Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a methodology that seeks to instill in all factory workers a sense of responsibility for their equipment. In this article, we review the basics of this proactive and preventive approach to industrial maintenance and discuss how you can put it into practice with the help of Mapex.
When critical equipment breaks down, it causes significant delays, wastes valuable resources and jeopardizes both production quality and the delivery of value to the end customer.
TPM is a methodology that seeks to avoid these problems and, as a result, maximize the efficiency of a company’s machinery.
This strategy, created in Japan in the mid-20th century, has become an indispensable tool for many industrial organizations. Especially for those who are committed to the integration of maintenance and production departments in order to improve productivity and availability in their facilities.
What is the relationship between TPM and Lean Manufacturing?
TPM is closely linked to Lean Manufacturing, as both seek to eliminate waste, increase operational efficiency and, as a consequence:
- Reduce costs.
- Increase productivity.
- Improve production quality.
- Minimize downtime and unscheduled shutdowns.
- Improve worker health and safety.
- Increase the motivation and commitment of the operators, making them participants in the continuous improvement process.
But how are these benefits achieved? Read on to discover the eight pillars of TPM.
The 8 pillars of TPM
As mentioned above, TPM places special emphasis on providing production operators with the knowledge and tools necessary to become more autonomous, responsible and proactive when it comes to maintaining industrial equipment.
To achieve this, this methodology is based on eight pillars. Each of them indicates a route to follow to eliminate or reduce some type of waste, such as waiting times, reprocessing or overproduction:
1. Focus on improvements: continuous improvement of equipment is sought to optimize its performance and extend its useful life.
2. Autonomous maintenance: the aim is for operators to clean, lubricate and inspect the equipment they work on. In this way, they are able to detect faults early and free up maintenance technicians to devote their time to more relevant tasks.
3. Planned maintenance: more resources are allocated to preventive maintenance of equipment to avoid unscheduled downtime.
4. Quality maintenance: maintenance actions oriented to the care of the equipment are carried out to achieve zero-defect manufacturing.
5. Continuous training: employees are trained with the necessary skills to be able to contribute positively to equipment maintenance.
6. New equipment management: leverages the practical knowledge gained through TPM to improve the design and management of new equipment.
7. Hygiene and safety in the work environment: avoid workplace accidents through efficient maintenance management.
8. TPM in the administrative area: looking beyond the shop floor, addressing and eliminating areas of waste in administrative functions.
How does Mapex help you implement TPM in your factory?
MapexQM has the necessary tools to configure, plan and perform different types of checklists at the work center level.
Recently, thanks to this solution, companies can also register and define the periodicity of all those inspection lists that are part of their total productive maintenance strategy.
In this way, production operators can carry out preventive tasks and contribute positively to the care and proper functioning of the equipment. Keep in mind that checklists can be passed from any device (plant terminal, office screen or tablet), without the need to resort to the use of paper documents.
In addition, we have incorporated a historical section, through which you can view all the TPMs that have been created, check their status and the details of the inspection points, see the results obtained, etc.
Do you want to know more? Contact us for information about this addon of our Quality module or about other MapexBP platform products designed to enhance industrial maintenance management in your organization.
