Total Productive Maintenance
TPMA holistic approach to equipment maintenance that aims to achieve perfect production with no breakdowns, no defects, and no accidents. TPM involves operators in routine maintenance tasks and focuses on proactive and preventive maintenance to maximize equipment effectiveness throughout its lifecycle.
RELATED TERMS
Overall Equipment Effectiveness
A metric that measures manufacturing productivity by multiplying three factors: Availability (uptime), Performance (speed), and Quality (good units produced). An OEE score of 85% is considered world-class, while most manufacturers operate between 60-70%. OEE identifies losses and improvement opportunities in equipment utilization.
Mean Time Between Failures
The predicted average time between equipment breakdowns during normal operation. MTBF is used to assess equipment reliability, plan preventive maintenance schedules, and make decisions about equipment replacement or upgrades.
Predictive Maintenance
A maintenance strategy that uses sensor data, analytics, and machine learning to predict when equipment is likely to fail, enabling repairs before breakdowns occur. Predictive maintenance reduces unplanned downtime and maintenance costs compared to reactive or time-based maintenance approaches.
Lean Manufacturing
A systematic approach to manufacturing derived from the Toyota Production System that focuses on eliminating waste while delivering value to customers. Lean identifies seven types of waste (overproduction, waiting, transport, overprocessing, inventory, motion, and defects) and uses tools like value stream mapping, 5S, and kanban to continuously improve processes.