Revisiting OEE as an Assessment Methodology for TPM Activities: A Practical Analysis

With ever-increasing importance, plant maintenance is no more regarded as second line or nonproductive activity, and now it is widely accepted that plant maintenance has a great impact on the overall profitability of an organization. However, traditional approach to maintenance cannot provide any dramatic improvement; Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), as an upcoming industrial maintenance program, seems to be providing the answer. Since TPM is a new and fast growing concept among industries, assessing its usefulness is another facet. Further equipment effectiveness calculation has been the most interesting topic for plant managers, as it helps in identifying the inefficiencies and determining where to focus improvement actions. Traditionally, equipment performance has been measured using various matrices, but the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is being used as an evaluation metric to judge the effectiveness of TPM implementation since its inception. This paper builds on previous works that examined the role of OEE measurement systems in TPM, with particular reference to developing a new framework for assessing the implementation effectiveness of TPM. In the paper, it has been argued that the nature of the trade-offs among manufacturing capabilities is more complex than has been assumed. Hence, the research work aims to develop a new model and proposes its analysis for measuring the TPM implementation effectiveness as per the original definition of TPM. While the model is yet to be proved, nevertheless, it is believed that there is enough evidence for a critical reexamination of traditional evaluation approach. The work suggests a more effective model from the manufacturing point of view.