How do you sustain and standardize TPM across your plant or organization?

1 Establish a clear vision and strategy

The first step to sustain and standardize TPM is to define your vision and strategy for implementing and maintaining it. What are your goals and objectives? What are the benefits and challenges of TPM? How will you measure and monitor your progress and performance? How will you align your TPM activities with your business strategy and customer needs? Communicate your vision and strategy to everyone in your plant or organization, and get their buy-in and commitment.

3 Implement the TPM pillars

The third step to sustain and standardize TPM is to implement the TPM pillars, which are the core elements of the TPM methodology. These pillars include Autonomous Maintenance, where operators perform basic maintenance tasks; Planned Maintenance, with maintenance staff performing preventive and predictive maintenance; Quality Maintenance, combining operator and maintenance staff efforts to prevent defects and errors; Focused Improvement, with operators, maintenance staff, and engineers collaborating to improve the equipment and processes; Early Equipment Management, with operators, maintenance staff, engineers, and managers working together to design and install new equipment and processes; Education and Training for operators, maintenance staff, engineers, and managers to enhance their skills; Safety, Health, and Environment measures such as complying with regulations, eliminating hazards, reducing waste, and conserving energy; as well as TPM in Administration to streamline workflows, reduce errors, and improve communication.

4 Audit and review your TPM system

The fourth step to sustain and standardize TPM is to audit and review your TPM system regularly. Use internal and external audits to check the compliance and effectiveness of your TPM activities, and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Use performance indicators, such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR), defect rate, and customer satisfaction, to measure and evaluate your TPM results. Use feedback mechanisms, such as surveys, interviews, meetings, and suggestion boxes, to gather and analyze the opinions and suggestions of your people and customers. Use review meetings, reports, and presentations to share and discuss your TPM findings and actions.

5 Continuously improve your TPM system

The fifth step to sustain and standardize TPM is to continuously improve your TPM system. Use the audit and review results to plan and implement corrective and preventive actions, such as by revising your TPM policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines. Use the PDCA cycle to test and verify your actions, and monitor their impact on your TPM performance. Use benchmarking and best practice sharing to learn from other plants or organizations that have successfully implemented and maintained TPM. Use innovation and creativity to find new ways to enhance your TPM system.