Implementing Total productive Maintenance-learning

from two companies

Prabir Kumar Bandyopadhyay (prabir@gim.ac.in), (Corresponding author)
Professor
Goa Instiutte of Management,Sanquelim Campus,Goa 403505,India

Mayur Kholkar

EMBA Student

Goa Institute of Management

Sanquelim Campus,Goa 403505,India

Keywords: Total Productive Maintenance, Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), TPM Pillars,
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

Abstract: This paper focuses on a study of total productive maintenance in two companies. In

both the companies-one is a part of large FMCG company and has a history of 80 years and the

other is a new Medium sized company, a supplier of the former company, took decision for

going for TPM because of the operational difficulties they faced. While the large company has

gone for ‘Text Book approach’ with a clear hierarchical structure and gone for JIPM Award, the

other has taken up immediate problem focused approach and has a relatively simple

structure.The commonality between these two approaches lies in involvement of people,

education and training , involvement of Top management and commitment towards continuous

improvement.
1.0 Introduction

The history of Total Productive Maintenance traced back to Productive Maintenance (PM)

system of USA in the early 1950s. Japan Institute of Plant Engineers (JIPE), which was the

predecessor of Japan Institute of Plant Management (JIPM ) under the leadership of Seiichi

Nakajima adapted US styled PM in Japanese Environment with the name of TPM. The earliest

company, which tried this new concept, was Nippondenso. In 1970 JIPE was renamed as JIPM

and formally JIPM announced the concept of TPM with the following features (Nakajima 1988):

Key Concept: Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) –Achieving PM efficiency through a

comprehensive system based on respect for individuals and total employee participation

With the supporting theories: Behavioral Science; Management by Innovation and Creation

(MIC); Performance Analysis and Control (PAC); Systems Engineering; Ecology;

Terotechnology; Maintenance Logistics.

2.0 Definition

Nakajima’s Japanese definition of TPM is characterized by 5 key elements.

( Pomorski 2004)

1. TPM aims to maximize equipment effectiveness.

2. TPM establishes a thorough system of Preventive Maintenance (PM) for the

equipment’s entire life span.

3. TPM is cross-functional, implemented by various departments (engineering,

operators, maintenance, managers).

4. TPM involves every single employee.

5. TPM is based on the promotion of Preventive Maintenance through the

motivation of management and autonomous Small Group Activity (SGA).

Over a period of time JIPM broaden the scope of TPM and re-defined TPM. Currently JIPMS (

Japan Institute of Plant Management Solutions) the consulting wing of JIPM defines TPM as

“TPM is a production management method which has been developed in Japan over the past

several decades. With production at its centre, it has evolved into a program which encompasses

nearly all concepts of a company’s operations. TPM creates a corporate culture which constantly

strives to eliminate loss through overlapping small group activities within the site.”

(http://tpm.jipms.jp/tpm/index.html, accessed on 28.10.2011)

Pomorski (Promorski 2004) has conducted a detailed literature survey and presented 9 different

definitions that he has come across and proposed the following definition, which seems to be

more operational than that of JIPMS’s definition:

“Total Productive Manufacturing is a structured equipment-centric continuous improvement

process that strives to optimize production effectiveness by identifying and eliminating

equipment and production efficiency losses throughout the production system life cycle through

active team based participation of employees across all levels of the operational hierarchy.” ( It
may be mentioned that he has used ‘Manufacturing’; ‘maintenance’ and ‘ Management’

interchangeably in the paper)

JIPM prefers Nakajima’s eight Pillar approach for TPM implementation- Jishu Hozen, Kobetsu

Kaizen, Preventive Maintenance, Initial Flow Control, Quality Maintenance, Safety, Health and

Environment; Training, and Office TPM. There are about 150 Organisations in India who have

got Award for Excellence in Consistent TPM commitment First / second category. Some

consultants suggest including more Pillars after a company clears the Category 1. Author has

come across a case where a consultant suggested including Marketing and Supply Chain Pillars.

Author’s experience does not suggest going for more Pillars as it confuses the users without

adding any additional value to Organisation. It only increases the paper work.

