|
Howdy!
I'm Freddy Fixum.
Welcome to TPM! |
I
want
to start off by explaining that my approach to
this manual may be somewhat different from
what you are accustomed to.
The problem with many manuals written
by engineers (a profession I claim) is that
you should only read those manuals at night
when you want to fall asleep.
Crammed with multi-syllable words,
three letter acronyms, complex technical
jargon, pointless graphs, and a style of
writing that is dryer than the Mojave desert,
manuals can be…well, boring (and I don’t
mean the machining operation either).
Now, I’m not promising this won't get
dry at times. |
 |
|
|
I
want to address you, the reader, to simplify the
process of TPM. My
style is casual and occasionally humorous.
Now if you are one of those people who thinks
that wit should be reserved for parties and
discussions about your mother-in-law and you take
yourself too seriously,
I invite you to consider a new approach to
manuals. After
all, a smile once in awhile will hardly destroy the
structural integrity of your face.
My
intent is to help you to understand that Total
Productive Maintenance is a common sense approach and should be implemented in some manner
at your location.
The nice thing about TPM is that it doesn’t
have to be all or nothing. As you will learn, TPM has to be fitted to your plant or
organization. It
is not a pair of shoes off the shelf that you slip
into. This
means considering your organization’s culture (not
the stuff they make yogurt from, but your
organization’s values and norms). By looking at your organization’s unique culture, you can
select components of the TPM process that best
fit your operation.
If
you are from the production side, I hope to help you
gain a better appreciation for the maintenance
activity. If
you are from the maintenance side,
I want to help you gain a better appreciation
and understanding for the production activity.
As you will learn in TPM, getting maintenance,
production, engineering, and management working together
toward a joint purpose is where we overcome the
problems that have haunted us for years. TPM is that joint effort.
Often
overlooked as an opportunity for improvement programs,
maintenance has been assigned to the “back of
the pack” of organizations’ improvement efforts.
It seems that when there is an attempt to draw
maintenance into improvement projects, the results are
little more than handing the maintenance person a
fix-it list. How
often have you seen a “maintenance representative”
as part of a team flinch when they get their list of
“things to do?” Boy, that is some kind of incentive to attend those meetings,
right? The
burden is then on maintenance
to correct the problems and return for more lists,
hardly a reward to maintenance for getting
involved in team projects. TPM changes that through shared responsibility…working
together on projects. |
