TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE

Analysis of Total Productive Maintenance in Automotive Industry



Analysis of Total Productive Maintenance in Automotive Industry

Introduction

The roots of TPM can be traced back to an American quality legend named Dr. W. Edwards Deming. In Japan, at a Toyota partner company called Nippondenso, he developed and instituted what was known as preventive maintenance. Before Deming, manufacturers generally practiced what is now known as breakdown management (BM). In BM, machinery is generally run until it breaks, and breakdowns are considered inevitable and normal (Batson & Wan, 2004).

Under Deming, however, dedicated maintenance personnel were trained to prevent breakdowns. At Nippondenso, breakdowns were significantly reduced and Deming's preventive maintenance program operated successfully until the early 1960s. With the introduction of automated machinery, equipment became much more complex. The costs of training a growing maintenance department on progressively complex equipment became financially burdensome. To overcome this, Nippondenso began incorporating lower paid, lower skilled production workers into a comprehensive maintenance program. Simple tasks—such as tightening, lubricating, and cleaning—were easy enough for machine operators to perform.

Having operators perform basic maintenance was not necessarily intended to reduce maintenance costs. Rather, it provided three primary benefits:

It formed a bond between operators and machinery

It freed up highly skilled maintenance workers to perform more technically demanding tasks

It helped operators recognize potential equipment failures long before a breakdown

The third benefit is known as autonomous maintenance. It evolved with other maintenance practices, including preventive maintenance, into the TPM program we know today.

Background of Total Productive Maintenance

Background of this project gives guide to understand the Total Productive Maintenance techniques involved in automotive industry. This involves in several techniques that are using in many Automotive Industry. Use of Total Productive Maintenance techniques during automotive manufacturing will help to reduce wastage of time and money. The Total Productive Maintenance techniques that involved are breakdown maintenance, Preventive maintenance, Periodic maintenance (Time based maintenance - TBM), Predictive maintenance, Corrective maintenance, and Maintenance prevention.

Main objective of this project is to appraise the Total Productive Maintenance techniques in automotive manufacturing industries with the aid of case studies for better results from the manufacturing. Today, with competition in industry at an all-time high, TPM may be the only thing that stands between success and total failure for some companies. It has been proven to be a program that works. It can be adapted to work not only in industrial plants, but in construction, building maintenance, transportation, and in a variety of other situations. Employees must be educated and convinced that TPM is not just another "program of the month" and that management is totally committed to the program and the extended time frame necessary for full implementation. If everyone involved in a TPM program does his or her part, an unusually high rate of return compared to resources invested may be expected (McKone, Schroeder, & Cua, 1999).

The Seven Steps to Implement TPM

TPM is a long journey and systematic engineering, but too many studies are long on the theories but scanty on the implementation ...