This paper present how two companies-One large Scale organization and have got JIPM Award

(Category 2) and the other is a Small organization and has implemented TPM but not gone for

Award Certification.

3.0 Study Methodology

Case study method was followed. Semi structured interviews were conducted with the company

executives, the process of deployment of TPM over a period of time was investigated by

studying relevant documents and analyzing the achievements made through TPM initiative,

observing and taking notes in some meetings. Special emphasis was given on the TPM

organization structure, Goals and Processes followed.

4.0 STUDIES ON TPM IMPLEMENTATION

4.1. COMPANY ‘A’

The company is known to be the oldest company and leader in FMCG sector in India. It was
setup in the year 1931, and then on the company has achieved great success throughout its
journey till date. Though the parent company does not belong to India, the company has blended
Indian values and this lays their greater advantage to grow and become the market leader in
Indian market. The company focuses on developing new ways of doing business that allows the
company to become extremely flexible and tune to the modern market needs of the customer.
The company maintains the ability to be agile, and hence remain profitable in their business.

The salient points of the company’s corporate purpose are:

 Anticipate customers’ aspirations and meeting the same with creativity and
competitively.
 To become a truly local Globally Multinational company
 Achieve exceptional standards of performance and productivity through team
work, embracing new ideas and continuous learning.
 Creating sustainable, profitable growth for our business and long term value
creation for our shareholders and employees

The corporate purpose looks to be very interesting and challenging and demands high
energy level at every level. Company realized that this is not going to be that easy and hence to
be a successful company in this competitive environment they need to go one step ahead and do
something more and in a different way. That was the reason for the birth of TPM in the
company.

The basic motive behind TPM implementation at this plant was to gain improvements
and attend to problems like: low productivity; high losses and wastages associated with the
production system; frequent customer complaints, high operating costs, overheads and defective
products; non-adherence to delivery times; low skill and motivation levels of the worker-force;
and high idle time at various production lines due to unplanned maintenance. Since the
factory/plant facilities and manufacturing processes were extremely equipment intensive, even
small improvements in equipment performance could translate into major competitive advantage.
Moreover, the data collection and analysis process revealed that the total idle time for the critical
process equipment was observed to be extremely high at 25-30 percent, which was not at all
acceptable under the prevailing circumstances. Thus, the need for fostering an efficient TPM
implementation program was felt fundamentally necessary.

The TPM kick off for the organization was planned and the organization’s mission and
vision toward effective TPM implementation were carefully chalked out and communicated to
all the employees. The policy deployment approach was very well formulated and the
methodology was followed as shown in the figure 1.

TPM Organogram

The organization structure for TPM implementation, involving personnel from various
inter-disciplinary activity areas was appropriately evolved, as depicted in Figure 2.TPM
organization structure, at the enterprise level, had been carefully evolved to plan, implement and
support TPM initiatives at all levels. The key point of TPM development had been formation of
effective problem solving and equipment improvement teams of front line operators at the
production floor. These teams comprised of small groups consisting of five to seven workers
lead by a supervisor performed preliminary TPM activities like autonomous maintenance,
focused maintenance and preventive maintenance, etc. Every manufacturing line at plant had five
to eight teams for effective implementation of TPM activities. These teams worked under
supervision of coordinator TPM promotion committee that comprised leaders from these teams
as illustrated in Figure 2. This committee was headed by a line in charge. The coordinator of
TPM promotion committee used to control the line TPM promotion committee comprising of
line in charges and headed by a section head TPM. A key feature of this organization structure
was that there existed a significant overlap between various groups indicating that there was
complete synergy between their operations.

TPM coordinator was responsible for effective administration of TPM activities. It

contained TPM plant level sub-committees for each pillar such as the Autonomous Maintenance
Sub-committee, Focused Improvement Sub-committee, etc. These sub-committees comprised of
technical personnel from various sections, adequately trained in TPM techniques. These were
concerned with monitoring the progress of TPM activities, preparation of reports and
presentation of developments and guidance of TPM promotion teams at various levels of
organization. The TPM manager controlled the working of TPM Secretariat and Plant Level
Steering Committee, thus acting as a coordinator.

