Total Productive Maintenance
by
Jack Roberts, Ph.D.
Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Abstract:
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program which involves a newly defined concept for maintaining plants and equipment. The goal of the TPM program is to markedly increase production while, at the same time, increasing employee morale and job satisfaction. The TPM program closely resembles the popular Total Quality Management (TQM) program. Many of the same tools such as employee empowerment, benchmarking, documentation, etc. are used to implement and optimize TPM. This paper will define TPM in some detail, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses as a maintenance philosophy, and discuss implementation procedures. Examples of successfully implemented programs will be presented. Continue reading