Total Productive Maintenance: A Comprehensive Guide for Facilities Managers

A facility runs more smoothly when everyone is invested in the organization’s practices and processes. While many companies are focusing on reliability-centered maintenance that primarily targets critical assets, others are adopting an all-encompassing approach through a total productive maintenance (TPM) strategy. This guide will explore the details of implementing a total productive maintenance plan, along with the benefits and challenges you can expect along the way.

What is Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)?

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a holistic approach to equipment and facilities maintenance where everyone shares responsibility for preventive maintenance activities. Conceived in the 1970s by Toyota supplier Nippondenso, TPM took proactive maintenance further by fostering a culture of continuous improvement. TPM is vital for facilities management in enhancing equipment reliability and reducing downtime.

The 8 Pillars of Total Productive Maintenance

Total productive maintenance isn’t a monolithic approach. The TPM method rests on these eight supporting principles that help eliminate waste, keep maintenance tasks running smoothly, and contribute to superior operational performance.

1. Autonomous Maintenance

This approach to equipment upkeep empowers machine operators to perform routine maintenance tasks, rather than relying on maintenance teams. While complex issues still require specialized technicians, the autonomous maintenance principle significantly reduces costs and slows equipment deterioration by ensuring regular upkeep persists under normal circumstances.

2. Planned Maintenance

This principle involves scheduling maintenance tasks regardless of an asset’s condition. Facilities managers set a planned maintenance schedule based on historical trends that determine when an asset is at its highest risk of failure. This proactive approach reduces unplanned downtime and improves operational efficiency through regular servicing.

3. Quality Maintenance

The quality maintenance pillar of TPM is a proactive strategy to ensure equipment consistently delivers products or services of acceptable quality. It identifies and addresses sources of defects and inefficiencies through regular monitoring and maintenance, empowering companies to deliver goods and services with confidence that customers will be satisfied.

4. Focused Improvement

This pillar of total productive maintenance is a systematic approach continuously enhancing processes and equipment reliability. Focused improvement relies on small cross-functional teams who work together to identify and eliminate defects and losses in production. The goal of focused improvement is to improve productivity and product quality through incremental improvements in areas with the highest impact on operations.

5. Early Equipment Management

Early equipment management uses the knowledge gained through TPM and applies it to introducing new assets. This principle seeks to include maintenance teams in the design, selection, and installation of new equipment, ensuring machinery is more reliable, easier to maintain, and suited to production needs. It helps ensure fewer startup issues, shorter downtimes, and greater equipment effectiveness.

6. Training and Education

This facet of TPM focuses on developing skills and increasing knowledge for all employees to effectively operate and maintain equipment. A well-trained staff runs machinery more effectively and tackles issues with better problem-solving techniques. Ongoing education closes skill gaps, reduces errors, and empowers proactive maintenance.

7. Safety, Health, and Environment

TPM emphasizes creating a safe, healthy workplace with minimal environmental impact. The safety, health, and environment (SHE) pillar identifies risks, ensures regulatory compliance, and fosters a safety-conscious culture. Integrating SHE into operations enhances well-being, reduces accidents, and promotes sustainable practices, strengthening efficiency.

8. TPM in Administration

Total productive maintenance involves everyone, including leadership and administrative staff. The administration pillar supports processes by streamlining tasks like documentation, data management, and procurement. Applying TPM principles in administration strengthens production, boosts efficiency, and reduces costs, contributing to the company’s reliability and pursuit of excellence.

Implementing TPM in Facilities Management: A Step-by-Step Guide

A total productive maintenance program is a top-down initiative that involves everyone, from senior management to equipment operators, in contributing to its success. Restructuring maintenance practices to fit the TPM model requires strategy and investment. These steps will help you navigate the complexities of TPM implementation.

Step 1: Secure Management Commitment

Inform leadership of the benefits that total productive maintenance offers organizations. Highlight well-known companies that have experienced improvements through their TPM practices, such as Coca Cola, Toyota, or Procter & Gamble. Commitment to a new TPM process begins at the top, and once they’re sold on the idea, the rest of the organization will soon follow. 

Step 2: Identify Pilot Area and Equipment

Narrow down your TPM rollout to a few key pieces of equipment and processes that have a significant impact on production quality and efficiency. Begin with areas that experience high downtime occurrences, defects, or maintenance costs. Select equipment and processes that are easily accessible and have manageable levels of complexities. Improvements in these areas will yield noticeable results and give staff sufficient experience to tackle more challenging items as the TPM program progresses. 

Step 3: Establish TPM Teams

Identify employees from various departments with experience in equipment operation, maintenance, engineering, and quality assurance. Bring these skill sets together in cross-functional teams to ensure diverse strengths and perspectives. Clearly layout TPM goals and define member roles and responsibilities, while also encouraging open communication and collaboration. 

Step 4: Conduct Equipment Assessment

Review documentation and analysis reports to gather detailed data on equipment performance, maintenance history, and failure rates. Include operators and maintenance staff who are familiar with the equipment for practical insights. Target common issues, such as frequent breakdowns, bottlenecks, or safety concerns and prioritize equipment that has a high impact on safety and production. 

Step 5: Develop and Implement TPM Plans

Set clear and measurable goals that align with the organization’s objectives. Involve cross-functional teams in the planning process and consider their input. Break the plan down into manageable steps, beginning with high impact areas and provide comprehensive TPM training. Establish a timeline and track progress using milestones and key performance indicator (KPI) goals. 

Step 6: Monitor and Measure Progress

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and maintenance metrics that fall in line with your organization’s TPM objectives, such as mean down time, defect rates, and maintenance costs. Regularly collect data and perform analyses to evaluate progress. Maintenance management software platforms often provide visualization tools like dashboards and scorecards to give you at-a-glance insights into current metrics, and reporting capabilities to track history over time.

Key Benefits of TPM for Facilities Managers

Incorporating a TPM program into facility management offers numerous advantages for facilities managers and maintenance staff. When you implement a total productive maintenance initiative, your organization can expect to significant improvements such as:

• Improved equipment reliability and uptime
•  Reduced maintenance costs
•  Enhanced safety and environmental performance
•  Increased employee engagement and skill development

Integrating TPM with Other Facilities Management Strategies

The total productive maintenance model blends well with several facilities management strategies, typically enhancing existing practices while current processes boost the effectiveness of the TPM initiative.

TPM and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)

A TPM program seamlessly integrates with Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). A CMMS provides a centralized platform to track tasks, analyze data, and inform decisions for streamlining processes. Cross-functional teams can use CMMS data to identify patterns and monitor KPIs. Integrating TPM with a reliable software platform improves equipment reliability, reduces downtime, and enhances resource management, maximizing the benefits of both TPM and CMMS

TPM and Predictive Maintenance

TPM and predictive maintenance work extremely well together. Predictive maintenance employs data analytics to predict potential failures before they occur that TPM can take advantage of for optimizing maintenance schedules and planning downtime for operators to conduct autonomous maintenance. Blending predictive maintenance and TPM helps ensure more precise maintenance intervention, cost reduction, and operational efficiency while also contributing to efforts for continued improvement.

TPM and Energy Management

A TPM program can help an energy management initiative thrive by promoting efficient equipment operation and reducing energy waste. Because well-maintained equipment typically consumes less energy, TPM goals naturally line up with energy management objectives. TPM and energy management principles also align well, as both foster a culture of awareness among leadership and staff.

Overcoming Challenges in TPM Implementation

While a total productive maintenance program can significantly enhance operations and streamline several processes, it’s not unusual for management to experience some roadblocks along the way. 

Resistance to Change

Change doesn’t have to be alarming. By including everyone in the total productive maintenance planning process, openly communicating with staff, and providing ongoing training and support, employees will begin to warm up to the idea of a new way of doing things.

Maintaining Engagement

Sustaining employee engagement is critical for TPM’s success. You can help maintain buy-in by fostering a sense of ownership and putting their successes on display. By creating clear avenues for feedback and input, rewarding contributions, and providing opportunities for development and advancement, you can help maintain employee engagement while building loyalty and trust in your organization.  

Finding Balance

In the early stages, balancing TPM activities with daily operations won’t likely be self-evident. As your total productive maintenance program progresses, TPM teams will find opportunities to integrate TPM tasks into regular work routines, minimizing disruptions. Maintaining flexibility and prioritizing key assets and processes are essential to maintaining operational efficiency while also achieving TPM goals.

Measuring TPM Success in Facilities Management

Tracking TPM effectiveness is crucial for ensuring your program delivers visible benefits for facilities management. These methods and metrics can help determine how well TPM is performing and point to opportunities for improvement, helping you achieve success and reach operational excellence.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for TPM

KPIs are an effective tool for tracking the effectiveness of your TPM program and ensuring it meets organization objectives. Metrics such as unplanned downtime, maintenance costs, and production output provide valuable insights into areas that need improvement.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) in Facilities

The OEE metric is critical for evaluating equipment efficiency and capability. By evaluating availability, performance, and quality, this measurement helps locate bottlenecks and identify inefficiencies, enabling you to take targeted actions to improve productivity and operational costs.

Continuous Improvement and TPM Audits

Regular audits and a focus on incremental improvement are vital for the success of a TPM initiative. Audits help locate gaps in implementation, and ongoing improvement efforts see to it that processes adapt to changing needs.

Conclusion: Embracing TPM for Sustainable Facilities ManagementTotal productive maintenance brings a powerful framework to facility managers for boosting equipment reliability and reducing maintenance costs. Beyond productivity advantages, a TPM program can have a tremendous benefit for employee safety and a company’s environmental impact. Through TPM integration, your organization can drive operational excellence and achieve sustained success.