TPM Process

To begin with, the training needs of the operators, technicians, supervisors and middle
level management personnel were ascertained and adequate training and knowledge was
imparted to the employees to have proper understanding of the underlying TPM principles and
fundamentals. Further, plant visits were also organized to various successful TPM implementing
plants to motivate the employees by demonstrating the potential of TPM initiatives in realizing
manufacturing competencies. The employees were also convinced and motivated about the
achievements possible through holistic TPM implementation, and the retardants addressed
through counseling and taking positive steps toward addressing the concerns of the employees.
TPM implementation started with the selection of key model machines from different areas and
initiation of four activities – autonomous maintenance, preventive maintenance, focused
improvement and quality maintenance at these critical production facilities. The responsibility
for implementation and follow up of TPM activities at each of the machines was attached to
supervisors and engineers concerned with that particular production activity area. The small
group activities (SGA), the driving force behind the TPM implementation, were then introduced
at various manufacturing areas in the plant with the production operators and executives at the
various levels and related with the different organization functions encouraged to form the small
group kaizen teams. The teams, comprising six to eight members at various hierarchical levels
from various organizational functions, were constituted to look into the areas of concern
addressing the key function areas. The objectives of the various teams were formulated which
included affecting focused improvement activities, institutionalizing autonomous maintenance
and predictive maintenance activities, motivating workers for suggesting and implementing
kaizen themes, development of one-point lessons for improving worker knowledge and skills.
The team leaders were selected on the basis of their knowledge and interest in equipment
improvement as well as the respect and authority they commanded from their subordinates. A
centralized TPM steering committee was constituted for training the workers in different
functional areas and for catering to multi-skilling requirements in the various organizational
areas.
 The initiatives regarding measuring and maximizing OEE, the major thrust behind TPM
implementation, were initiated and the workers were trained and motivated to understand and
record various losses prevailing in the manufacturing systems. The initial benchmarking of
equipment performance helped in highlighting the gap between the existing performance levels
prevailing in the organization and desired manufacturing excellence levels, thereby providing a
strong impetus for introducing focused company-wide maintenance improvement strategies
through deployment of eight pillar TPM implementation philosophy across all the critical model
equipment in the organization. The loss tree was introduced and the loss tree was then
implemented and studied, then the strategies for controlling of the different losses were evolved
and effectively deployed through total employee involvement.

The company has strictly applied the loss tree structure and hence captures the production
loss under these 16 losses. These losses are clearly differentiated and each loss has its own
account and down time to the production process. All the losses are then classified under these
16 losses and then they are strictly studied by making a Pareto Analysis identifying which one is
the frequent and the major loss. Table 1 gives the classification buckets of these 16 losses which
the company has classified.

The roadmap for addressing various performance losses was evolved by holistic
deployment of TPM initiatives. At this stage various maintenance improvement initiatives were
adopted which included implementation of tracking root causes for the identified losses, failure
mode and effect analysis (FMEA), developing planned maintenance check sheets, putting into
place predictive maintenance initiatives at critical equipment, PM analysis, 5S implementation
and various other maintenance improvement tools were used. These initiatives resulted in
significant reduction in the performance.

Organizational manufacturing priorities and goal realized through TPM is described in the table
2. Issues addressed by various TPM pillars in the day to day activities, which made the people
realize about the problems with more clarity and then find solution and attend to it one by one,
and hence achieved positive results. The table 3 shows how it has been done.

