Topic guide · 21 articles
TPM and maintenance
Total productive maintenance (TPM) makes equipment reliability a shared job between operators and maintenance staff, instead of leaving it to the maintenance department alone. It is built on eight pillars that rest on a 5S foundation, with autonomous maintenance at its core: operators clean, inspect, lubricate and tighten their own machines and catch small problems before they become breakdowns. These guides cover TPM and its pillars, the maintenance strategies it works alongside, and how to measure and reduce downtime with OEE and the six big losses.
Also useful: Maintenance kaizen ideas, Downtime benchmark charts
Quick guides: Model area 90-day plans, Reducing machine downtime: a worked month, OEE calculation, Preventive vs predictive maintenance, Preventive maintenance, CMMS, Total productive maintenance (TPM), Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), Fleet maintenance
Also: Model area 90-day plans, Cost of downtime, Lean books with honest summaries, How to calculate OEE: a worked example and the six big losses
Picture gallery: Autonomous maintenance examples (24)
Autonomous maintenance at the machine, the core of TPM
- 1
Clean
Wiping down shows leaks, cracks and loose parts. - 2
Inspect
Check against the basic conditions for that machine. - 3
Lubricate
The right lubricant, the right points, the right amount. - 4
Tighten
Loose bolts and fittings are put right. - 5
Catch it early
Anything abnormal is tagged and fixed before it stops the line.
Start here
- 1
Autonomous Maintenance: The Seven-Step Process
The 7 steps of autonomous maintenance, from initial cleaning to full operator self-management. What each step produces and where AM programs usually stall.
Read the guide - 2
What are the Different Types of Maintenance Workers?
The three common maintenance roles are technician, engineer and planner. What each does day to day, and how the roles differ.
Read the guide - 3
Understanding Equipment Failure: Causes and Prevention
Equipment failure: common causes, from aging equipment and improper operation to skipped preventive maintenance and the environment, and how to prevent it.
Read the guide
All 21 articles on tpm and maintenance
What the 21 articles on tpm and maintenance cover
- Maintenance strategies and teams8 articles
- Downtime, OEE and equipment failure7 articles
- Autonomous maintenance and CILR4 articles
- Total productive maintenance2 articles
Total productive maintenance (2)
Autonomous maintenance and CILR (4)
Maintenance strategies and teams (8)
- What are Five Types of Maintenance Strategies?
- Proactive vs Reactive Maintenance: The Difference
- Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance: Key Differences
- Planned Maintenance: Optimization Strategies for Reliability
- The Difference Between Planned and Scheduled Maintenance
- What are the Different Types of Maintenance Workers?
- Maintenance KPIs: What to Measure and Why
- Why You Should Digitize Equipment Maintenance
Downtime, OEE and equipment failure (7)
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): What is it?
- The Six Big Losses in Lean Manufacturing
- How to Reduce Manufacturing Downtime?
- Planned Downtime: What it is, the Benefits
- Understanding Equipment Failure: Causes and Prevention
- Four Most Common Causes of Equipment Failure
- Root Cause Analysis for Equipment Failures: Methods and Framework
Key terms
- Total productive maintenance (TPM)
- Eight pillars of TPM
- Autonomous maintenance
- CILR (clean, inspect, lubricate, retighten)
- Preventive maintenance (PM)
- Predictive maintenance (PdM)
- Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM)
- Planned maintenance
- Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
- Six big losses
- Mean time between failures (MTBF)
- Micro-stops
- Mean time to repair (MTTR)
- PM compliance
- Equivalent annual cost (EAC)
- Compressed air leakage
- Machine hour rate
Where LeanSuite helps
Autonomous Maintenance
Rolls out visual CILR (clean, inspect, lube, retighten) checklists so operators catch small abnormalities before they cause downtime.
See Autonomous MaintenanceCILR Checklists
Build visual CILR checklists so operators clean, inspect, lubricate and re-tighten on schedule and catch problems before they become breakdowns.
See CILR ChecklistsMicro-stops
Log the brief jams your ERP and MES never report, and see which micro-stops cost the most so you can win back OEE.
See Micro-stopsAI SMP
Film a senior technician once and get a standard maintenance procedure with the steps, tools, PPE and warnings from the video.
See AI SMP
Free tools
- OEE calculatorOverall equipment effectiveness from shift time, downtime, ideal cycle time and part counts.
- TEEP calculatorTotal effective equipment performance: OEE multiplied by how much of all calendar time you plan to run.
- Downtime cost calculatorWhat an hour, an event and a year of unplanned downtime cost, from lost output, idle labour, scrap and overtime.
- MTBF and MTTR calculatorMean time between failures, mean time to repair and availability from operating time, failures and repair time.
