Total Productive Maintenance

The Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance is the owner of the Total Productive Maintenance program for improving Manufacturing and Office processes using a wide range of Quality tools within a managed environment. It can be summarised as:

A top down approach (board level commitment)
which uses bottom up energy and intellect (the operators and maintainers)
with a set of initially simple tools (tidying the workplace)
to collect data (spotting the leaks and errors)
identify problems (getting to the root cause)
which are permanently solved (maintenance program, repair, redesign or replacement, backed up by training and, permanent and accessible records)

The AWC has been trained in this process by the JIPM and others, and is very familiar with its application in factories and offices.

Further information can be found in

"TPM Development Program: Implementing Total Productive Maintenance" by Seiichi Nakajima ISBN 0915299372.

If you visit the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance You will notice that many Unilever sites have been awarded various prizes. Andrew Wilcox was involved in the introduction of TPM to several of these companies including some joint visits with Kunio Shirose of the JIPM.

Andrew Wilcox Consultancy

Techniques

Total Productive Maintenance