Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM) is a production management approach that places the

responsibility for routine maintenance on the workers who operate the machinery, rather
then employing separate maintenance personnel for that function. Used in many Japanese
companies, TPM gives employees "a sense of responsibility and awareness of the equipment
they use and [cuts] down on abuse and misuse of the equipment," William J. Stevenson
wrote in his book Production/Operations Management. TPM is increasingly being used in
manufacturing environments in the United States. It holds particular appeal for small
manufacturers.

The term maintenance is used to describe the various efforts businesses make toward
keeping their facilities and equipment in good working order. It encompasses both
breakdown maintenance—a policy that involves dealing with problems as they occur and
attempting to reduce their impact on operations—and preventive maintenance—a policy that
involves using such measures as inspecting, cleaning, adjusting, and replacing worn parts to
prevent breakdowns from occurring in the first place.

Preventive maintenance is performed periodically in order to reduce the incidence of

equipment failure and the costs associated with it. These costs include disrupted production
schedules, idled workers, loss of output, and damage to products or other equipment.
Preventive maintenance can be scheduled to avoid interfering with production. Common
methods of planning preventive maintenance are based on the passage of time, on the
amount of usage the equipment receives, and on an as-needed basis when problems are
uncovered through inspections. Ideally, preventive maintenance will take place just before
failure occurs in order to maximize the time that equipment is in use between scheduled
maintenance activities.

As Stevenson explained, the goal for production managers is to find a balance between
preventive maintenance and breakdown maintenance that will minimize the company's
overall maintenance costs. "Decision makers try to make a trade-off between these two basic
options that will minimize their combined cost," he noted. "With no preventive maintenance,
breakdown and repair costs would be tremendous. Furthermore, hidden costs, such as lost
production and the cost of wages while equipment is not in service, must be factored in. So
must the cost of injuries or damage to other equipment and facilities or to other units in
production. However, beyond a certain point, the cost of preventive maintenance exceeds the
benefit."

1
The decision of how much maintenance to perform involves the age and condition of the
equipment, the complexity of technology used, the type of production process, and other
factors. For example, managers would tend to perform more preventive maintenance on
older machines because new ones have only a slight risk of breakdown and need less work to
stay in good condition. It is also important to perform routine maintenance prior to
beginning a particularly large or important production run.

In TPM, production employees are trained in both operating procedures and routine
maintenance of equipment. They perform regular inspections of the machinery they operate
and replace parts that have become worn through use before they fail. Since the production
employees spend so much time working with the equipment, they are likely to pick up small
signals that a machine is in need of maintenance. Among the main benefits of TPM is that
employees gain a more complete understanding of the functioning of the system. TPM also
gives them increased input into their own productivity and the quality of their work.

Various types of maintenance strategies

1. Reactive Maintenance
Reactive maintenance is basically the "run it till it breaks" maintenance mode. No actions or
efforts are taken to maintain the equipment as the designer originally intended to ensure
design life is reached.

Advantages to reactive maintenance can be viewed as a double-edged sword. If we are

dealing with new equipment, we can expect minimal incidents of failure. If our maintenance
program is purely reactive, we will not expend manpower dollars or incur capitol cost until
something breaks.

Advantages
• Low cost.
• Less staff.

Disadvantages
• Increased cost due to unplanned downtime of
equipment.
• Increased labor cost, especially if overtime is
needed.
• Cost involved with repair or replacement of
equipment.
• Possible secondary equipment or process damage
from equipment failure.
• Inefficient use of staff resources

2. Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance can be defined as follows: Actions performed on a time- or machine-

run-based schedule that detect, preclude, or mitigate degradation of a component or system

2
with the aim of sustaining or extending its useful life through controlling degradation to an
acceptable level.

Advantages
• Cost effective in many capital intensive processes.
• Flexibility allows for the adjustment of maintenance periodicity.
• Increased component life cycle.
• Energy savings.
• Reduced equipment or process failure.
• Estimated 12% to 18% cost savings over reactive maintenance program.

Disadvantages
• Catastrophic failures still likely to occur.
• Labor intensive.
• Includes performance of unneeded maintenance.
• Potential for incidental damage to components in conducting unneeded maintenance.

3. Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance can be defined as follows: Measurements that detect the onset of a
degradation mechanism, thereby allowing causal stressors to be eliminated or controlled
prior to any significant deterioration in the component physical state. Results indicate
current and future functional capability. Basically, predictive maintenance differs from
preventive maintenance by basing maintenance need on the actual condition of the machine
rather than on some preset schedule. You will recall that preventive maintenance is time-
based.
Activities such as changing lubricant are based on time, like calendar time or equipment run
time. For example, most people change the oil in their vehicles every 3,000 to 5,000 miles
traveled. This is effectively basing the oil change needs on equipment run time. No concern is
given to the actual condition and performance capability of the oil. It is changed because it is
time. This methodology would be analogous to a preventive maintenance task. If, on the
other hand, the operator of the car discounted the vehicle run time and had the oil analyzed
at some periodicity to determine its actual condition and lubrication properties, he/she may
be able to extend the oil change until the vehicle had traveled 10,000 miles. This is the
fundamental difference between predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance,
whereby predictive maintenance is used to define needed maintenance task based on
quantified material/equipment condition.
The advantages of predictive maintenance are many. A well-orchestrated predictive
maintenance program will all but eliminate catastrophic equipment failures. We will be able
to schedule maintenance activities to minimize or delete overtime cost. We will be able to
minimize inventory and order parts, as required, well ahead of time to support the
downstream maintenance needs. We can optimize the operation of the equipment, saving
energy cost and increasing plant reliability.
Past Advantages
• Increased component operational life/availability.
• Allows for preemptive corrective actions.
• Decrease in equipment or process downtime.
• Decrease in costs for parts and labor.
• Better product quality.
• Improved worker and environmental safety.
• Improved worker moral.
• Energy savings.
• Estimated 8% to 12% cost savings over preventive maintenance program.

3
Disadvantages
• Increased investment in diagnostic equipment.
• Increased investment in staff training.
• Savings potential not readily seen by management.

4. Reliability Centered Maintenance

RCM: "a process used to determine the maintenance requirements of any physical asset in its
operating context." Basically, RCM methodology deals with some key issues not dealt with by
other maintenance programs.
It recognizes that all equipment in a facility is not of equal importance to either the process
or facility safety. It recognizes that equipment design and operation differs and that different
equipment will have a higher probability to undergo failures from different degradation
mechanisms than others. It also approaches the structuring of a maintenance program
recognizing that a facility does not have unlimited financial and personnel resources
and that the use of both need to be prioritized and optimized. In a nutshell, RCM is a
systematic approach to evaluate a facility's equipment and resources to best mate the two
and result in a high degree of facility reliability and cost-effectiveness.
RCM is highly reliant on predictive maintenance but also recognizes that maintenance
activities on equipment that is inexpensive and unimportant to facility reliability may best be
left to a reactive maintenance approach. The following maintenance program breakdowns of

Advantages
• Can be the most efficient maintenance program.
• Lower costs by eliminating unnecessary maintenance
or overhauls.
• Minimize frequency of overhauls.
• Reduced probability of sudden equipment failures.
• Able to focus maintenance activities on critical
components.
• Increased component reliability.
• Incorporates root cause analysis.

Disadvantages
• Can have significant startup cost, training, equipment, etc.
• Savings potential not readily seen by management.

PRINCIPLES OF FACILITY (PLANT) LAYOUT

Facility layout problem is a multi criteria problem. Numerous factors, such as location of
work centers, offices, computer centre, design and drawing section, tool-room, storage space,
utilities, etc., are to be considered. The principles of good facility layout involve :.
1. Least material handing cost
2. Worker effectiveness
3. High productivity and effectiveness
4. Group technology

What are the objectives, principles and types of Plant Layout?

Plant layout is a mechanism which involves knowledge of the space requirements for the
facilities and also involves their proper arrangement so that continuous and steady
movement of the production cycle takes place.

