Making the most of organizational asset capacity is a great way to avoid waste, increase productivity and optimize return on investment of machines and equipment. To help with this task, how about applying the method of total productive maintenance?

We elaborated this post to explain what it is about, what are the pillars of this maintenance model and the benefits it provides for organizations. Want to know more about it? So keep following!

What is total productive maintenance?

Total Productive Maintenance’s Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) method is a tool developed in the 1970’s that aims to increase process efficiency and productivity. This is done through the implementation of 8 pillars that structure the methodology. The objective is to provide favorable conditions for activities to be carried out in a standardized manner and without unpredictable interruptions. Through its pillars, TPM helps prevent several failures, such as:

    delays due to maintenance problems;
    prolonged, constant and disorganized corrective stops;
    low process reliability;
    need to maintain high stocks as security;
    high defect rate in products due to instability;
    impossible to maintain improvements promoted in the processes.

What are the 8 pillars of the method?

As we have said, total productive maintenance is structured around 8 pillars. Get to know them!

1. Standalone Maintenance

It consists of the training of factory floor labor. It is promoted through the adoption of maintenance techniques and special software such as CMMS software, which involve simpler routines, such as cleaning and lubrication, to more complex tasks such as machine adjustments. The objective is to allow the execution of routines that can help to prevent machine failures, making the production process more efficient and effective, as well as promoting the integration between the employees of the factory floor and maintenance.

2. Quality maintenance

This pillar consists of the effort to prevent the production of defective items. This is done through the standardization of processes and the use of detection features, of error-proofing devices, of a control checklist, among others.

3. Planned maintenance

What does PDF stand for? It stands for its goal as one of 2 activities of the planned maintenance. The goal of adopting planned maintenance is to avoid outages resulting from unforeseen failures. For this, it counts mainly on 2 activities: preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance. Basically, while preventive maintenance aims to avoid disruption through occasional repairs, the predictive maintenance serves as an investigation to identify any abnormality in the process.

4. Specific improvements

It consists in the use of performance indicators aimed at measuring the efficiency of a particular machine or equipment. For this, some basic criteria are considered, such as availability, quality and efficiency. This pillar helps to integrate the processes, quality, maintenance and production management sectors in order to promote discussions about which factors are most relevant to adopt the tools aimed at increasing productivity and improving performance.

5. Initial control

This is the detailed analysis of equipment and products developed. The focus is on identifying strategies that help facilitate production, making the machine simpler to operate and more efficient.

6. Training

Another pillar of total productive maintenance involves the qualification of the company’s employees. As new technologies are constantly being developed, it is necessary to ensure that the skills of professionals continue to evolve.

7. Safety and Environment

This pillar has as main objective to avoid the incidence of accidents. For this, it is necessary to devise strategies aimed at promoting employee safety. Measures are also taken to prevent undesirable products from causing harm to the environment.

8. Administrative TPM

It is not only in waste-floor processes that waste occurs. In this case, the objective is to solve this type of problem in administrative areas in order to improve the performance of various sectors of the company.

By knowing and understanding the 8 pillars above, you can prevent waste and all inefficiencies in your maintenance process.