Tpm

Total Production Maintenance (TPM) Cost Saver or Money Pit?

Abstract

I fill that Total Production Maintenance (TPM) can be a big cost savings for companies. This essay will identify some of the ways TPM can save companies money by reducing equipment failure. I will also being to your attention some of the reasons companies do not take advantage of TPM.

Total Production Maintenance (TPM) Cost Saver or Money Pit?

In today's' highly competitive market companies need to take advantage of every opportunity to save money. This results in higher profit margins for the stockholders. There is a system out there called Total Production Maintenance (TPM). I have reviewed an article called TPM: The Foundation of Lean (Witt, 2006). In Witt's article, I learned that TPM is a system that gets everyone involved from the CEO to the Operator. Witt (2006) wrote, "Traditional preventive maintenance relies on personal trained for specific jobs, whereas TPM is more inclusive. TPM makes use of the machine operator's intimacy with the machinery for routine and simple repair projects" (p. 2).

I believe the following quote of a article called Cut your Losses (Butler, 2005) gives good reason to at lest look at what TPM can do to improve a companies profits.

"Find out where your machines and processes are losing your company money, fix the causes, and the results can be impressive. One factory increased output per worker by 50%" (Butler, 2005, p. 1).

If TPM can increase output by such a large percentage, it has to be taken serous by companies.

Another article I reviewed, Time Bomb or Profit Center? (Teresko, 1992). The author tells about reasons companies do not use TPM. Union Contracts was one of the reasons that were listed. It is hard for an operator to help do preventive maintenance on a machine if his or her union will not support it. I am very familiar with the phrase that is not my job. The union that supplies labor for my company, Alcoa, is very much against production workers doing maintenance type work. I worked as an hourly employee for 12 years and seen a lot of waste. At times, I would not be able to do my job because the equipment I was using broke down. I knew how to fix the problem but would have to call a maintenance person to make the repairs. If I took is on myself to make repairs the union would file a grievance on me for performing another person's work. I see the waste even more now that