As a business owner, you know that maintenance is important. After all, if you don’t maintain your company’s equipment, it will eventually break down through equipment failure and need to be replaced—costing you time and money. However, you may not be familiar with the concept of Total Preventative Maintenance (TPM). Total productive maintenance is a holistic maintenance approach that aims to improve productivity, reduce the risk of failure, and optimize performance. It emphasizes proactive and preventive measures, involving all workers and managers in the TPM program. TPM also has historical significance, being associated with Lean Manufacturing, and aims to achieve perfect production by maximizing the operational efficiency of equipment. It leverages the continuous improvement approach to total maintenance programs.
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of TPM, the advantage of TPM and how it can help your business save time and money in the long run through quality maintenance programs.
What is Total Preventative Maintenance?
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance strategy focusing on proactive and preventative maintenance measures to avoid equipment failures altogether and drive up equipment effectiveness. Under a TPM system, every piece of equipment in a facility is regularly inspected, repaired, or replaced before breaking down. This approach eliminates unplanned downtime and ensures that your company’s equipment is always in top operating condition.
TPM also has historical significance, being associated with Lean Manufacturing, and aims to achieve perfect production by maximizing the operational efficiency of the equipment.
Benefits of Total Preventative Maintenance for Overall Equipment Effectiveness
There are many benefits to implementing a TPM system in your business, including:
Decreased downtime: By proactively maintaining your equipment, you can avoid unplanned downtime due to equipment failures.
Increased efficiency: Well-maintained equipment runs more efficiently, saving your business money in the long run.
Improved safety: By regularly inspecting your company’s equipment, you can identify and repair potential safety hazards before they cause an accident. Additionally, TPM integrates Safety, Health, and Environment considerations into maintenance practices to promote a safe and sustainable working environment.
Increased morale: Employees who work with well-maintained equipment are less likely to experience job dissatisfaction due to malfunctioning tools or machines.
Improved Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): TPM helps in measuring and tracking the productivity and efficiency of equipment over time. By focusing on OEE, businesses can identify and quantify productivity losses, track improvements, and achieve perfect production by reducing downtime and involving the workforce in maintaining equipment.
How to Implement Total Preventative Maintenance in Your Business
If you’re interested in implementing TPM in your business, there are a few things you’ll need to do:
Inventory your company’s assets: Make a list of all the equipment in your facility, as well as its age, make, and model.
Assign responsibility for each asset: Determine who will inspect and maintain each piece of equipment.
Create a schedule: Develop a schedule for inspections and repairs/replacements so that you can keep track of your progress.
Implement planned maintenance: Schedule maintenance activities proactively to prevent unexpected breakdowns, reduce production disruptions, and control parts prone to wear and failure. Focus on integrating proactive maintenance tasks and creating maintenance intervals based on equipment needs.
Train your employees: Be sure to train your employees on the proper way to inspect and maintain your company’s equipment.
Monitor your progress: Regularly check in on the status of your TPM program to ensure that it is running smoothly.
By following these steps, you can implement TPM in your business and start reaping the rewards!
The disadvantages of Total Productive Maintenace
It is very difficult to identify the disadvantages of a proper total preventive maintenance system, but it does take time, effort, training, and some form of short-term investment to set up.
Companies often underestimate the significance of preventative maintenance will have on the long-term bottom line of the organization and therefore try to kick-off TPM without the proper focus, training, and support. When this happens, the initial efforts often stumble, the equipment effectiveness improves slightly, and quickly, and teams lose interest.
Early equipment management is crucial in ensuring reliability and safety from the outset. By integrating maintenance considerations into the design and procurement phases of equipment, organizations can create a safe working environment and increase productivity. This stage in the TPM process emphasizes safety considerations, contributing to the overall success of TPM.
Today, many organizations are trying to jump directly to autonomous maintenance as well, but a solid autonomous maintenance monitoring system is underpinned by knowledge, understanding, and capabilities around TPM. And no every machine will benefit from autonomous maintenance either as the cost-to-benefit ratio will be too low.
Conclusion: Importance of Total Preventative Maintenance
Total Preventative Maintenance (TPM) is critical to any business’s operations strategy. By proactively maintaining your company’s equipment, you can avoid unplanned downtime due to breakdowns, increase efficiency, improve safety, and boost employee morale. The eight pillars of total productive, including autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, and quality maintenance, play a crucial role in fostering a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency. If you’re interested in implementing TPM in your business, we offer both Lean Training and Lean Consultancy services offering comprehensive services that can assist your every step!
