About the author
Joe Cichon is a retired VP of manufacturing from INX International Ink Co. During his 46-year career at INX, Cichon has spent his last 16 years helping to support TPM activities throughout the company. In 2010, the INX plant in Edwardsville Kansas received the “TPM Excellence award Category A” from the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance. 
 
In January of this year, CNBC announced “Toyota dethrones GM to become America’s top-selling automaker in 2021.”¹ The Japanese woke up the American auto industry in the 1980s after NBC aired a white paper titled “If Japan Can Why Can’t We?.”²The Japanese institute for Plant Maintenance (JIPM) has been continuously developing, refining, and documenting methods to enhance production quality and efficiency since the 1960s. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is focused on eliminating all types of losses in production. It is a machine and people-oriented system. 
 
The JIPM TPM system has proven to be very effective at globally improving manufacturing for all types of industry. “The TPM Excellence Award was established in 1964, and since then more than 3,400 plants around the globe have been awarded.”³
 
In 2016, the global quality standard for the automotive industry IATF 16949:2016 added requirements for TPM. In essence, the IATF reference to TPM focuses on machine maintenance elements and records. Most of these elements are covered under the PM (planned maintenance) pillar of TPM. But PM is just one of eight TPM pillars. 
 
The ASQ (American Society for Quality) covers TPM in The Lean Handbook⁴. But it is presented as a machine maintenance program. Unfortunately, TPM in the USA is sometimes seen as a “bolt on,” which has a focus on machine maintenance and care. 
 
Although machine care is a key concept of TPM, we seem to forget that there are eight TPM pillars. We also miss many of the key principles of TPM such as employee education and morale, and production planning. As a result, you see very few TPM successes in America.
 
TPM is heavy in metrics. The key metrics of TPM cover all aspects of the business. “PQCDSME” defines the high-level metrics: productivity, quality, cost, delivery, safety, morale, and environment. 
 
One of the key principles of TPM is keeping every machine running at full speed with 100% quality yield, while only running when there is a demand for the product being made. A key productivity metric of TPM which supports this concept is OEE or “overall equipment effectiveness”. OEE monitors three key factors of effectiveness:
1. Availability % – Is the machine running during it’s available planned running time?
2. Performance % – Is the machine running at full speed? 
3. Quality yield – Is the machine producing 100% quality (no scrap, no waste, no rework)

OEE = A% x P% x Q%

 
TPM requires much more than mechanical maintenance and machine care to keep the machines running. For example, consider the following losses that might impact an operator’s ability to run the machine:
• He does not know the next item scheduled to run (waiting, or changing schedule)
• He must move materials or containers before starting 
• He does not understand the fundamentals, functions and principles of the equipment
• He must complete a setup
•  He becomes ill, or injured.
•  An ingredient is missing to finish the batch.
 
In reality, TPM (as defined by the JIPM); is a complete wholistic systematic approach to operating a manufacturing factory based on continuous improvement data and tools developed over the last 70+ years. The 8 pillars of TPM include aspects of office management, inventory management, education management, safety, quality systems, development systems, engineering systems, production planning, control systems, financial systems, and customer delight. See the eight pillars in figure 1.





TPM includes 8 Pillars that cover all aspects of activities in the manufacturing plant.
 
TPM includes an assessment system, and documentation containing checklists, and a plan for deployment. See figure 2, which shows one of the basic TPM checklists to get started. “Checklist C” contains 10 policy objectives, 10 items for evaluation of results, and 10 items for each of the 8 pillars. ⁵
 



Figure 2 – Checklist C ⁵

Checklist C is just one of the key checklist used to clearly define objectives, and is also used to assess progress towards TPM Excellence.
 
According to Seiichi Nakajima; who is seen as the father of TPM, it is a plant management methodology which enables continuous and rapid improvement of the manufacturing process through use of employee involvement, employee empowerment and closed-loop measurement of results.” … “Carried out by all employees through small group activities” ….( Seiichi Nakajima)⁶. In order to support this purpose, TPM requires an organization structure that relies on small overlapping groups to assure strong support throughout the company. In this structure, leaders of small groups at lower levels are members of small groups at the next higher level. See figure 3. 
 





The promotion organization supports TPM from the board room to the shop floor.
 
TPM as defined by the JIPM covers so many aspects of manufacturing that it is impossible to convey a full picture in this short article. I have been involved with TPM deployment for over 16 years, and as a scientist, I find TPM to be an excellent scientific approach to factory management. It is not a project nor an event. 
 
TPM is truly an evolution of thinking for manufacturing managers. It takes years for a good company to understand all aspects of TPM. It is not easy to understand and do; this is due mainly to its comprehensive nature. As a matter of fact, I can recall many times when working with managers, someone would say “TPM is hard!” We would all agree, but it is so worth it in the end, and we would keep on pushing. 
To learn more about the TPM excellence Award process, I would recommend that you visit the JIPM web site :https://jipmglobal.com/. The JIPM has been presenting Excellence Awards since 1961 to help share and promote TPM around the world. JIPM has documented the systems of TPM in books and training programs, and also provides recommendations for consultants that have been qualified by the JIPM to support the TPM Excellence Awards. 
More Information
I am writing the first draft of a book about TPM in the USA. Meanwhile you can visit my web page at https://www.makeefficiency.com, and learn more at your own pace. 
Below is a table of links to resources that I have found to be very helpful in understanding TPM.

Useful links for more information
https://www.makeefficiency.com	My TPM informational web site with key information about the JIPM TPM award, with links to sections of the JIPM web site, and key helpful resources and videos.
https://jipmglobal.com/.	The link to the JIPM Web site to support the TPM awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_WoHnKnMo	A 26 minute video presentation about the “JIPM TPM Excellence Award” that was presented at the 2019 NPIRI Technical conference.

 
1.     Wayland, M. (n.d.). Toyota dethrones GM to become America’s top-selling automaker in 2021. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/toyota-dethrones-gm-to-become-americas-top-selling-automaker-in-2021.html
2.     If Japan can, why can’t we? – 1980 NBC special report – The W. Edwards Deming institute. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://deming.org/if-japan-can-why-cant-we-1980-nbc-special-report/
3.     TPM award winners – Japan Institute of plant maintenance. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jipmglobal.com/service/tpm-awards/tpm-winners#database
4.     Manos, A., & Vincent, C. (2012). The lean handbook: A guide to the bronze certification body of knowledge. Asq Press. Pg 116-123
5.     Retrieved from TPM Awards Criteria 
https://jipmglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TPM2022_OfficialEN.pdf pg 39- 45
6.     Seiichi Nakajima, TPM Development Program: Implementing Total Productive Maintenance. Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press, 1989, p. 5.
7.     Suzuki, T. (2017). Tpm in process industries. Taylor and Francis. 
8.     Fumio Gotoh and Masaji Tajiri, Autonomous Maintenance in Seven Steps: Implementing TPM on the Shop Floor,(Portland, Productivity Inc, 1999)