Total Productivity and Maintenance Measurement

Total productivity maintenance (TPM) is a Japanese continuous improvement process developed to alleviate production losses caused by poor equipment performance, which has aroused considerable interest in many parts of the world. Total productivity maintenance is much more than ‘just another maintenance technique’; it is fundamentally different approach to the care and improvement of company assets. It is an approach that involves production, engineering and support functions and cannot succeed without their “buy in” and continuing support that should be ought from the very early stages of implementation. Maintenance doesn’t receive a proportionate amount of management attention. It is revealed that the maintenance engineer can spearhead dramatic productivity improvement by implementing work measurement to manage and control maintenance. An examination of the nature of maintenance work reveals its unique characteristics. It is low-volume work compared to production. When physical plant value, maintenance labor, materials and overhead are considered, maintenance is the largest single variable operating cost in most enterprises. Universal maintenance standards can be used to benchmark maintenance everywhere maintenance work is performed. This paper sheds some light on the total productivity maintenance process with emphasis on one of its main pillarsthe measurement of maintenance work.

Keywords:

Total productivity maintenance , maintenance measurement , benchmarking maintenance , maintenance availability , reliability and efficiency