Productivity, defined: Total productive maintenance (TPM)

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a method for improving machine availability through better use of maintenance and production resources.

In TPM, machine operators are trained to perform many of the day-to-day tasks such as simple maintenance and fault-finding.

Teams are created to include a technical expert and machine operators. In this setting, the operators are able to understand the machinery and identify potential issues, fixing them before they can impact production.

TPM is a critical accessory to lean manufacturing and if machine uptime is not predictable and process capability is not sustained, the process must keep extra stocks to bugger against uncertainty and flow through the process will be interrupted

Correct maintenance allows uptime to improve and speed production through a given area allowing a machine to run at its designed capacity of production.

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