Recently, I was working on a research paper on Total Productive Maintenance that I coauthored with Prof. Hollingworth at University of North Dakota. I was excited about it because I have practiced TPM in the 1990s and have noticed its positive effects. TPM is not so easy to implement because it needs high cooperative environment between operation and maintenance people.
Different authors have different opinions about the components of TPM and its relation with other initiatives such as: JIT, TQM, Kaizen, lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. Some people consider TPM as one element of JIT or lean manufacturing. Others consider it as stand alone maintenance strategy that gives better results when combined with JIT and TQM.
In general, I believe that many things in those initiatives are just repeated. For example, many of the "Analysis" tools in Six Sigma are used in TPM and JIT or in Japanese manufacturing in general. I don't believe in any difference between lean manufacturing and JIT.
TPM is perfect for a stong maintenace crew and managemet team. Lean Manufacturing is something I have grown to respect and practice. Lean is different from TPM and Six-Sigms in regard to training, for example TPM for maintenance, Six-Sigma Quality Control does not involve or train all levels. Lean involves all personnel in the front lines which do not get the proper training in TPM and Six-Sigma. TPM & Sigma delagates to employee at lower levels where Lean trains Managers how to train, evolve lower level and impowers them to manage and grow in regards to Kaizen, SMED, 5S, Kanban, if employees are not trained properly TPM will continue to practice CORRECTIVE ACTION employees that are trained on Lean concepts will practice PREVENTIVE ACTION. I still have a thought on an organization that is creative enough to implement TPM in maintenance department, Six-Sigma for Qaulity department, and Lean for all others on the fornt lines. Would they work together or create chaos, it depends on TQM Total Quality Management. IT IS ALL ABOUT TRAINING THE WORK FORCE ON IDENTIFICATION AND ELIMINATION OF NON ADDED VALUE not all systems offer this type of thorough training. Peace out, I love this type of interaction and learning.
WHAT IS “TPM” AS WELL AS “LEAN MANUFATURING”? HOW DID THEY COME ABOUT? WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? WHO STARTED THIS IDEAS?