Page 81 - TPM A Route to World-Class Performance

Techniques to deliver the

TPM principles

The key significance of Seiici Nakajima’s work in the evolution of TPM and
the differences between the work ethic in Japan and that in the West have
already been referred to in Chapter 1.
Nakajima established five pillars for the application of TPM:

Adopt improvement activities designed to increase the overall equipment
effectiveness by attacking the six losses.
Improve existing planned and predictive maintenance systems (main-
tainer asset care).
Establish a level of self-maintenance and cleaning carried out by highly
trained operators (operator asset care).
Increase the skills and motivation of operators and engineers by individual
and group development (continuous skill development).
Initiate maintenance prevention techniques, including improved design
procurement (early equipment management).
One of the main purposes of this book is to show linkages between techniques
necessary to implement Nakajima’s pillars by building on existing good
practices. To reiterate the analogy: ’In a heart transplant operation, if you do
not match the donor’s heart to that of the recipient, you will get rejection’.
Nakajima’s answer to the question ’What is TPM?’ provides at least three
basic aims:
To double productivity, and reduce chronic losses to zero
To create a bright, clean and pleasant factory
To reinforce people (empower) and facilities and, through them, the
organization itself
These aims are attractive to all, but the approach required will vary from
one company to another. Experience has shown that tailoring TPM to the
local plant-level organization and its people is the only way to achieve success.
This process must be founded on the wide experience of applying TPM in
different countries and in different industries, whilst at the same time
recognizing local, plant-specific issues. An understanding of how TPM
techniques link together is important to ensure that customization does not
become cherry picking.
As explained in the previous chapter, the TPM improvement plan contains
the techniques needed to apply the pillars or principles of TPM. This uses
three cycles: