Total Productive Maintenance

1 day (workshop) / Implementation time varies on size of project

Breakdowns cost big-time. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) programs are like an insurance policy for manufacturers. In the 1950s and '60s, Japan's manufacturing industry was in the midst of a rapid program of constructing additional production facilities. As this buildup proceeded, it grew increasingly clear that productivity and product quality in the manufacturing industry were strongly affected by the condition of plants and facilities. To control these factors, techniques of plant maintenance were introduced from the United States. At the heart of plant maintenance was Preventive Maintenance, which would later inspire a method called Productive Maintenance, developed at General Electric to improve productivity. Plant maintenance, along with its central principle of Preventive Maintenance, led to the formation of specialized maintenance organizations, establishment of plant maintenance systems, and development of diagnostic technologies. Through activities to raise efficiency in maintenance work, plant maintenance provided a significant contribution to the evolution of the process industry. At the same time, however, these trends reinforced a division of labor between equipment operation and equipment maintenance. In effect, this caused equipment operators to become estranged from the equipment it was their task to operate. These forces have been traditionally antagonistic: production blames maintenance.

TPM helps bridge this gap as well as ensuring that machines are ready to produce at any time. It also stretches scarce maintenance technician resources. TPM starts by creating a much-needed bonding and cooperation between maintenance crews and production operators, supervisors and management.

Course Description:

In this workshop participants become familiar with TPM, a systematic approach for minimizing machine downtime resulting from unexpected breakdowns.  We will emphasize the role of the machine operator who becomes involved with routine checks and fine-tuning.  We will also demonstrate how TPM enables machinery to operate more efficiently and reliably by sharing the knowledge of skilled tradesmen with the operators, standardizing minor preventive methods, while freeing-up valuable time for the skilled tradesmen to pursue further technical activities.

Learning Objectives:

After the Workshop participants will be able to: