Home About Us Services Contact Us >> Events Calendar >> Links >> Lean >> TOC >> Hybrid Solution >> Process Type Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) What is it? The focus of TPM is on equipment and people with the objective being the elimination of all forms of non-productive time and sub-optimal running of the process. Equipment should always be: Available Capable Adequate and Contribute to the flow of products towards Customers Equipment losses can be categorised into 6 major groupings, each of which requires the adoption of appropriate best practices to reduce or eliminate them. Breakdowns Product change over time Speed losses Minor stops Rework and defects Start up losses Key best practices include: 5S, Leading and managing change, Teamwork, Visual performance measurement, Focused improvement (problem solving), Effective and Autonomous maintenance Recommended Exercise Identify a key bit of equipment (bottleneck) in your organisation and establish how much of the time is the equipment not producing for the above reasons. Speed losses and minor stops may be difficult to establish at first but often can be the biggest area of opportunity. Speed losses represent the difference between the rates at which the machine is designed to be working at versus the actual speed it has been set up at. (NB operators often slow equipment down to ensure the ease and accuracy of processing.)