ABSTRACT
Downtime can bring any organization to a standstill. Traditional manufacturing operates under the “we fix it” mentality in which the maintenance department performs all maintenance activities. These activities are “fire fighting” maintenance that occur when a machine breaks down. The maintenance department performs some preventative maintenance; however, there is limited time for this because it is performed around normal machine operating times. In the traditional manufacturing environment, the manufacturing department functions under the “we operate” and “run it ’til it breaks” mentality (Cudney, 2009). The operators generally do not perform any maintenance activities. Instead, the operators contact maintenance when a machine breakdown occurs. In addition, the operators are inactive during the maintenance activities. When a process is operating using continuous flow and pull, a down piece of equipment impacts all preceding steps since the operator can only pull work from the preceding step. The incorrect mentality is to build up product between processes “just in case” there is a breakdown. This is why total productive maintenance (TPM) is so vital for organizations to become Lean. TPM is used as part of the Lean initiative to improve equipment uptime and reliability. The purpose of this book is to provide a guide for learners and practitioners of total productive maintenance.