With the overall implementation of the TPM the company then went for audit by JIPM
for TPM level 1 excellence award in the year 2004 and they complied with all the points and
achieved the award. The company did not lose the track and went ahead with the TPM
sustainability and adding to the process and cleared the TPM level 2 excellence award in the year
2006. There has been significant improvement in overall equipment effectiveness of all the
production facilities as a result of TPM initiatives. The benefits realized through effective TPM
implementation program included (Overall):

 . OEE improvement: 14-45 percent;

 . inventory reduction: 45-58 percent;
 . improvement in plant output: 22-41 percent;
 . reduction in customer rejections: 50-75 percent;
 . reduction in accidents: 90-98 percent;
 . reduction in maintenance cost: 18-45 percent;
 . reduction in defects and rework: 65-80 percent;
 . reduction in breakdowns: 65-78 percent;
 . reduction in energy costs: 8-27 percent;
 . increase in employee suggestions: 32-65 percent; and
 . total savings resulting from effective implementation of kaizen themes as a result of
significantly enhanced participation across the organization: Rs. 80 million.
Table 4 gives a comparative view of performance of a model line before and after TPM
implementation .

Thus, TPM has proved to be a continuous improvement strategy that works. Successful
implementation of TPM requires at least three to four years of continuous efforts to reach the
Award level status. TPM can help an industrial organization in the move toward world-class
manufacturing (WCM) through achievement of distinctive benefits as gain of productivity,
quality, safety, cost-cutting, flexibility and morale.

4.2. COMPANY B

Company B, the major manufacturer and supplier of finished and unfinished products to the
leading FMCG Company (Company A), opened its plant, in 2006. In the early days of the plant,
most operators and maintenance technicians were not aware of total productive maintenance
(TPM). Technicians undertook all the maintenance tasks and were busy in fixing machines and
preparing spare parts. They spent several hours in solving machine/equipment problems, while
the operators and line leaders did not know how to assist them. They were also not able to meet
the delivery schedule and they were exceeding the targeted cost. Hence there was a constant
pressure from the primary company for timely delivery and within the quality specification. This
made the plant management to think deeply about the situation and they took up the plan to
introduce TPM in their facility. They understood that TPM is about involving staff across the
plant to ensure effective equipment operation to prevent breakdowns. It’s a process that requires
commitment from all levels of workers and management. While the plant was being expanded to
enhance capacity, upper-level management including production leaders and plant managers paid
great attention to TPM. A TPM coordinator was appointed to oversee implementation and, with
the team, to lead employees through training, demonstrations and other activities. Team
members visited other primary company’s plants, which followed TPM, for learning exercises.

To carry out TPM activities, they realized that the role of operators is crucial. First,
operators were apprised of as to why they should take responsibility for TPM activities such as
performing basic maintenance tasks – cleaning, inspecting, minor parts adjustment, changing and
lubricating. At the same time management gave a clear message that the attitude of ‘I’m the
operator and you’re the maintenance man. I just operate it’ would not work anymore. Operators
(including line leaders) were coached to carry out basic tasks when the maintenance technicians
were dealing with machine breakdowns. They also observed how the breakdown was solved and
if possible assisted in the process. Each time the maintenance task was finished, the maintenance
technicians reviewed the process with operators. When similar breakdowns recurred, the
operators assisted technicians in solving the problems. Maintenance technicians were then
deployed in more advanced maintenance activities such as predictive maintenance or reliability
focused maintenance activities. Since the TPM team members came from different departments,
one responsible person was selected from each section. The production line supervisor took
responsibility for machine cleaning, daily checks and 5S work

Encouragement and reward schemes were launched to motivate employees. The best-
performing production line was also chosen as a benchmark line. This made the operators feel
more empowered in relation to TPM activities. Conflicts between achieving production targets
and the TPM plan did arise. The production supervisor usually wanted to save every minute to
produce enough goods to meet the production targets while the TPM team had its plans of
carrying out TPM activities regularly for the sake of avoiding machine breakdown in the future.
To ease this process the TPM coordinator worked out the implementation plan (including what,
where, when, who, how long and how often) which was then put in a rotating schedule and
achieved written approval from the plant manager.

Continuous improvement (CI) was incorporated into the TPM activities in the plant. Plant
inspection tours by the TPM coordinator, maintenance supervisor and production manager are
being organized in scheduled manner. Cleaning became the operator’s normal daily job, and the
line leader started checking the results. To ensure that work is being organized in this way plant
tour was started. The TPM co-coordinator fills in an ‘action list’ in which problems are described
in detail and the responsible person and deadline are included.

