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8 - Total productive manufacturing (TPM)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2009

Nick Rich
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Nicola Bateman
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Ann Esain
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Lynn Massey
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Donna Samuel
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
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Summary

Introduction

The maintenance function and its relationship with production operations is often a neglected area of lean production systems design, yet the skills of this department, when harnessed correctly, add a new dimension to the competitive arsenal of the firm (Willmott and McCarthy, 2000; McCarthy and Rich, 2004). In truth, maintenance engineering and its associated skills, has been neglected for many years. However, as early as 1970, the exemplar Just-In-Time (JIT) supplier companies to the ‘world class’ Toyota Motor Corporation had already spotted and were closing this ‘missing link’ of sustainable high productivity management and had begun to ‘blur the edges’ between the operations and maintenance functions so as to integrate both departmental improvement efforts. These businesses included the Aisin corporation and the world renowned Denso (then known as Nippondenso) and the approach was demonstrated to be so powerful that it has been promoted by the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance ever since (Nakajima, 1988). These early pioneers, Denso and Aisin, were quick to understand that with a lean production system of no stockpiles of inventory and shop floor problem-solving groups, the performance of the factory maintenance engineering needed to be improved. These businesses therefore set in process a chain of events which would later lead to the development of the total productive maintenance (TPM) approach to high performance manufacturing or total productive manufacturing as it is now more popularly known.

Despite including the term ‘maintenance’, TPM is far from a functionally driven maintenance improvement initiative (Rich, 1999).

Type
Chapter
Information
Lean Evolution
Lessons from the Workplace
, pp. 141 - 162
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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