Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

1. Introduction

It can be considered as the medical science of machines. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program which involves a newly defined concept for maintaining plants and equipment. The goal of the TPM program is to markedly increase production while, at the same time, increasing employee morale and job satisfaction.

2. Types of Maintenance

It consists of three mainly kinds of maintenance:

1. Preventive Maintenance:
   Operators produced goods using machines; the maintenance group was dedicated to maintaining the machines.

2. Autonomous Maintenance
   Operators are able to take care of small maintenance tasks, the skilled maintenance people can spend time on more value added activities and technical repairs.

3. Maintenance Prevention
   It indicates the design of new equipment. The maintenance crews work on the equipment modification for improving reliability. The modifications are made or incorporated in new equipment.

3. Implementation Techniques

Organizations typically pursue the four techniques below to implement TPM.

1. Efficient Equipment
   The best way to increase equipment efficiency is to identify the losses.To measure overall equipment effectiveness, a TPM index, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is used. OEE is calculated by multiplying (each as a percentage), overall equipment availability, performance and product quality rate. It is estimated that most companies can realize a 15-25 percent increase in equipment efficiency rates within three years of adopting TPM.

2. Effective Maintenance
   Thorough and routine maintenance is a critical aspect of TPM. First and foremost, TPM trains equipment operators to play a key role in preventive maintenance by carrying out "autonomous maintenance" on a daily basis. Typical daily activities include precision checks, lubrication, parts replacement, simple repairs, and abnormality detection. Workers are also encouraged to conduct corrective maintenance, designed to further keep equipment from breaking down, and to facilitate inspection, repair and use. Corrective maintenance includes recording the results of daily inspections, and regularly considering and submitting maintenance improvement ideas.

3. Mistake Proofing
   Known as poka yoke in lean manufacturing contexts, mistake proofing is the application of simple "fail-safing" mechanisms designed to make mistakes impossible or at least easy to detect and correct. Poka yoke devices fall into two major categories: prevention and detection.

4. Safety Management
   The fundamental principle behind TMP safety and environmental management activities is addressing potentially dangerous conditions and activities before they cause accidents, damage, and unanticipated costs. Like maintenance, safety activities under TPM are to be carried out continuously and systematically.
   Focus areas include:
   • the development of safety checklists (e.g., to detect leaks, unusual equipment vibration, or static electricity)
   • the standardization of operations (e.g., materials handling and transport, use of protective clothing, etc.)
   • and coordinating non-repetitive maintenance tasks (e.g., especially those involving electrical hazards, toxic substances, open flames, etc.).

   In many cases, equipment can be modified (see mistake proofing) to minimize the likelihood of equipment malfunction and upset conditions.

4. TPM Application in Company

It can be adapted to work not only in industrial plants, but in construction, building maintenance, transportation and other fileds. I think that it’s also adapted to our company in system maintenance.

• Preventive Maintenance
  1. System administrator may give the staff guidelines lessons how to maintain their machines quickly and securely.
  2. The staff should keep on saving their working files in interval, such as: important files, processing Microsoft office files.
  3. System administrator should make periodic backups for systems every week, and backups for disaster recovery.
• Autonomous Maintenance
  1. The staff should turn on and off their machines correctly. They can't directly turn off the machines pushing the power buttons.
  2. They would better not access the unknown websites, because it is intended to be infected by viruses.
  3. They should periodically check the anti-virus software whether can work properly.
  4. They should back up the working files into a secure server before the end of every day.
• Maintenance Prevention
  1. The staff should comply with normal shutdown process. First power off the machine, then turn off the monitor. Finally, pull out the plugs.
  2. System administrator should trace and record the issues from PCs and servers, including hardware and software.
  3. All staff may work together to make a policy how to make a strong and secure system for hardware and software.