Definition
Maintenance has a far greater impact on corporate profitability than most managers are willing to consider, much less admit .And, as the competitive environment in the world continues to increase the pace, companies are looking for new strategies to save on costs, develop employees to face future challenges and bring about a new culture at work place. This has become imperative to stay in business and have an edge over the competition. In this situation, a number of strategies like Total Quality Management, Kaizen, quality circles, ISO certification, six sigma and Total productive Maintenance are available and it is the management choice to selectively implement these in their workplace
WHAT IS TPM ?
Seiichi Nakajima (1988) 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 work force. Thus, TPM is not a specific maintenance policy, it is a culture, a philosophy and a new attitude towards maintenance. The salient features of TPM is the involvement of operators in carrying out autonomous maintenance by participating in cleaning, lubrication, minor repair, adjustments etc. The benefits of TPM can be very tangible. There are organizations, which through implementation of TPM have been able to increase the production volume by 50%. Reduce down time by 27% and rate of defective products by 80%. In addition to tangible benefits, TPM also various intangible benefits such as fostering of teamwork, increase morale, safety and nurturing the work force increased intellectual capabilities having the potential of meeting today's level of competition and challenges
Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a proven strategy for medium to large industries to get superior business results and develop people skills to take on future business Challenges. Unlike ISO certification process, in TPM, focus is on maintaining the equipment and process in perfect condition- to get best quality products and involve all employees in Collectively carrying out loss elimination, using analytical problem solving tools. The fundamental belief is that if the equipment is maintained well and setting is done by a conscious, skilled operator, once can get the best quality product. The whole concept of TPM is built around this belief and hence the name total productive maintenance. However, this concept can be applied to places other than plant and equipment and instead we could name Total productive Management rather than just maintenance
There are different phases in implementation of TPM. The first one being, the preparation phase or also called the ` Phase Zero'. This is a very important period of time for aligning everybody for the program and also, do some preliminary mock-ups are also called Leadership model work. Once having convinced about the benefits and modalities, the leadership will make a master plan for implementation and allocate resources. This key point is a milestone and is called Kick off
Then on, there are generally four phases for the implementation of TPM. There are key measures established for the results and pillar step activities start as per the master plan to achieve the goals established for each phase. The master plan is a great piece of work, which guides smoothly all activities and is fixed for a period of three to five years. This does not mean that it is rigid. It is dynamic and at the same time firm on objectives. The maximum activities are done in the first year, background and then they lead these pillar activities
