What is TPM?
Total Productive Maintenance, or TPM, is an evolution of Preventive Maintenance, and generally credited to Toyota and Nippondenso. It is a program outline that combines maintenance and operations in a way that has never been done before. A company that commits to this program will see almost unbelievable improvements in production, safety, quality, and morale.
TPM is the foundation of Lean Manufacturing and it's goal is- zero breakdowns, zero accidents, zero quality defects.
TPM Fundamentals
7 Pillars of TPM
2. Equipment 5s
3. Autonomous Maintenance
4. Continuous Improvement
5. Equipment/tools
6. Office 5s
7. Kaizen
Great Stuff on Amazon
The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround
"Mastery of the technical details of lean thinking is never enough. A transformation will fail without the most important element: the engagement of the people doing the work."
TPM Implementation
Guarantee a successful outcome
Almost as important as the success of the pilot project is its promotion. If people don't know what is happening it's hard for them to support it. When people see what has been done they can then see the potential, and everyone wants to be part of success.
How do we start?
You don't have to guess, it's been done, successfully, many times
Equipment 5s
Make your mom proud
Seiton (Set in Order) - Storage of necessary items. After establishing what is required at a job center, the location and number of items must be determined. Tool (shadow/silhouette) boards, modular shelving, cabinets, and floor markings are effective methods for ensuring what you need is where it should be.
Seiso (Shine) - Now that the job center is clutter free, it's time to clean the equipment. This is often (rightfully) the first step of a Kaizen event, but is by no means a one time effort. Daily follow up is required to realize the benefits of this step. There are two effects of daily cleaning:
1. Gives workers a sense of pride in a clean, clutter free work station,
2. Workers become more familiar with their machine, noticing leaks, misalignment, loose/ broken parts, etc, which could lead to equipment failure if not dealt with.
Seiketsu (Standardize) - With the involvment of the worker, best practices are standardized. This step minimizes the amount of waste in a given area and, as an added bonus, reduces the amount of time required to train new workers.
Shitsuke (Sustain) - By far the most difficult step in the process. Humans are creatures of habit and unconciously resist change. Frequent auditing is needed in the beginning, but as old habits give way to new, auditing frequency can, and should, be reduced.
A successful '5s' implementation will improve moral, increase production, impress visitors, and it lays the foundation of discipline required to successfully implement the rest of the TPM and Lean methodologies.
Autonomous maintenance
Power to the people
Using equipment manuals, and equipment repair history, a lubrication and inspection schedule is drafted.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous Improvement training
Check out these sites!
- GuerrillaMaintenance.com - Home
- Guerrilla Maintenance.com- The industrial maintenance workers community.
Guerrilla Maintenance - Combines training, experience, creativity, and unconventional tactics to get equipment running faster and keep it running longer.


