The 16 Major Losses in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
Discover everything you need to know about the 16 major losses in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).
What are the 16 Major Losses in TPM?
The 16 Major Losses are a set of categories in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) that encompasses all types of waste in a production system. In manufacturing, these categories help identify, classify, and ultimately eliminate wasteful practices.
All Losses are divided into three groups: Availability Losses, Performance Losses, and Resource Consumption Losses.
The exact names for the 16 Major Losses—and their subgroups—differ across instances.
In this article we’ll walk you through all 16 Major Losses in TPM, giving you a short description of each category along the way.
Line organization loss occurs when the speed of the different steps on a line is unbalanced, causing certain operators to be idle.
This is not necessarily an equipment-related fault, as there’s also a human factor here.
Either a bottleneck analysis or a line balancing analysis can be very effective in bringing about a balanced, steadily flowing line.
12. Distribution / Logistics loss
This loss applies to everything related to the delivery of products to a factory (e.g. raw materials). The unloading of products is a point where this loss can occur.
Although automation can lead to a reduction in unloading time, unloading is mostly still done by humans.
13. Measurement & Adjustment loss
If the quality of products is consistently sub-optimal and the root cause can’t be found, the consequence is often an excessive number of adjustments to machine settings (so as to keep product quality consistent).
This constant inspecting and adjusting can lead to a significant waste of time.
Resource Consumption Losses
Resource consumption losses—expressed in money—occur when energy, materials, or parts are used in an ineffective manner.
14. Yield loss
Yield loss expresses the loss that occurs when a part of the total production output has to be discarded because of defects.
15. Energy loss
Energy loss encompasses waste due to the direct material loss of energy (e.g. leakage of oil) and its inefficient use.
Energy already forms a big part of manufacturing costs, so reducing energy loss as much as possible is a high priority for manufacturers.
16. Die & tool loss
The last of the 16 Major Losses in TPM applies to the cost of the items needed for jig and die repairs, tool replacements, machine restorations, and so on.
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