Manufacturing excellence through total productive maintenance paradigm

Abstract

The global marketplace has become increasingly competitive in recent times, and organisations are faced with the challenge of effecting continuous improvement in services for sustained user satisfaction. The recent competitive trends have been pushing manufacturing managers to reconsider the impact and importance of increasing equipment availability and utilisation, increasing maintenance productivity, resource utilisation and increasing quality and responsiveness of maintenance services in achieving world-class status to meet global competition. For years, maintenance has been treated as a dirty, boring, ad hoc and a neglected job. It has seen as critical for maintaining productivity but has yet to be recognised as a key component of revenue generation. In the past several decades, maintenance problems have been studied intensely. The study highlights the achievements of an Indian manufacturing organisation through successful implementation of strategic total productive maintenance (TPM) initiatives and demonstrates the true potential of TPM in achieving manufacturing excellence.