- Maintenance strategy selectorAnswer the RCM questions for one failure mode and get the maintenance strategy, the reasoning and the check or test interval.
- Repair or replace calculatorEquivalent annual cost of keeping and repairing an old machine against buying a new one, with each one's economic life and the break-even figures.
- Compressed air leak cost calculatorAir lost, kW and cost a year for each tagged leak from its size and the pressure, ranked so the biggest gets fixed first.
- Machine hour rate calculatorWhat one productive hour of a machine costs, with and without the operator, the cost per part and how utilisation moves the rate.
- Total manufacturing cost calculatorTotal manufacturing cost, cost of goods manufactured, cost per unit and the overhead rate from materials, labor and overhead.
Free templates
- Autonomous maintenance (CILR) checklist20 clean, inspect, lubricate and retighten checks with a box per day, an abnormality log and sign-off.
- SMED changeover worksheetChangeover steps with times, internal or external, what can move, ideas and before/after totals.
- OEE tracking sheetOne row per shift for a week. The Excel version works out availability, performance, quality and OEE and charts the week.
- Preventive maintenance checklist templateA PM checklist per machine with readings and sign-off, and a PM schedule that works out the next due date.
- Equipment downtime log (MTTR and MTBF)A breakdown and downtime log, with MTTR, MTBF and downtime by machine and cause worked out in Excel.
- Lubrication schedule templateEvery lube point with lubricant, method, amount, frequency and who, with next due dates and a monthly sign-off record.
- TPM tag logEvery abnormality tag with type, who fixes it, priority and dates, with days open and counts by type and week.
- Autonomous maintenance step auditCriteria for each of the seven autonomous maintenance steps, scored 0 to 2, with the step result and the decision to move on.
- Six big losses worksheetWhere a machine's planned time goes: the six big losses in minutes, ranked, with A, P, Q and OEE worked out.
- Work order template for maintenanceA work order template for maintenance: one form per job from request to handback, and a log of response, completion and backlog by priority.
- Maintenance KPI trackerMTBF, MTTR, availability and PM compliance per asset and month, plant figures from the totals, planned maintenance % and backlog in weeks.
- Equipment criticality analysisAssets scored 1 to 5 on six criteria with your own weights, ranked and sorted into classes A, B and C with a safety override and a suggested maintenance strategy.
- RCM worksheet (failure mode and task selection)Failure modes classed as hidden, safety, operational or non-operational, then a task chosen for each: condition-based, discard, failure-finding, redesign or run to failure.
- Cost deployment matrixWCM cost deployment on paper and in Excel: loss quantities by process, causal and resultant losses, the cost of each loss, a Pareto and the projects that recover them.
- Breakdown analysis reportOne equipment breakdown from the stop to the 90-day check, plus a breakdown log with repeat flags, MTBF and MTTR by asset and a Pareto of causes.
- Weekly maintenance schedule templateNext week's maintenance jobs, scheduled only when ready, loaded against each craft's hours by day, with schedule compliance and break-ins at week end.
- Autonomous maintenance 90-day model area planAM steps 0 to 3 on one model machine in 13 weeks, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves for months 4 to 12.
- Professional maintenance (PM) 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from breakdown analysis to a running PM calendar on one model machine, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Early equipment management 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from lessons on current machines to a tracked start-up on one model equipment project, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Cost deployment pillar 90-day model area planThirteen weeks from the loss map to costed, ranked projects in one model area, a KPI board, the day-90 gate and expansion waves.
- Downtime reason codes template26 starter codes mapped to the six big losses, a log with drop-downs, a Pareto by code and by loss, and a code card for the line.
- Critical spare parts list and stocking levelsAssets ranked by consequence, each part classed and given a stocking policy, and min and max worked out from usage and lead time, with the downtime each stock-out would cost.
- Overhead crane inspection checklist: frequent and periodic34 crane checks tied to OSHA 1910.179: an operator's pre-shift card, frequent and periodic inspections with signed records, a deficiency and tag-out log, and a register of next due dates.
- Maintenance job plan templateOne job planned on one sheet: steps and craft hours, parts checked against stock, tools, lockout and permits, documents, a ready check for the schedule, and technician feedback.
- Condition monitoring route sheetA route of measuring points with baselines, alert and alarm limits, a check interval from the P-F interval, readings with rising and overdue flags, and an exceptions list worst first.
- Vehicle inspection checklist53 checks for a truck, tractor or trailer, each tied to the federal rule it comes from, with a defect log.
- Pre-trip inspection checklistA driver's 42-check walk-round in order, with the driver vehicle inspection report for the end of the day.