TPM-related information is now made available and is visible in the plant. Operating
instructions, TPM plans and tasks, training calendars, feedback details and an OEE matrix are
displayed on an information board. Regular team meetings and workshops were arranged for
open discussion. The aim is to give everyone ownership of the process. Relationships were built
with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to help minimise sudden failures of equipment.
Localising the source of machines and equipment had also benefited the company in terms of
saving maintenance costs. Other methods are also used to keep TPM on track, including a
computerised maintenance management system, spare parts management system and quick
response system. As a result of TPM implementation, it achieved its OEE target and significantly
reduced wastes. In the first year of TPM, machine breakdown was halved and OEE increased by
a fifth. Also, the skills and attitudes towards the work of the operators and the TPM team
improved significantly.

5.0 Learning/Conclusions

From the cases the following points may be concluded:

1. For a large company it is better to go for a very Formal TPM Organisation structure
2. Support and drive from the top management is a primary requirement.
3. JIPM Approach helps implementing TPM systematically.
 4. Certification does motivate people to strive to achieve higher level of performance.
5. An organization can address many issues through well-organized TPM implementation.
6. In case of relatively smaller organization benefit may be accrued by implementing TPM
philosophy with a focused problem oriented approach.
7. In smaller organization one may not follow the rigorous structure as suggested by JIPM
8. From the commonality between the two cases it may be concluded that the basic
philosophy of involvement of people, autonomous maintenance, good housekeeping
practices and equipment oriented approach and training is the basic granules of TPM
which cannot be compromised.
9. Once improvement is achieved with the gain in confidence in TPM, smaller organisations
may go for more formal way to exploit the full potential of TPM.

6.0 References

http://tpm.jipms.jp/tpm/index.html: What is TPM (accessed on 28.10.2011)

Nakajima, S. (1988). Introduction to TPM: Total productive maintenance. Cambridge, MA:

Productivity
Press.

Pomorski Thomas R., 2004. Total Productive Maintenance Concepts and Lit-erature Review.
http://pdf-esmanual.com/books/6305/tpm_literature_review___public_version.html
 Figure I

Policy Deployment

Quality/SHE Business Context Benchmarking Loss/Cost Data

Policies

Factory PQCDSM targets-3 Years

Factory Managers Projects

JH KK PM SHE E&T HH OTPM IFC

Task Force for Major Themes Circles for Minor Themes

Review
 Figure II

TPM Organogram

TPM Steering Committee (5 Members)

Chairman (Factory Manager) + 4 members
(Dept. managers)

TPM Special Committee (

Dept. Committees (4 Pillar Leaders/TPM Centre)
Nos.) (TPM Cordinator-Manfg.
Manager)

Circles (20 Nos.)

Pillar Task Force

JH KK SHE E&T HH PM OTPM IFC

 Table 1

Classification buckets of 16 losses (Contd.)

Seven major losses that impede overall equipment efficiency

Losses due to failure. Types of failure include sporadic

function-stopping failures and function-reducing failures

1. Breakdown/failure loss in which the function of the equipment drops below

normal levels

Stoppage losses that accompany set-up changeovers.

These losses are caused by changes in operating

2 Set-up and adjustment loss condition. Equipment changeovers require a period of

shutdown so that the tools can be exchanged

Losses due to actual operating speed falling below the

3 Reduced speed loss designed speed of the equipment

Losses that occur when the equipment temporarily stops

or idles due to sensor actuation or jamming of the work.
Idling and minor stoppage The equipment will operate normally through simple
4
loss measures (removal of work and resetting)

Volume/time losses due to defect and rework (disposal

defects), financial losses due to product downgrading,
5 Defect and rework loss
and time losses required to repair defective products to
turn them into excellent products
 When starting production, the losses that arise until
equipment start-up, running-in and production-
6 Start-up loss processing conditions stabilize

Stoppage losses caused by changing the cutting blades

due to breakage or caused by changing the cutting blades

7 Tool changeover loss when the service life of the grinding stone, cutter or bite
has been reached

Losses that impede equipment loading time

Losses that arise from planned equipment stoppages at

the production planning level in order to perform
8 Planned shutdown loss periodic inspection and statutory inspection
 Table 1

Classification buckets of 16 losses (Contd.)

