Overview

Thus far, this book has discussed the theories and philosophies of Total Productive Maintenance as well as the benchmarking basic maintenance indicators. The vision of TPM for a particular site must start with these steps because 1) it is hard to develop a TPM plan if you do not understand what it is and 2) you cannot set TPM as a goal unless you know how far you have to go to reach it.

The following chapters cover the steps needed for implementing TPM. Each company can use these steps to design its own implementation plan. Most steps can be modified or altered to meet the needs of each site. All can be rearranged, if necessary, to suit the priority of each company. Chapter 5, however, is the exception. Gaining management understanding and support, then keeping it, is the highest priority for any organization. If all the reasons for the failure of maintenance improvement programs, including TPM, were compared, lack of management understanding and support would lead the list by far.

The ten-step plan presented in Figure 5-1 is designed to work with international companies. The approach is different than many traditional implementation approaches. The management style of international companies, their reporting requirements, the financial restraints, and the quarterly profit reporting all require a different adaptation of techniques and technology. The rest of this book provides a detailed explanation of these steps.