Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Pillars Overview

This article will unpack TPM for you.  As you go through it, look out for and explore any of the links in green text to understand other related resources.

TPM Overview:

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a comprehensive set of practices, methods, and tools aimed at reducing equipment losses and maximizing production system effectiveness across various industries like machine shops, breweries, refineries, etc.

• TPM Philosophy:

  • Aims for zero equipment breakdowns by identifying and eliminating root causes while fostering a mindset that challenges the inevitability of breakdowns, focusing on minimizing all equipment losses.

• Eight TPM Pillars:

  Structured around eight pillars spanning the entire organization, including: 
  •  Focused Improvement: Optimizing resource usage to maximize efficiency and minimize waste in production processes.
  • Safety and Environmental: : Incorporating safety protocols and practices to ensure a secure working environment for employees.  Integrating environmentally sustainable practices, minimizing waste generation and resource consumption.
  • Autonomous Maintenance: Establishing autonomous maintenance practices empowering operators to maintain equipment, preventing breakdowns and ensuring optimal functionality.
  • Quality Management: Utilizing various quality management tools to maintain and enhance product quality, minimizing defects and errors.
  • Office TPM: Streamlining supply chain operations, inventory management, and distribution processes for efficiency.
  • Education and Training: Focusing on employee skill development and talent retention strategies.
  • Planned Maintenance: Implementing proactive measures to prevent breakdowns, defects, or inefficiencies.
  • Early Equipment Management: Setting and maintaining high product standards to meet customer expectations consistently.

• Benefits of TPM:

  • Financial gains through increased equipment reliability leading to higher production capacity without added costs; emphasis on people development, enhancing operator skills, autonomy, and motivation; creates stability and reliability in equipment and production output.

• Implementation Approaches:

  • Organizations may adopt TPM comprehensively, implementing the eight pillars step-by-step, or selectively pick certain pillars that address specific production issues, fitting into an operational excellence program for equipment-dependent industries.

 Source:

WHAT IS A TPM PILLAR? - How Pillars Benefit a Company (Quality Management Example)

This breakdown elaborates on the introduction to TPM pillars, their role in organizational structures, the functioning of pillar teams, benefits associated with their implementation, and a focus on quality management as an example within this framework.

Introduction to TPM Pillars and Challenges in Operational Excellence Programs:

• A TPM Pillar approach is a system for embedding continuous improvement into organizational structures.
• The common failure rate is roughly(80%) in operational excellence programs.
• It helps with the most common failure modes in operational excellence "programs"

Concept and Role of Pillars in Organizational Structures:

• You need to understand the concept of "pillars" and "pillar teams" within an operating system for continuous improvement.
• Pillars give us a way to embed continuous improvement methodologies, practices, and mindsets.
• They contribute in breaking silos within a site, division, or entire company.
• And they enable talent development and high-performance teams.

Understanding the Pillar System:

• A "pillar" as an area of expertise and improvement within an organization.
• "Pillar Teams" are cross-functional groups focusing on specific performance subjects.
• You have to understand the relationship and difference between departments and pillars teams.  
  • The example below illustrate how pillar teams align different departments' objectives, using Quality Management as an example.

Benefits of Implementing Pillar Teams:

• Amplifying the pool of people engaged in continuous improvement efforts.
• Facilitating direct influence and participation of operations in improvement initiatives.
• Strengthening communication channels between different departments.
• Enhancing problem-solving skills among operations personnel.

Leveraging Pillar Teams for Quality Management:

• We'll illustrate quality management as an example pillar.
• There are huge benefits of involving operations in quality improvement efforts.
• It expands the bandwidth of the quality department for more proactive approaches.
• It enables future development of quality technicians, engineers, and leaders from operations.

To further understand, watch the video below.

Course Forward:

• Consider sharing this with others so they can learn about the benefits!
• And, if you'd like to learn how to bring this Pillar system into 2024 and why it needs to be more than just in a manufacturing plant, this article will help you understand.  Link:  https://www.beltcourse.com/blog/why-tpm-is-a-more-comprehensive-system-beyond-maintenance

Source (best YouTube video on TPM Pillar and Benefits):