Total Productive Maintenance

TPM is defined as a management approach to maintenance that imports total quality management (TQM) philosophy and techniques to maintenance. TPM focuses on involving all employees in the organization in equipment improvement. TPM started in Japan and has spread to the Far East, Europe, South America, and the United States. It became a recognized methodology for improving equipment reliability and plant productivity. TPM eliminates losses resulting from unplanned down time, reduced speed, and quality. TPM brought to industry over all equipment effectiveness (OEE) as a measure that combines losses from unplanned down time, reduced speed and quality. The purpose of this chapter is to present the concepts and implementation of TPM. In this chapter, the goals and the key elements of TPM are outlined. Equipment management is discussed followed by the description of TPM implementation.