Moore, a very well known name in the business world, explained plant layout as,” The plan of
or the act of planning, an optimum arrangement of facilities, including personnel, operating

4
 equipment, storage space, materials handling equipment and all other supporting services
along with the design of the best structure to accommodate these facilities”.

The problems related to plant layout are generally observed because of the various
developments that occur. These developments generally include adoption of the new
standards of safety, changes in the design of the product, decision to set up a new plant,
introducing a new product, withdrawing the various obsolete facilities etc.

Objectives of a good plant layout are –

1. Providing comfort to the workers and catering to worker’s taste and liking.
2. Giving good and improved working conditions.
3. Minimizing delays in production and making efficient use of the space that is available.
4. Having better control over the production cycle by having greater flexibility for changes in
the design of the product.

Principles of a good plant layout are –

1. A good plant layout is the one which is able to integrate its workmen, materials, machines
in the best possible way.
2. A good plant layout is the one which sees very little or minimum possible movement of the
materials during the operations.
3. A good layout is the one that is able to make effective and proper use of the space that is
available for use.
4. A good layout is the one which involves unidirectional flow of the materials during
operations without involving any back tracking.
5. A good plant layout is the one which ensures proper security with maximum flexibility.
6. Maximum visibility, minimum handling and maximum accessibility, all form other
important features of a good plant layout.

Types of layouts –
1. Process layout – These layouts are also called the functional layouts and are very suitable
in the conditions, when the products being prepared are non – standard or involve wide
variations in times of processing of the individual operations.

Such layouts are able to make better utilization of the equipment that is available, with
greater flexibility in allocation of work to the equipment and also to the workers. Imbalance
caused in one section is not allowed to affect the working of the other sections.

2. Product layout – These layouts are also known as the line layouts or the layout by
sequence. In such layouts, the manufacturing cycle is small with minimum material
handling. The space required is small and quality control is easy to exercise.

3. Project layout – Such layouts are also referred to as the fixed position layouts. In these
layouts, the components, heavy materials, sub assemblies – all remain fixed at one place and
the job is completed by movement of machines, men and tools to the location of the
operations.

General principles

Plant layout is often a compromise between a number of factors such as:

 The need to keep distances for transfer of materials between plant/storage units to a
minimum to reduce costs and risks;
 The geographical limitations of the site;

5
 Interaction with existing or planned facilities on site such as existing roadways, drainage
and utilities routings;
 Interaction with other plants on site;
 The need for plant operability and maintainability;
 The need to locate hazardous materials facilities as far as possible from site boundaries
and people living in the local neighbourhood;
 The need to prevent confinement where release of flammable substances may occur;
 The need to provide access for emergency services;
 The need to provide emergency escape routes for on-site personnel;
 The need to provide acceptable working conditions for operators.

The most important factors of plant layout as far as safety aspects are concerned are those to:

 Prevent, limit and/or mitigate escalation of adjacent events (domino);

 Ensure safety within on-site occupied buildings;
 Control access of unauthorised personnel;
 Facilitate access for emergency services.
 The following are some important factors, which influence the planning of effective
layout to a significant degree.
 1. Nature of the product: The nature of the product to be manufactured will
significantly affect the layout of the plant. Stationary layout will be most suitable for
heavy products while line layout will be best for the manufacture for the light
products because small and light products can be moved from one machine to
another very easily and, therefore, more attention can be paid to machine locations
can be paid to machine locations and handling of materials.
 2. Volume of production: Volume of production and the standardization of the
product also affect the type of layout. If standardized commodities are to be
manufactured on large scale, line type of layout may be adopted.
 3. Basic managerial policies and decisions: The type of layout depends very
much on the decisions and policies of the management to be followed in producing
the commodity with regard to the size of plant, kind and quality of the product, scope
for expansion to be provided for, the extent to which the plant is to be integrated,
amount of stocks to be carried at anytime, the kind of employee facilities to be
provided etc.
 4. Nature of plant location: The size shape and topography of the site at which
the plant is located will naturally affect the type of layout to be followed in view of the
maximum utilization of the space available .For e.g., if a site is near the railway line
the arrangement of general layout for receiving and shipping and for the best flow of
production in and out the plant may be made by the side of the railway lines .If space
is narrow and the production process is lengthy, the layout of plant may be arranged
on the land surface in the following manner:


