Total productive maintenance; TPM that works

Tennessee Eastman Company (TEC) has defined TPM (total productive maintenance) as a partnership between the maintenance and production organizations to improve product quality, reduce waste, reduce manufacturing cost, increase equipment availability, and improve TEC´s state of maintenance. This partnership emphasizes the involvement of all employees in maintaining facilities and equipment. TPM at TEC is composed of six concepts: utilization of operators to perform specified routine maintenance tasks on their equipment; utilization of operators to assist mechanics in the repair of equipment when it is down; utilization of mechanics to assist operators in the shutdown and start-up of equipment; utilization of lower-skilled personnel to perform routine jobs not requiring skilled craftsman; utilization of computerized technology to enable operators to calibrate selected instruments; and transfer of tasks between operating groups