Measuring machine productivity

Many large corporations are well versed in total productive maintenance, but smaller companies are probably not. To learn more about the concept, I attended a 1-day seminar about TPM at a local technical college.

The instructor indicated that a better name for TPM is total production maintenance. Either name implies the concept is more about equipment maintenance, but that’s not the case. TPM is really about the availability and use of equipment to produce parts. That involves not only equipment maintenance but production resources as well. Those resources include operator availability, proper tools at the operator’s disposal, correct tooling in the machine and raw parts availability at the machine.

The first objective is training operators to perform routine machine maintenance, such as checking and adding fluids or grease and keeping chips out of critical areas. Those areas include electronic cabinets and motors. For example, it doesn’t take long for oil-laden chips to build up on a motor cover. Eventually, the motor starts to overheat and the machine fails. Also, putting special markings on gages and reservoirs can help operators see at a glance if things are running fine during daily routines.

By setting up a team, usually including an engineer, a maintenance technician and machine operators, everyone can better understand the shop’s equipment and identify potential problem areas before a failure shuts down production. This doesn’t necessarily mean preventing a mechanical problem. It could be a problem with the flow of product to and from a piece of equipment, or perhaps the process is an issue.

There are six major equipment-related losses:

Breakdowns (unscheduled machine malfunction);

Changeover (time lost between the last good part off the current run and the first part off the next run);

Idling or minor stoppages (hidden losses when running equipment stops and needs minor operator intervention to resume operation);