To increase the understanding of what TPM is and how it works, we analyze in this article ten of its essential characteristics. These distinguishing features help to gain an insight into how TPM works and the possibilities it offers to the companies that implement it.

Feature 1 – Maximising the overall efficiency of the production system is the first essential feature of TPM.

While traditional maintenance systems have focused on improving methods to achieve efficient use of factory equipment, the scope of the modern TPM vision is broader, as it seeks to improve the overall efficiency of the company’s production system. Improving the overall efficiency of the production system means obtaining the maximum output, while minimizing the input, i.e. materials, equipment, energy, working hours, etc. The key to maximizing the efficiency of the production system is to increase added value and reduce manufacturing costs.

The practices used in TPM maximize the utilization of the company’s assets defined by the acronym 4-M + 1-T, i.e. materials, labor, machinery, people, method, and time, with the aim of manufacturing high-quality products and providing high-quality services at competitive costs. In operational processes, TPM facilitates the development of competencies so that employees can make contributions to improve the ability to prevent potential problems in a timely manner. As a result, improvements are achieved in the management indices known by the letters P-Q-C-D-S-M, productivity, quality, costs, deliveries, safety, and motivation, ensuring increased equipment reliability and process capability to produce perfect products, without additional investment. The results obtained with TPM are of two types: tangible and intangible. The effect is especially noticeable in the reduction of response times to customers, reduction of manufacturing costs, increase of customer satisfaction, strengthening of the company’s position in the market, etc.

Characteristic 2. Proactive approach of TPM.

TPM is a very efficient strategy to improve a company’s results. To achieve this goal, its processes are designed to act on opportunities, instead of acting on problems. The proactive approach of TPM seeks to eliminate factors that could cause problems in operations early before they occur. Typically, companies spend a great deal of effort on management focused on correcting problems and do not pay equal attention to anticipating them. Production and maintenance departments have developed great skills in detecting the causes of problems as they occur, but their expertise in detecting potential causal factors of problems is limited. TPM requires leaders to promote a culture of avoiding the recurrence of problems and anticipating them. Setting standards for autonomous inspection by operators and creating the space to do the work of detecting problems early and correcting them is a good TPM practice.

Characteristic 3 – The TPM pillars are at the heart of the methodology.

The development of TPM in a company involves implementing a set of processes, known as TPM pillars. Each pillar or fundamental process has a specific purpose in improving the efficiency of the production system. It is developed in steps and has a specific methodology to eliminate and prevent certain types of losses, in addition, it has a management system that guides its development and the achievement of the planned goals. The step structure for the TPM pillars was developed by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance to provide an orderly, safe, and simple method that can be followed by any company. This step-by-step and pillar development structure allows the evaluation of progress against standards, known as TPM audits. The fundamental processes or pillars cover each stage of the life cycle of a piece of equipment or facility, from conceptual design, construction, assembly, operation, and disposal to its final stage in service life. In addition to the technical processes, TPM uses other pillars to improve the efficiency of the management processes that support the production, and internal and external logistics of the company.

Feature 4 – five factors that help improve equipment reliability.

Possibly one of the most important features of TPM is to use of a very effective model for improving equipment efficiency consisting of five essential requirements. Professor Nakajima proposed the following five factors to maximize equipment efficiency: 1. Maintain basic equipment conditions. The basic conditions in TPM are defined as keeping the equipment perfectly clean, properly lubricated, and adjusted. 2. Maintain the operating conditions required for the equipment to operate at full capacity. Unclear or incomplete operating conditions lead to hidden defects and breakdowns. Proper standardization, training, and operational discipline are essential elements to avoid equipment deterioration due to misuse. 3. Restore deteriorating equipment. It is typical that when a breakdown occurs, only the parts directly involved are repaired. Therefore, even if a worn or broken part is replaced, breakdowns will recur as the balance between original accuracy and strength is not restored. Routine inspections by operators and maintenance personnel are essential to identify and correct deterioration early. 4. Correct design weaknesses. Even if basic conditions are strictly controlled, maintenance costs increase when equipment life is short and inspections, checks, and treatment to restore conditions cannot keep pace with incidents or failures. In these cases, the causes of the problem are likely to be due to design deficiencies at certain points in the equipment. 5. Improve operational and maintenance skills and competence. Many failures are caused by a lack of technical skill and competence. Human error often goes undetected, making it difficult to eliminate. Operators’ and maintenance technicians’ responsibilities for maintaining equipment must be made clear and their skills must be trained on an ongoing basis. The above five factors suggested by Professor Nakajima gave rise to the five essential pillars of TPM.

Characteristic 5 – TPM is an integrated process system.

The evolution of TPM as a comprehensive industrial process management system facilitated the development of new, specialized pillars needed to improve additional aspects of industrial operations. The pillars of focused improvement and quality maintenance are today considered to be very effective instruments to drastically eliminate losses of all kinds in operational processes. In the administrative areas, the TPM office or Administrative Excellence pillar provides very effective solutions to improve the performance of operations support departments. This pillar addresses problems of loss of process efficiency due to problems in the flow of information, deficiencies caused by lack of coordination between people and areas, weaknesses in scheduling, etc.

Characteristic 6 – TPM Improves organizational efficiency.

Numerous industrial companies with TPM experience recognize that one of the great contributions of the methodology is that it has helped to strengthen the development of high-performance teams at different levels of the company. TPM management is generally carried out through a structure made up of various types of teams. The TPM steering committee, in which top management participates, is responsible for establishing the purpose and objectives of TPM and promotes the process of cultural change in the company through its leadership. The middle management participates in the teams for the promotion, training, and development of the specific methodologies of each pillar. The TPM coordinator is a fundamental role that allows the integration of the activities of the pillars and the participation of the entire company. The TPM coordinator reports to the operations director, factory manager, or industrial director. It is common for human resources areas to organize a team to lead the process of change management and renewal of the company’s culture. The factory operators are organized into small work teams, which are responsible for the use of many of the TPM methods and techniques in their daily work. The coordination of the TPM pillars is done through cross-functional teams in which representatives from different areas of the company participate. These cross-functional teams have an important effect on improving communication, coordination, and participation of all areas in achieving the company’s results.

Feature 7. Improved efficiency of factory management.

The distinguishing characteristics of the management systems used in TPM are Focus. Generally, a few challenging improvement targets are set each year on which all people should focus their efforts. Typically companies with TPM experience use the factors PQCDSM or productivity, quality, cost, lead time, safety, and motivation, as the focus of improvement actions. These objectives are deployed at all levels of the factory. For each of them, a plan of commitments and actions is prepared that are aligned with the objectives formulated by the top management of the company, ensuring the sustainability of the approach and avoiding contradictions. Visual management. It is very common in companies for leaders and management teams to focus on management information and not on management itself. Management through reports presented in meetings is not the same as management in real-time through conversations using boards and visual aids as support. In TPM practice, conversations in front of the boards are commonplace as a means of analyzing the progress of the work site, and decisions are made on the necessary adjustments that should ensure the achievement of the established goals. These characteristics of TPM management systems were inherited from the Japanese total quality control management system, also known as policy-driven management. More and more management teams in industries and companies are becoming aware of the need not to work for the preparation of graphs and tables of historical data, which by themselves do not generate commitment. It has been proven that it is the structured conversations in teams and the management of commitments obtained through dialogue that really make it possible to achieve extraordinary results in a company.