TPM - Total Productive Maintenance

Improving companies through better people and facilities

Maintenance is the combination of all technical, administrative and managerial actions during the life cycle of an entity, aimed at maintaining it or returning it to a state in which it can perform the required function.

In the TPM approach, the central figure in maintenance becomes the operator, who feels the line as “his/her own line”, feels “responsible for the line's performance” and wants to “improve its performance” by addressing losses.

Areas for improvement in TPM, Total Productive Maintenance include:

1. The specific improvement of machinery.

2. Autonomous maintenance.

3. Scheduled maintenance.

4. Education and training of those involved.

5. Machinery start-up management.

6. Maintenance for quality.

7. TPM in offices.

8. Safety and the environment.

Through the classification of components into classes that determine their management process and the definition of monitoring indicators for the production plant (OEE Overall Equipment efficiency, Mean Time Between Failures, Mean Time To Restoration, Stoppage %, etc.), important results can be obtained from an organisational and production performance standpoint:

Changing people's mentality and behaviour
Elimination of faults
Annulment of defects
Increased plant productivity (OEE)
Reduced maintenance costs (sum of the costs of spare parts, internal and external maintenance and lost earnings due to breakdowns)