Five major losses that impede worker efficiency

Losses occurring due to inability to automate, e.g.

automated loading/unloading leading to manpower
9 Distribution/logistic loss reduction not implemented

These are waiting time losses involving multi-process

and multi-stand operators and line-balance losses in
10 Line organization loss conveyor work

Work losses from frequent measurement and adjustment

Measurement and adjustment in order to prevent the occurrence and outflow of quality
11 defects
loss

Waiting losses that are caused by management, such as

waiting for materials, waiting for tools, waiting for
12 Management loss instructions, waiting for repair of breakdowns, etc.

Losses due to violation of motion economy, losses that

occur as a result of skill differences and walking losses
13 Motion-related loss attributable to an inefficient layout
 Table 1

Classification buckets of 16 losses

Three major losses that impede efficient use of production resources

Material losses due to differences in the weight of the

14 Yield loss input materials and the weight of the quality products

Financial losses (expenses incurred in production,

Consumables (jig, tool, die) regrinding, renitriding, etc.) which occur with production
15
loss or repairs of dies, jigs and tools due to aging beyond
service life or breakage

Losses due to ineffective utilization of input energy

16 Energy loss (electricity, gas, fuel oil, etc.) in processing

 Table 2

Manufacturing priorities and Goals realized

Manufacturing priorities TPM considerations

Productivity (P) Reduced unplanned stoppages and breakdown
improving equipment availability and
productivity
Provide customization with additional
capacity, quick change-over and design of
product
Quality (Q0 Reduce quality problems from unstable
production
Reduced field failures through improved
quality
Cost (C ) Life cycle costing
Efficient maintenance procedures
Supports volume and mix flexibility
Reduced quality and stoppage-related waste
Delivery (D) Support of JIT efforts with dependable
equipment
Improves efficiency of delivery, speed and
reliability
Improved line availability of skilled workers
Safety (S) Improved workplace environment
Realizing zero accidents at workplace
Eliminates hazardous situations
Morale ( M ) Significant improvement in Kaizen and
suggestions
Increase in worker skills and knowledge
Employee involvement and empowerment
Increase employees’ knowledge of the process
and product
Improved problem-solving ability
 Issues addressed by different TPM Pillars

Table 3

Fostering Operator skills

Autonomous maintenance Fostering operator ownership
Perform-
cleaning,liubricating,tihghttening,adjusting,inspection,readlustment
on production equipment
Focused improvement Systematic identification and elimination of 16 losses
Working out loss structure and loss mitigation through structured
why – why, FMEA analysis
Achieve improved system efficiency
Improved OEE on production systems

Planned maintenance Planning efficient and effective PM, PdM and TBM systems over
equipment life cycle
Establishing PM check sheets
Improving MTBF,MTTR
Quality maintenance Achieving zero defects
Tracking and addressing equipment problems and root causes
Setting 3M (machine/man/material) conditions
Education and training Imparting technological, quality control, interpersonal skills
Multi-skilling of employees
Aligning employees to organizational goals
Periodic skill evaluation and updating
Safety, health and Ensure safe working environment
environment Provide appropriate work environment
Eliminate incidents of injuries and accidents
Provide standard operating procedures
 Office TPM Improve synergy between various business functions
Remove procurement hassles
Focus on addressing cost-related issues
Apply 5S in office and working areas
Development management Minimal problems and running in time on new equipment
Utilize learning from existing systems to new systems
Maintenance improvement initiatives
 Table 4

Comparative performance of a Model Line

(In %) Before TPM After TPM

Breakdown 3.21 2.41

Set-up 3.1 2.33

Tool Change 5.46 4.09

Shutdown 5.81 4.41

Defect 1.48 1.07

Management 2.3 1.72

Motion 2.48 1.82

Line Organisation 6.96 5.22

Measurement &
Adjustment 1.25 0.84

Energy 0.22 0

Yield 0.23 0

Consumables 0 0

Uptime 67.5 76.09