Book Review: TPM for Supervisors by Kunio Shirose

This simple, readable, easy-to-understand book for floor supervisors is an excellent introduction to TPM. While primarily written for an operations supervisor, maintenance supervisors will find it valuable as well.

This book is intended to give you, the shopfloor supervisor, the information you need to understand total productive maintenance (TPM) and your role in it.

Key Concepts

• Operators need to work toward identifying problems early. Maintenance needs to help teach operators the skills to do inspections, and then respond to their needs in a timely manner.
• TPM’s aim is to get the most effective use of equipment. To do this, it creates a comprehensive system of preventive maintenance designed to avoid accelerated deterioration and facilitate inspection.
• Operator PM tasks (autonomous maintenance) revolve heavily around cleaning, lubrication, and inspection. Development of these tasks is the primary responsibility of operator-led TPM teams after adequate skill-building. Management and engineering provide support.
• Designers and engineers must involve maintenance and operators early in the design stage in order to promote operability, serviceability, and safety while reducing maintenance requirements and improving energy efficiency.
• Accumulated small defects (such as a dent in a chute or loose fastener) and imprecise settings in equipment lead to quality defects small production delays that add up to significant chronic problems.
• There are six big losses that need to be addressed. Measure all losses and find/fix the biggest: breakdown losses, setup and adjustment losses, idling and minor stoppage losses, quality defects and rework, and startup/yield losses.

Useful Features

• Cleaning and lubrication standards summary for autonomous maintenance (page 51)
• Examples of visual control (page 57)
• TPM audit request form (page 63)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Causes of Breakdowns and Defects

Chapter 2: What is Total Productive Maintenance?

Chapter 3: Characteristics and Goals of TPM

Chapter 4: Eliminating Equipment Losses

Chapter 5: Autonomous Maintenance Activities in Production

Chapter 6: Companywide Cooperation in TPM

Related posts:

1. The Five Pillars of TPM
2. The Six Big Losses of TPM
3. The Five-Point Definition of TPM
4. Making Common Sense Common Practice by Ron Moore
5. Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices by Ramesh Gulati