What is TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)?

TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is a team-based approach to keeping equipment in peak condition so it runs reliably, at speed, and makes good parts. Where traditional maintenance waits for things to break, TPM makes reliability everyone's job - operators included - and uses OEE as its scoreboard.

TPM and OEE go together

OEE and TPM grew up together: OEE is the measure, TPM is the method. TPM targets the same losses OEE exposes - in fact the Six Big Losses come straight from the TPM tradition. If OEE tells you where the loss is, TPM is the organised way to remove it and keep it gone.

The eight pillars (in plain terms)

• Autonomous maintenance - operators handle routine cleaning, inspection and lubrication, catching problems early.
• Planned maintenance - schedule upkeep around failure data, before things break.
• Focused improvement - small cross-functional teams attack the biggest losses.
• Quality maintenance - design out the conditions that cause defects.
• Early equipment management - feed lessons into the design and install of new machines.
• Education & training - build the skills the other pillars need.
• Safety, health & environment - zero accidents as a condition of good operation.
• TPM in administration - extend the same waste-elimination thinking to office processes.

Where to start

You don't roll out eight pillars on day one. Start by making the losses visible with honest OEE, pick one critical line, and run focused improvement plus basic autonomous maintenance there. Prove the gain, then spread it. That measure-first, fix-the-vital-few approach is the same one in how to improve OEE.