CHAPTER IV

The Power of TPM
Although TPM is in its relative infancy, there are already a number of success stories to
tell. The Japanese, of course, have been practicing TPM for about 20 years. Today, it is
estimated that over 1000 Japanese plants use TPM, covering the whole spectrum of
industry, from micro electronics to automotive and steel making.
While the Japanese started TPM, they have no corner on the market. The trend to TPM is
international. There is a tremendous surge of interest in TPM in Latin America, Southeast
Asia and Europe.

In the U.S. too, TPM is catching on at a number of large companies. Ford Motor
Company, Eastman Kodak, DuPont and Motorola are some of the leading corporations
that are now installing TPM programs in many plants both in the U.S. and overseas. TPM Impacts all of Manufacturing

Most of the results are outstanding. And they occur in all phases of the manufacturing
process. In one U.S. aerospace company, implementing TPM helped them reduce mainte-
nance service calls by 29% in only three months.

Of course, the primary purpose of TPM is to reduce equipment downtime. The reason is
simple. You only make money when your equipment is running. Waiting for maintenance
and fixing breakdowns is costing you precious production time. So you must prevent
breakdowns and eliminate unnecessary idling and stoppages of equipment. You have to
train and motivate your operators to participate in accomplishing these goals.

Just these four reductions--fewer equipment failures, quicker changeovers, less
maintenance downtime and less idling and minor stoppages--can give you 40% more

involved with their equipment, they will want to inspect it to ensure that it's in good
condition.

The bottom line in this quality process is equipment improvement and uncompromising
maintenance. By making sure that your equipment is in top operating condition, you have
a much better chance of producing a quality product. And that's what it takes to be
competitive in today's global marketplace. The Passion of Productivity

Improved equipment quality and performance lead to improved productivity. Dai Nippon
in Osaka, Japan, has accomplished a plant-wide productivity gain of 50 %. These benefits
came through fewer breakdowns, less idling and minor stoppages, shorter set-ups, faster
speed and fewer rejects.

Suppose you are currently producing 1000 parts or components per day, and you could
increase that to 1500, without adding an extra shift. What effect would it have on your
company's earnings? That's the power of TPM.

Normally, you can't expect your whole plant to attain that 50% improvement. But on
many machines you can. Establish a goal that you can reach by studying the current
conditions in your plant and calculating the overall effectiveness of your equipment, then
determining how much you can improve it and what your new output will be. Controlling Maintenance Costs

Robotics, automated factories, computer-integrated manufacturing, computerized
numerical control (CNC)--all these high-tech accomplishments are helping companies


Part of this new, high-tech maintenance operation is the training of the operators, which
becomes important under TPM. When maintenance workers realize the benefits of
transferring their routine work to operators, training will receive high priority. Improving Your Safety Record

Another benefit of TPM is increased safety. In addition to zero defects, the goal of TPM
is zero accidents. Tennessee Eastman, a chemical company that has the first and most
successful TPM installation in the U.S., suffered only three minor accidents while
performing over 1,000,000 TPM tasks (a task that was previously done by maintenance)
over the last four years. This is a vast improvement over their previous record. Under
TPM, the operators are trained and motivated to work safely. If one operator is unsure of
how to perform a TPM task correctly, another, more experienced operator will pitch in
and help. That's the team concept and the reason safety improves dramatically with TPM. The Bottom Line

The return on investment normally pays for your TPM program many times over. Dai
Nippon, a large Japanese printing company, invested $2.1 million in TPM. But the
company saved $5.5 million over the same period, an ROI of 262%. Tennessee Eastman
spends $1 million annually on TPM. Their documented cost reduction is over $5 million
a year, an ROI of over 500%. This does not include the benefits of improved productivity
(output), which are estimated to be a multiple of the cost reduction benefits!

You have to make some investment in TPM to make it work. It is no quick cure by any
means. There are costs for TPM administration, for training, and for equipment
improvement. You must be able to calculate where your savings are going to happen, and


Employee Participation

One overriding result of TPM is employee pride in performance. In every mature TPM
installation, the operators are proud of their accomplishments. They'll walk up to you and