 5. Type of industry process: This is one of the most important factors influencing
the choice of type of plant layout. Generally the types of layout particularly the
arrangement of machines and work centers and the location of workmen vary

6
 according to the nature of the industry to which the plant belongs. For the purpose
of lay out, industry may be classified into two broad categories:
 (i) Intermittent and (ii) continuous. Intermittent type of industries is those,
which manufacture different component or different machines.
 Such industries may manufacture the parts, when required according to the market
needs. Examples of such industries are shipbuilding plants. In this type of industry
functional layout may be the best. The second type of industry in ‘continuous
industry. in this type of industry raw material are fed at one end and the finished
goods are received at another end. A continuous industry may either be analytical or
synthetic . A analytical industry breaks up the raw material into several parts during
the course of production process or changes its form, e.g. oil and sugar refineries. A
synthetic industry on the other hand mixes the two or more materials to manufacture
one product along with the process of production or assembles several parts to get
finished product. Cement and automobiles industries are the examples of such
industry. Line layout is more suitable in continuous process industries.
 6. Types of methods of production: Layout plans may be different according to
the method of production proposed to be adopted. Any of the following three
methods may be adopted for production- (1) Job order production, (2) batch
production, and (3) mass production. Under job production goods are produced
according to the orders of the customers and therefore, specification vary from
customer to customer and the production cannot be standardized. The machines and
equipment can be arranged in a manner to suit the need of all types of customers.
Batch production carries the production of goods in batches or group at intervals. In
this type of manufacturing the product is standardized and production is made
generally in anticipation of sales. In such cases functional or process layout may be
adopted. In case of mass production of standardized goods, line layout is most
suitable form of plant layout.
 7. Nature of machines: Nature of machines and equipment also affects the layout
of plants. If machines are heavy in weight or create noisy atmosphere, stationery
layout may reasonably be adopted. Heavy machines are generally fixed on the ground
floor. Ample space should be provided for complicated machines to avoid accidents.
 8. Climate: Sometimes, temperature, illumination and air are the deciding factors
in the location of machines and their establishments. For example, in lantern
manufacturing industry, the spray-painting room is built along the factory wall to
ensure the required temperature control and air expulsion and the process of spray
painting may be undertaken.
 9.Nature of material: Design and specification of materials, quantity and quality
of materials and combination of materials are probably the most important factors to
be considered in planning a layout. So, materials storage, space, volume and weight
of raw materials, floor load capacity, ceiling height ,method of storing etc. should be
given special consideration. This will affect the space and the efficiency of the
production process in the plant. It will facilitate economic production of goods and
prompt materials flow and soundly conceived materials handling system.
 10. Type of machine: Machines and equipment may be either general purpose or
special purpose. In addition certain tools are used. The requirements of each machine
and equipment are quite different in terms of their space; speed and material
handling process and these factors should be given proper consideration while
choosing out a particular type of layout. This should also be considered that each
machine and equipment is used to its fullest capacity because machines involve a
huge investment. For instance, under product layout, certain machines may not be
used to their full capacity so care should be taken to make full use of the capacity of
the machines and equipment.
 12.Human factor and working conditions: Men are the most important factor
of production and therefore special consideration for their safety and comforts
should be given while planning a layout, specific safety items like obstruction-free

7
 floor, workers not exposed to hazards, exit etc. should be provided for. The layout
should also provide for the comforts to the workers such as provision of rest rooms,
drinking water and other services etc. sufficient space is also to be provided for free
movement of workers.
 13. Characteristics of the building: Shape of building, covered and open area,
number of storeys, facilities of elevators, parking area and so on also influence the
layout plan. In most of the cases where building is hired, layout is to be adjusted
within the spaces available in the building. Although minor modification may be done
to suit the needs of the plants and equipment. But if any building is to be constructed,
proper care should be given to construct it according to the layout plan drawn by
experts. Special type of construction is needed to accommodate huge or technical or
complex or sophisticated machines and equipment.