Implementing Total Predictive Maintenance Essay

Implementing Total Predictive Maintenance - Essay Example It appeared that manufacturers with efficient and effective equipments where enjoying a competitive advantage over others. Traditional methods used by technicians were being labeled as passive and non-productive. The manufactures did not take long in realizing that proper maintenance management and control of machines and equipment have a stronger and direct relationship with organizational performance and productivity. This was the time when the concept of â€Å"Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)† (Seng, Jantan & Ramayah, 2005) appeared on the scene aiming at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the equipment by using the skills and abilities of the human resource of the organization. The ultimate target is to improve the â€Å"Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and reach to the level of Zero Defects and Zero Breakdown† (Seng, Jantan & Ramayah, 2005). The paper sheds some light on the optimum use of TPM in the Malaysian Manufacturing Industry and some implementation issues. The literature review reveals that the strategies concerning TPM can be divided into Human orientated strategies and Process orientated strategies. Human oriented have three important aspects. ... ing and education is another important factor for the success of TPM because it introduces employees to TPM in a systematic and educated manner, providing them with information before hand and preparing them for the upcoming issues and challenges. Process oriented strategies have their roots in the technical approaches. â€Å"The goal is identify all possible sources of losses and inefficiencies in the equipments due to breakdowns, time loss, shortage of equipments, defects, startup time and others† (Seng, Jantan & Ramayah, 2005). The simple three-point agenda process oriented strategy is to first, find such losses and analyze its causes, second, planning improvements to cope up with losses and third, confirming and building on the results. In short, process oriented strategies put all their energies in creating environments and processes where employees could be provided with an optimal environment to achieve satisfaction and higher productivity, which would ultimately lead t o higher organizational performance. The paper moves on with considering the problem of implementation of TPM in a developing country such as Malaysia (Seng, Jantan & Ramayah, 2005). Despite the fact that its implementation is imperative, at least for the manufacturing industry, however, resistance towards TPM has come from all directions. Non-conductive and unsupportive environments, lack of commitment and dedication from the top management, refusal of employees to take up extra training and responsibilities and others remain important causes marking the failure of TPM. In order to understand various dimensions of this problem, the paper moves forward with a structured survey approach where questionnaires have been used as the research tool. Industrial manufacturers from Northern and Central