TPM: COMMON SENSE, BUT IS IT COMMON PRACTICE?

The logic of "Total Productive Maintenance" is obvious but, like many examples of "common sense", T.P.M. is not so common in practice. The authors have played a leading role in a major benchmarking project, pinpointing Maintenance as an area with substantial room for improvement among the 280 companies studied. The project used a methodology adapted from the "Made in Europe" studies, whereby company representatives are assisted to benchmark their practices and performance against World Class standards. This paper describes the project, its methodology and findings. The benchmarked companies display a number of strengths, but the paper focuses more upon areas for improvement, particularly practices relating to Maintenance. As a development from the mainstream project, a more specialised diagnostic tool has been designed, focusing upon the processes of equipment maintenance. This prototype tool is described, along with the preliminary findings it has generated.