Free training decks
- Autonomous maintenance training presentation: the 7 stepsThe 7 steps of jishu hozen, who does what and how step audits work, in 19 slides with notes and a quiz.
- TPM training presentation: the 8 pillarsWhat TPM is, the six big losses, OEE and the 8 pillars, in 19 slides with a loss-spotting activity.
- Manufacturing excellence pillars training presentationThe 20 pillars, cost deployment, the 7-step approach, model areas and audits, in 17 slides.
- OEE training presentationHow to calculate OEE and read the six big losses in 19 slides, with one worked shift, a 20-minute exercise and a quiz.
Free printable posters
- Lockout tagout (LOTO) steps posterThe eight lockout tagout steps, from preparing to restoring, for every machine with stored energy.
- Compressed air and water leaks posterWhere air and water leaks hide, and five steps to find, tag, fix and re-check them.
- TPM 8 pillars posterThe TPM house on a 5S foundation, with a line on each of the eight pillars.
- Autonomous maintenance 7 steps posterThe seven steps of jishu hozen, from initial cleaning to autonomous management.
- OEE and the six big losses posterOne shift's planned time cut down by six named losses to fully productive time, with availability, performance, quality and OEE worked out.
- SMED changeover poster: internal and external workChangeover measured last good part to first good part, and the three moves that shrink the stopped time, worked from 60 minutes to 16.
- Machine guarding posterWhere guards are needed, what a good guard must do, and what to do if one is missing.
- Electrical safety basics posterEight electrical safety basics for everyone on the floor, not only electricians.
- Cleaning is inspection posterEight things to look and listen for while you clean a machine, and what to do with every find.
- 7 types of abnormality poster (TPM tags)The seven types of abnormality to tag in autonomous maintenance, each with examples, and blanks for your tag colours.
- CILR poster: clean, inspect, lubricate, re-tightenClean, inspect, lubricate and re-tighten: the four daily routines that keep a machine in its basic condition.
- Lubrication basics poster: the five rightsRight lubricant, right amount, right place, right time, right method, and how to keep lubricant clean.
- Bolt match marks posterHow to mark a tightened bolt so a loose one shows at a glance, and what to do when the line breaks.
- Small stops posterName what the part did, log every stop, and fix the most frequent one at its cause.
- Breakdown analysis posterSeven steps after a breakdown, from the facts to the root cause, the fix, and the standards that stop it coming back.
- Types of maintenance posterBreakdown, time-based, condition-based, autonomous and improvement maintenance, each with when it fits.
- Natural vs accelerated wear posterNatural wear is for planned maintenance; accelerated wear from neglect is stopped by operators every day.
- Failure warning signs poster (P-F curve)The warning signs before a machine fails, earliest first, from vibration and oil analysis to noise, heat and smoke.
- Spare parts min/max posterWhat min, max and the bin label mean, and five habits that keep critical spares on the shelf.
- Machine visual controls posterEight visual controls that let anyone see whether a machine is normal without opening it.
- MTBF and MTTR posterOne machine's four weeks on a timeline, with MTBF, MTTR and availability worked out, and what moves each.
- Compressed air leak load test posterMeasure leakage with the compressor load test, worked from on-load and off-load minutes to a percentage.
- Causal and resultant losses posterOne breakdown and the eight resultant losses it sets off: count them all, then fix the cause.
- One-point lesson posterWhat goes on a one-point lesson, and its three kinds: basic knowledge, improvement and problem case.
FAQ
Questions about tpm and maintenance
Initial cleaning; eliminating contamination sources and hard-to-reach areas; setting provisional cleaning, lubrication and inspection standards; general inspection; autonomous inspection; standardization; and full self-management. The sequence was codified by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance, and each step builds the foundation the next one needs.
Five common strategies are reactive (breakdown) maintenance, preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, predictive maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance. Reactive maintenance fixes equipment only after it fails, which usually means more downtime and higher repair costs, although it can still make sense for non-critical equipment.
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) measures how productive a piece of equipment is, calculated by multiplying availability, performance and quality. The six big losses (unplanned stops, planned stops, small stops, slow cycles, production rejects and startup rejects) break the lost OEE down further, so you can see which kind of equipment waste costs the most. Both come from Seiichi Nakajima's work on TPM.
Planned maintenance works out what a job needs: which tasks to perform, how to carry them out, and the tools and parts to have ready. Scheduled maintenance decides when the work happens and who does it. The two go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing.
More topics
- Lean manufacturing fundamentals
- Kaizen and continuous improvement
- Root cause analysis and problem solving
- Quality management
- 5S and visual management
- Value stream mapping and flow
- Standard work, SOPs and training
- Safety management
- Lean leadership and employee engagement
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