Total productive maintenance; TPM that works

Tennessee Eastman Company (TEC) has defined TPM (total productive maintenance) as a partnership between the maintenance and production organizations to improve product quality, reduce waste, reduce manufacturing cost, increase equipment availability, and improve TEC's state of maintenance. This partnership emphasizes the involvement of all employees in maintaining facilities and equipment. TPM at TEC is composed of six concepts: utilization of operators to perform specified routine maintenance tasks on their equipment; utilization of operators to assist mechanics in the repair of equipment when it is down; utilization of mechanics to assist operators in the shutdown and start-up of equipment; utilization of lower-skilled personnel to perform routine jobs not requiring skilled craftsman; utilization of computerized technology to enable operators to calibrate selected instruments; and transfer of tasks between operating groups.<
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