal use.
Quality Maintenance
If the quality of the maintenance is inadequate, it will serve no purpose. This maintenance pillar focuses on working design error detection and prevention into the production process.
Root cause analysis, specifically the 5S techniques, can accomplish this by identifying and removing recurring sources of defects. Proactively detecting the source of errors or defects enhances the reliability of the processes.
One of the most significant benefits of quality maintenance is the prevention of defective products from moving downstream, which could result in numerous reworks.
Targeted quality maintenance addresses quality issues and implements permanent countermeasures. It also aims to minimize or eliminate defects and downtime caused by defective products.
Early Equipment Management
This pillar of TPM takes the practical knowledge and overall understanding of manufacturing equipment acquired through total productive maintenance. We use this knowledge to enhance the design of new equipment.
Suppliers improve maintainability and machine operation in future designs by designing equipment with input from its users.
The design of the equipment should prioritize ease of cleaning and lubrication, accessibility of parts, and ergonomic placement of controls to ensure operator comfort. Additionally, the manner in which changeovers transpire and the safety features are crucial.
Implementing this approach increases efficiency even more because new equipment already meets the desired specifications and has fewer startup issues. With this, reaching planned performance levels is easier and quicker.
Training and Education
The operators, managers, and maintenance personnel are expected to have field-specific training and education. Lacking knowledge about equipment can derail a TPM program.
They must adhere to the TPM process and fill in any knowledge gaps to achieve the goal. Operators should learn skills to proactively maintain equipment and identify emerging problems.
Also, the maintenance team should learn how to implement a proactive and preventive maintenance schedule, and managers should become well-versed in TPM principles, employee development, and coaching.
Safety, Health, and Environment
Maintaining a safe working environment allows employees to perform their tasks without health risks. The management should ensure the environment makes production more efficient and should not be at risk to employee’s safety and health.
To achieve this, solutions introduced in the TPM process must always consider safety, health, and the environment.
One positive advantage is that when employees come to work in a safe environment each day, their attitude tends to be better because there is no worry about this significant aspect. Therefore, productivity will increase noticeably. Finally,
TPM in Administration
Total preventive maintenance should look beyond the plant floor by addressing and eliminating areas of waste in administrative functions. This entails bolstering production through enhancements in areas such as order processing, procurement, and scheduling.
Often, the administrative functions initiate the entire manufacturing process, so it’s crucial to streamline and eliminate waste. For instance, for processing procedures to be more streamlined, materials are available as quickly as possible and with fewer errors.
Additionally, we eliminate potential downtime while tracking down missing parts.
How To Implement of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
You can easily understand TPM implementation once you’ve familiarized yourself with the 5S system and its pillars. You can implement the program in just five steps, which include identifying a pilot area, restoring equipment to prime operating condition, measuring OEE, addressing and reducing major losses, and implementing planned maintenance.
Identify a Pilot Area
Some questions need to be considered when choosing equipment for a pilot area; what’s the easiest to improve? (That is, selecting equipment that is easiest to improve and gives the chance for immediate and positive results.)
Secondly, where’s the bottleneck? (Choosing equipment based on where production is clearly being held up gives an immediate increase in total output and provides quick payback.)
The drawback here is that employing the equipment as a pilot means you’re using a critical asset as an example and risk the chance of it being offline longer than you like.
Finally, what’s the most problematic? (Fixing equipment that gives operators the most troubles will be well-received, strengthening support for the TPM program.)
The issue here is that you’ll not have as much immediate payback as the previous approach, and it may be challenging to obtain a quick result from figuring out an unsolved problem, resulting in loss of interest.
The optimal approach for implementing a Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) program is the first one, as it involves the easiest equipment to improve. If an individual possesses significant or extensive experience in total productive maintenance, they might opt to address the bottleneck.
Building temporary stock or inventory allows you to tolerate downtime, thereby reducing risk. Everybody in the business should participate in the pilot selection process.
Restore Equipment to Prime Operating Condition
The approach revolves around the 5S system and autonomous maintenance. Firstly, TPM participants should learn to continuously maintain equipment in its original condition using the 5S system, which includes organization, cleanliness, orderliness, standardization, and sustainability.
To accomplish this,
The process involves photographing the area and current state of the equipment, then posting them to the project board.
Clearing the area by removing unused tools, debris, and anything that can be considered waste.
Organizing the tools and components that are regularly used.
Serous cleaning the equipment and the surroundings.
Recording the improvement of the equipment and surrounding area and then posting to the project board.
The 5S system should be standardized and maintain its continuity.
Auditing the process with lessening frequency (first daily, then weekly, etc.) to ensure the 5S process is effective and being followed.
The operators should now receive training on how to clean the equipment and inspect it for wear and abnormalities after establishing a baseline state of the equipment.
This can be accomplished by implementing the autonomous maintenance program. Creating this autonomous maintenance program is by developing a standardized way to clean, inspect, and lubricate equipment correctly.
Below are the items to address during the planning period for the autonomous maintenance program:
Identifying and recoding inspecting points
When possible, enhance visibility to aid in the inspection process while the machine operates.
Set points should be identified and clearly labeled with their corresponding settings (some people place these labels with settings directly on the equipment).
It is important to identify all lubrication points and schedule maintenance during changeovers or planned downtime, making sure to include difficult-to-access lubrication points that require stopping the machine on the outside of the equipment.
It is important to train operators to recognize and report any emerging or potential issues to the line supervisor.
All operator-controlled tasks should have an autonomous maintenance checklist.
Auditing the process with lessening frequency to ensure the checklist is being followed.
Measure the Overall Equipment Effectiveness OEE
You should either manually track the OEE of the targeted equipment or use automated software. Measuring OEE on a regular basis gives a data-driven confirmation on whether your TPM program is working and lets you track progress over time.
Since unplanned downtime results in the largest equipment losses, it is important to categorize every unplanned stoppage event. This allows for a more precise identification and allocation of the stoppage’s location.
Also include an “unknown” stoppage time category for unknown causes.
Having data for a minimum of two weeks is recommended to get an accurate representation of the unplanned stoppage time. It also gives a clear picture of how small stops and slow cycles impact production.
Address/Reduce Major Losses
After obtaining the data-driven snapshot of where your top losses are, it’s now time to address them.
The previously discussed pillar of focused improvement, or Kaizen, accomplishes this step by assembling a cross-functional team of operators, maintenance staff, and supervisors who can analyze the OEE data using root cause analysis and pinpoint the primary cause(s) of the losses. The team process should look like this:
The loss based on OEE and stoppage time data should be selected since this is the biggest source of unplanned stoppage time.
Examine the symptoms of the problems by collecting detailed information on symptoms like observations, physical evidence, and photographic evidence. Recording information while you’re at the equipment is strongly recommended, and using a fishbone diagram to track symptoms is also essential.
The potential causes of the problems should be identified and discussed with your team. Check the possible causes against the evidence you’ve gathered, and brainstorm the most effective ways to solve the issues.
Schedule planned downtime to implement the agreed-upon fixes.
Restart production and observe how effective the fix is overtime after being implemented. If it resolves the issue, make a note to implement the change and move onto the next cause of stoppage time. Otherwise, gather more information and hold another brainstorming session. Finally,
Implement Planned Maintenance
This is the last step of implementing the TPM process, accomplished by integrating proactive maintenance techniques into the program. This process entails addressing the third pillar of planned maintenance.
Equipment that requires proactive maintenance should be chosen by looking at these three factors: wear components, components that fail, and stress points. Identifying stress points is mostly performed using infrared thermography and vibration analysis.
Secondly, use proactive maintenance intervals. These intervals can be updated as required; that is, they should be flexible and can accommodate change.
For wear and predicted failure-based components, establish the current wear level and then a baseline replacement interval. Once you have determined the intervals, you can now create a proactive replacement schedule for all wear- and failure-prone components.
By achieving this, use “run time” as opposed to “calendar time.” Finally, create a standardized process for creating work orders based on the planned maintenance schedule.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
Advantages:
The benefits of TPM in its various applications are outlined below.
Fewer breakdowns since big issues are more likely to be spotted early and machine operators can easily notice changes with their equipment.
Everyone prioritizes maintenance, resulting in a safer workplace. Problems are easily spotted and dealt with before becoming dangerous situations.
Better overall performance because everyone in the facility is keeping eye on maintenance; small fixes will stop going undetected.
The applications of the TPM program can impact the facility directly and indirectly. Below are the benefits of total productive maintenance in tabular form.
Benefits of Total Productive Maintenance
Direct Benefits
Indirect Benefits
Less unplanned downtime increasing OEE
Increase in employee confidence levels
Reduction in customer complaints
Produces a clean, orderly workplace
Reduction in workplace accidents
Increase in positive attitudes among employees through a sense of ownership
Reduction in manufacturing costs
Pollution control measures are followed
Increase in product quality
Cross-departmental shared knowledge and experience
Disadvantages:
The only disadvantages of total productive maintenance are that it involves thorough planning, focus, and discipline. However, the outcome is worth it.
Conclusion
Total productive maintenance (TPM) is the process of using machines, equipment, employees, and supporting processes to maintain and improve the integrity of production and the quality of systems.
It focuses on the effective and efficient use of the means of production, that is, all departments must be involved. With the small teamwork, productivity is increase and downtime is decrease through equipment reliability.
That is all for this article, where the definition, importance, implementation, advantages, and disadvantages of total productive maintenance (TPM) are being discussed. You also learned the 5S and the eight pillars of total productive maintenance.
I hope you got a lot from the reading; if so, kindly share with other students. Thanks for reading, see you next time!
